Talk:Exploding head syndrome

Amphetamine "suggestion"

I've removed the following un-sourced statement: "Amphetamines can also help alleviate the condition. However, the latter is strongly discouraged.". I've done so because there's no source of this information, and because the information could be potentially harmful I believe it should only be included if it is properly sourced. Wokstation (talk) 00:11, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I believe there may be some information about this in Oliver Sack's book "Musicophilia" Amurphy96822 (talk) 21:52, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Influencing the Syndrome?

I typically have many months free of any of this, and then typically days in a row where it happens almost every night. When I am in a very stressed life situation, it may even happen during the day. My impression is that it becomes more likely, the more I over-worked on the computer. Also, and this is an odd thing, it seems to be much stronger when I've had sex that day. And I think it never happened so far when I did a lot of (non-sexual) physical exercises that day. Also I wonder, are there no studies about influences and avoiding the problem? For me, in about 90% of the cases it happens, when I laid still on the left side. When it happened once, it then may happen a second time, slightly less though, when I've turned to lie on my back or on the right side (especially regarding how my head rests on the pillow). BUT whenever I thought, "ah, c'mon, won't happen again, I stay on the left side", it came back two, three, four or more times within only few minutes and every time stronger than before. Are there no research findings in this direction? I mean, it could give hints as to the mechanism... 91.14.203.177 (talk) 11:22, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Neck position

I always experience this if I start going to sleep flat on my back with my face straight up; feels as though it starts as a low-volume mid-pitch buzzing/ringing at the base of my neck or mid-neck, rises in volume exponentially over 2 to 6 seconds and moves up to the rear base of my skull - all the way through below and behind my ears - then crescendos as loud as I can hear without being painful, plus a flash of light all through my head. Never managed to open my eyes, or to move my head fast enough to stop it crescendoing, which is unpleasant but not scary. I've been going to sleep on my front with my head facing one side or the other since I was a small child (3 or 4 years old), but this has only been happening since my late teens; I ride a road-race style motorbike and used to headbang, so minor neck damage may well be contributing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.186.240.40 (talk) 01:27, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Example in Art

The "Neck position" section from another writer matches my experiences (I also have occasional migraines and sleep paralysis), which convinces me that I have experienced Exploding Head Syndrome. It sounds like "Speak to Me", the opening crescendo from The Dark Side of the Moon. The "rattling engine" from the song is more like a flutter or baffle noise, though. Given the album's theme of mental illness, I assume it was included to mimic the symptom of auditory hallucination. I think the lyrics from the later track "Brain Damage" ("And if your head explodes" and "thunder in your ear") lends credence to the idea. Any way to include any of this wild conjecture in the article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.34.255.59 (talk) 22:18, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

First we would need to identify reliable sources, per WP policy.—RJH (talk) 18:15, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

First-hand

I can testify that this has happened to me. It came when I went, probably too quickly, off of a course of SSRIs. In addition to many of the other documented symptoms (such as "Brain Zaps," a term I had never known existed but precisely described the sensation), I experienced a few hallucinations, auditory and visual, and a great deal of sleep paralysis. But the worst part of waking up during sleep paralysis, beyond the terror of feeling captive, sometimes preceded by dreams of being thrown up and bound against a wall by a shadow, or crushed on the ground by some immeasurable object, was the sensation I got only a handful of times that I can only imagine as exploding head syndrome. On these few occasions, I would wake in my bed, still unable to move, and trying as hard as I possibly could to turn my head to the side (the only way I found to escape sleep paralysis), but the ringing in my ears would be the cacophony of a thousand orchestras, playing every note as loud as they could, crashing symbols and discordant wailing strings and the shrill screaming of woodwinds, all at the very same time, and louder than can be imagined by someone who has only heard with their ears. I found stability in a relatively modest course of mood stabilizers and anti-depressants, but the things I heard in those brief depths of madness will never leave me.

I realize my statement can never be validated or peer-reviewed, but I offer my most honest and sincere endorsement that this is a real condition, and one I would never wish on anybody. I still shudder-- literally shudder, as in I get chills, in the office, on the subway, out for dinner with a friend-- every time I remember it. Christ almighty, to think it's a comfort that others have heard it too. 209.6.52.213 (talk) 04:16, 6 August 2011 (UTC)