Ever been suddenly awakened from sleep by
something that sounds like booming thunder, a shotgun blast, or perhaps a bomb singing
the song of its people? But when you awake, you realize there was
no apparent external source for the sound? Well, congratulations, you just experienced
a rather curious condition known as Exploding Head Syndrome, and you’ve likely not got
long to live…. Or do you? Well, you’ll just have to watch to the end
of this video to find out! ;-)
Who first documented the bizarre phenomenon isn’t precisely known, though Rene Descartes’
seems to have experienced such. As described by Adrien Baillet in his La vie
de Monsieur Descartes, where he states after Descartes had one of his famous three dreams,
he lay awake thinking about the “blessing and evils of this world,” and then drifted
off back to sleep on November 10, 1619. He then,
“had a new dream in which he believed he heard a sharp and shattering noise, which
he took for a clap of thunder. The fright it gave him woke him directly,
and after opening his eyes he perceived many sparkling lights scattered about the room. The same thing had often happened to him at
other times…” While Descartes seems to have thought these
particular dreams on that night were divine in nature, modern physicians think it likely
he simply was one of at least 10% of people, and probably many more, who occasionally experience
the phenomenon of Exploding Head Syndrome. As for the first medical professional to not
only document the syndrome, but study it in great detail, we have to fast-forward to 1876
and famed American physician Silas Weir Mitchell, today known as the father of medical neurology. For example, in his Lectures on Diseases of
the Nervous System: Especially in Women, he describes the experience of one patient:
“When just falling asleep, he became conscious of something like an aura passing up from
his feet. When it reached his head, he felt what he
described as an explosion. It was so violent and so loud, that for a
time, he could not satisfy himself that he was not hurt. The sensation was that of a pistol-shot, or
as of a bursting of something, followed by a momentary sense of deadly fear…” In another case, he notes the individual in
question when perceiving this aura traveling up his body, if he awakened himself to full
consciousness before it reached his head, he could stop the explosive sound from ever
occurring. In yet another case, the individual notes,
for him, it’s not actually a loud explosion, but the sound of a ringing bell, and sometimes
“that of a guitar string, rudely struck, and which breaks with a twang.” Fascinatingly, Dr. Mitchell even found one
single example of a person who experienced the phenomenon not just while drifting off
to sleep or while asleep, but also while fully awake. She described: “…after a slight heat-stroke,
and a new exposure to severe fatigue of body and mind, I experienced… a sensation like
the explosion of a pistol in my head. I hardly know how otherwise to describe it. A few months later, I began to have what I
have always since called my shocks. A peculiar something, which for want of a
better name I call electricity, starts from my head, chest, stomach, or bowels, and seems
to pervade me in a flash, then comes the sense of shock in the head and an uncontrollable
shriek. At first, it never came unless my eyes were
shut, but for one week, when I was most highly nervous and sleepless, it would come if I
was startled by any sudden sound, and then I found that for a short period I could cause
it by touching a spot over my stomach… Of late these shocks are not always preceded
by any length of warning, and are in the head alone. They come mostly as I am going to sleep, and
by straining my eyes to keep them open, I can sometimes prevent the shocks altogether. I should say, that there is often some queer
sense of chilliness in my head for an hour before the shocks, which is in a general way
a warning of what may come….After absence from home and freedom from cares, I have been
exempt from these shocks for weeks or months.” This condition eventually became known as
“snapping head syndrome” in the early 20th century, but didn’t receive more serious
attention until 1989 when neurologist J.M.S. Pearce examined 50 patients with the condition. In his paper, Clinical Features of the Exploding
Head Syndrome, he notes, “[Although] some start in childhood . . . the
commonest age of onset remains middle and old age . . . . The pattern of episodes of
explosions is . . . variable. Some report 2 to 4 attacks followed by prolonged
or total remission, others have more frequent attacks up to 7 in one night, for several
nights each week and may then remit for several months…” A separate study, this one done in 1991, The
Exploding Head Syndrome: Polysomnographic Recordings and Therapeutic Suggestions, states,
“Five of the six cases who underwent daytime polysomnography slept during parts of the
recording in stages 1-2. Only two reported attacks of explosions. One patient had two attacks while she was
awake and relaxed . . . . In . . . her attacks there was . . . an alerting effect. The other case reported after the recording
session that he had experienced an explosion during sleep. According to his EEG, he had not, in fact,
slept at all during the recording. . . .[i]”
Beyond the whole extremely loud exploding or banging sound, as alluded to, among the
interesting symptoms described by patients includes a bright flash of light and a sensation
of inability to breathe for a moment, resulting in the subjects having to very forcibly and
consciously start breathing again. As you might imagine, this is a rather disconcerting
sensation, with some misinterpreting it, their racing heart, and sometimes a temporary stabbing
pain or bizarre tingling sensation in the head or extremities as perhaps having a stroke
or a heart attack. Others interpret the whole thing as maybe
being brain tumor based, and some even go so far as thinking perhaps they were abducted
