Have you ever ever been drifting off to sleep, solely to be jerked awake by the sound of a bomb going off inside your head? You probably have, then you might have almost certainly skilled exploding head syndrome, a mysterious and poorly understood sleep problem.
Exploding head syndrome (EHS) belongs to a household of sleep problems often known as parasomnias. Different parasomnias embody sleep paralysis and hypnic jerks – the reason for that disagreeable feeling of falling we generally expertise when drifting off to sleep.
EHS has been identified to medical professionals since at least 1876, and apparently the French thinker and scientist René Descartes skilled it. Regardless of that, we all know surprisingly little concerning the situation.
A typical episode is characterised by the expertise of an abrupt loud noise or a way of an explosion inside the pinnacle that happens throughout the transition from wakefulness to sleep. The sounds which are heard throughout EHS are variable, and embody perceptions of gun pictures, doorways slamming, or nondescript screaming.
Importantly, the sounds which are heard are at all times quick (a number of seconds or much less), very loud and with none apparent exterior supply within the setting.
Alongside the sounds, some folks expertise accompanying temporary visible hallucinations corresponding to brilliant flashes. Others have additionally reported emotions of intense warmth, or the feeling {of electrical} cost flowing by means of the higher physique.
It’s exhausting to estimate precisely many individuals expertise EHS. One cause for that is merely an absence of accessible information. Solely a handful of research have tried to survey the prevalence of EHS within the normal inhabitants.
One early examine discovered that 11 p.c of in any other case wholesome adults skilled EHS, whereas one other examine in undergraduate college students discovered 17 p.c of individuals had skilled a number of episodes of their lifetime.
In my very own, more moderen examine, once more in undergraduate college students, my colleagues and I discovered that one-third of our pattern had skilled no less than one episode of EHS of their lifetime, with round 6 p.c experiencing no less than one episode a month.
What these research present is that EHS is a comparatively widespread expertise, no less than in younger adults. It does nonetheless seem like much less widespread than different parasomnias corresponding to hypnic jerks, which happen in as much as 70 p.c of individuals.
Triggers
The precise explanation for EHS is unknown. Whereas many theories of the basis explanation for EHS have been put ahead, the hottest implicates the pure mind processes which are ongoing within the transition from wakefulness to sleep. On a typical night time, as we transition from wakefulness into sleep, exercise inside the reticular formation of the mind is decreased.
The reticular formation is a set of mind buildings positioned primarily within the brainstem and hypothalamus, that acts as an “on-off” change for the mind. As reticular exercise slows down within the transition to sleep, our sensory cortices that govern imaginative and prescient, sound, and motor motion begin to close down.
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It has been proposed that the expertise of EHS is because of a disruption on this regular switching-off course of, which supplies rise to delayed and disjointed surge of neuronal activation to sensory networks within the absence of any exterior stimuli. These temporary surges of activation are then perceived because the loud, nondescript sounds that characterise EHS.
Though the precise neural foundation of EHS stays speculative, we’re beginning to study extra about different components that make an EHS episode extra prone to occur. In one of many first research to have a look at related components, my colleagues and I discovered that wellbeing variables corresponding to life stress have been related to experiencing EHS.
This relationship was mediated by signs of insomnia. In different phrases, life stress didn’t instantly relate to EHS, however was associated not directly by means of first disrupting regular sleep patterns.
Is EHS harmful?
Regardless of its provocative title, EHS is innocent. It’s nonetheless essential to tell apart an episode of EHS from different circumstances, significantly from varied varieties of complications.
EHS episodes are very quick (a number of seconds) and often there is no such thing as a related ache. If there may be, it’s delicate and transient. In distinction, many complications are longer-lasting and are related to considerably greater ranges of ache.
This isn’t to say that EHS can’t be a scary expertise. In a latest survey of over 3,000 individuals who had skilled EHS, we discovered that 45 p.c of respondents reported average to extreme ranges of worry related to their EHS.
1 / 4 of individuals additionally reported excessive ranges of misery in response to experiencing EHS, with elevated ranges of misery related to extra frequent episodes.
Sadly, there have been no systematic research investigating potential therapies and coping methods for these scuffling with distressing experiences of EHS.
In our survey, individuals reported that altering their sleeping place to keep away from sleeping on their again, adjusting their sleep patterns and deploying mindfulness strategies have been all efficient methods for stopping EHS. Whether or not any of those strategies show to be efficient in scientific trials stays to be seen.
Encouragingly, merely studying that EHS is a standard and innocent situation can go a great distance. In a affected person case examine, it was reported that reassurance and training concerning the expertise stopped the episodes from occurring.
For now no less than, the most effective recommendation appears to be to try to realise these experiences are pure and so they do not point out that something is incorrect. Easy strategies, corresponding to enhancing sleep habits, might go a protracted strategy to stopping distressing episodes from occurring.
Dan Denis, Lecturer in Psychology, College of York
This text is republished from The Dialog underneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the unique article.
