In 1876, physician Silas Weir Mitchell described how he was treating two men who suffered from strange “sensory discharges”: being woken from their sleep by the seemingly illusory sound of “loud bells” or a “gunshot”. Provocatively named ‘exploding head syndrome’, a modern sufferer describes his own symptoms as a “sudden crescendo of noise, then a profound and jarring explosion of sound, electrical fizzing and a bright flash in my vision, like someone has lit a spotlight in front of my face.”
Despite its strangeness (or perhaps because of it?), there has been relatively little research into the disorder. A new theory has however been put forward by Assistant Professor Brian Sharpless of Washington State University:
Several ideas have been proposed, including ear disorders and partial epileptic seizures. But the most compelling theory comes from a handful of studies in which people with the condition have had their brain activity monitored overnight. These small studies suggest that there may be a burst of neural activity in the brain that coincides with the reported explosion.
Normally, when we go to sleep our body shuts down and becomes paralysed so that we don’t act out our dreams. During this transition from wake to sleep, the brain usually turns off bit by bit, says Sharpless.
However, in exploding head syndrome, there is a hiccup in the ‘reticular formation’ – the part of the brain responsible for overseeing this general shut-down – which results in a delay in switching off some areas.This delay is associated with a suppression of alpha brainwaves that are normally responsible for drowsiness, and a sudden burst of neural activity in the areas of the brain responsible for processing sound. “We think the neurons are all firing at once,” he says, which results in the sensation of an explosion in your head.
Sharpless says that the syndrome’s similarity to another neurological disorder, ‘sleep paralysis’ – both appear to arise from problems in the transition between wakefulness and sleep – may also tie it to some ‘paranormal’ experiences:
Take a look at these supernatural or alien stories, says Sharpless, and sometimes you can see hints of both sleep paralysis and exploding head syndrome. “People can sense these strange explosions in their head, and they may think they’ve had something implanted in their brain. Or they feel this surge of electricity and they think they’ve been shot by some kind of new energy weapon. They can’t move, but hear and see strange things and think they’ve been abducted.”
For more detailed discussion about the sounds heard during paranormal experiences, be sure to have a read of my Darklore article “Her Sweet Murmur“.
Link: ‘I have Exploding Head Syndrome’
Related: “Her Sweet Murmur: Exploring the aural phenomenology of border experiences“
