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 may 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 referred to as parasomnias. Different parasomnias embody sleep paralysis and hypnic jerks – the reason for that disagreeable feeling of falling we typically 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 in regards to the situation.
A typical episode is characterised by the expertise of an abrupt loud noise or a way of an explosion inside the top that happens throughout the transition from wakefulness to sleep. The sounds which might be heard throughout EHS are variable, and embody perceptions of gun photographs, doorways slamming, or nondescript screaming.
Importantly, the sounds which might be heard are all the time quick (just a few seconds or much less), very loud and with none apparent exterior supply within the setting.
Alongside the sounds, some individuals expertise accompanying temporary visible hallucinations equivalent to vibrant flashes. Others have additionally reported emotions of intense warmth, or the feeling {of electrical} cost flowing by means of the higher physique.
It’s arduous to estimate precisely many individuals expertise EHS. One cause for that is merely an absence of accessible knowledge. Solely a handful of research have tried to survey the prevalence of EHS within the normal inhabitants.
One early research discovered that 11 % of in any other case wholesome adults skilled EHS, whereas one other research in undergraduate college students discovered 17 % of contributors had skilled a number of episodes of their lifetime.
In my very own, more moderen research, once more in undergraduate college students, my colleagues and I discovered that one-third of our pattern had skilled not less than one episode of EHS of their lifetime, with round 6 % experiencing not less than one episode a month.
What these research present is that EHS is a comparatively widespread expertise, not less than in younger adults. It does nevertheless seem like much less widespread than different parasomnias equivalent to hypnic jerks, which happen in as much as 70 % of individuals.
Triggers
The precise reason for EHS is unknown. Whereas many theories of the foundation reason for EHS have been put ahead, the hottest implicates the pure mind processes which might be 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 lowered.
The reticular formation is a set of mind constructions situated 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 elements that make an EHS episode extra more likely to occur. In one of many first research to take a look at related elements, my colleagues and I discovered that wellbeing variables equivalent to life stress have been related to experiencing EHS.
This relationship was mediated by signs of insomnia. In different phrases, life stress didn’t immediately 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 nevertheless essential to tell apart an episode of EHS from different circumstances, significantly from numerous kinds of complications.
EHS episodes are very quick (a number of seconds) and often there is no such thing as a related ache. If there’s, it’s delicate and transient. In distinction, many complications are longer-lasting and are related to considerably larger ranges of ache.
This isn’t to say that EHS can’t be a scary expertise. In a latest survey of over 3,000 contributors who had skilled EHS, we discovered that 45 % of respondents reported reasonable to extreme ranges of worry related to their EHS.
1 / 4 of contributors 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 remedies and coping methods for these combating distressing experiences of EHS.
In our survey, contributors reported that altering their sleeping place to keep away from sleeping on their again, adjusting their sleep patterns and deploying mindfulness methods have been all efficient methods for stopping EHS. Whether or not any of those methods show to be efficient in scientific trials stays to be seen.
Encouragingly, merely studying that EHS is a typical and innocent situation can go a good distance. In a affected person case research, it was reported that reassurance and schooling in regards to the expertise stopped the episodes from occurring.
For now not less than, one of the best recommendation appears to be to attempt to realise these experiences are pure they usually do not point out that something is unsuitable. Easy methods, equivalent to bettering sleep habits, could go an extended option to stopping distressing episodes from occurring.
Dan Denis, Lecturer in Psychology, College of York
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