by aliens or the like and placed back in bed after. The boom and flash of light then presumably
being the space ship rocketing off. So what actually causes Exploding Head Syndrome? Lizard people of course. But for those wanting the root cause put forth
by those refusing to accept the truth or otherwise pushing the agenda of our Lizard overlords,
may they reign forever, as for Dr. Mitchell way back in the 19th century, he strongly
connected it with people who were stressed or exhausted, noting, “I have seen a large
number of persons who suffer in like fashion from some one of the various forms. The most of the cases are women worn out,
or tired out, and hysterical, whether strong and well-nourished or not. In sturdy men it is rare, unless they be excessive
users of tobacco.” So what advancements of modern physicians
made on tracking down the source of the problem? Well not much actually in terms of anything
definitive, though there is a pretty solid hypothesis as to what generally is going on,
even if the specifics aren’t clear. First, modern physicians agree with Dr. Mitchell
that anxiety, stress and fatigue seem to contribute to triggering it. One study, Topiramate Responsive Exploding
Head Syndrome, looking at the effectiveness of topiramate (an anticonvulsant used to treat
seizures) did note “mother and daughter have similar symptomatology, raising the possibility
that [EHS] may be hereditary,” but whether this is actually true has not yet been proven. As for something more specific, the limited
studies monitoring the activity of the brain while people are experiencing the phenomenon
show a marked spike in neural activity right when explosive or other symptoms are occurring. This seems to happen right when the body is
more or less transitioning from wakefulness to sleep, with, as one researcher studying
the phenomenon, Brian Sharpless of Washington State University, describes as like a “hiccup
in the reticular formation”, a network in the brain that plays a role in maintaining
consciousness and general arousal, among other things. Sharpless goes on, “We think the neurons
[responsible for processing sound] are all firing at once”. The result is then a really loud bang, even
though your ear drums didn’t actually initiate the neurons firing. Presumably a similar thing is happening for
flashes of light and strong smells experienced by others, sometimes in addition to the sound
or sometimes by themselves. In essence, this seems to be some sort of
a sensory version of the hypnagogic jerk that pretty much everyone has experienced from
time to time when transitioning from wakefulness to sleep. As for treatments, going back to 19th century
Dr. Mitchell, he avoids recommending leeches, and instead recommends rest and reduction
of outside anxieties. Fast-forwarding over a century, and the recommendation
remains the same, albeit a bit more specific, things like Yoga, relaxing reading (so, you
know, not politics or social media), a hot bath before bed, relaxing music, and listening
to the sweet, calming sound of my voice as I impart knowledge to you while you drift
to sleep; it’s also strongly recommended in this case you keep autoplay on for the
TodayIFoundOut channel and just let it run all night for maximal results. In a nutshell, all of this trying to get you
to relax before bed and watch more TodayIFoundOut or listen to more of our BrainFood Show podcast,
which is always a good thing regardless of whether you have Exploding Head Syndrome. It’s also noted that patients who previously
didn’t understand what was happening when this occurred, and thus often had anxiety
about it when falling asleep, tended to have a marked reduction in recurrence simply by
learning about the syndrome and that it seems completely harmless other than being a bit
startling to endure. As Dr. Sharpless asserts, “You can help
a lot just by reassuring a person that they’re not crazy or experiencing symptoms of a tumor
or some other brain disorder.” That said, we feel obliged to point out that
just because experiencing Exploding Head Syndrome isn’t a marker of being crazy, the fact
that you have doesn’t actually mean you AREN’T crazy either. It just means you’re not imagining this
phenomenon. You still could be crazy or have a brain tumor
and be about to die… any minute now. As for drug treatments, in a 2010 study, the
aforementioned quite limited sample study indicated that topiramate lessened the intensity
of EHS events but did not diminish its frequency. The study's authors also noted that other
helpful drug therapies have included clonesapam, nifedipine, flunarizine and clomipramnine. That said, even for those drugs that have
shown signs of being effective, when you actually look into the matter as we did, the data supporting
this conclusion is mostly non-existent, usually studies looking at just a handful of people
for their sample. Given the condition is pretty random as is,
judging whether the medication actually helped or not falls squarely in the age old “further
research needed” camp. On that note, not only is further research
needed on every facet of this seemingly quite common phenomenon, even the name has been
suggested to need further tweaking, as hearing a loud explosion is just one form of probably
the same basic syndrome, given others experience flashing light, or strong smells and the like
instead or in addition to the noise. Thus, it’s been suggested that a more apt
name would be “Episodic Cranial Sensory Shock”, though that doesn’t have quite
the same ring as “Exploding Head Syndrome” and certainly wouldn’t get as many clicks
for those of us trying to spread the word about the condition, and that it’s nothing
to worry about… Except for in your case, Steve. Speaking of getting clicks for something useful-
Skillshare! ….
Bonus Fact: Speaking of bizarre mental phenomenon, it
turns out some people can’t see faces of other humans. The condition is known as "prosopagnosia"
/ "facial agnosia", or in less medical terms: "face blindness". ("Prosopagnosia" actually literally means:
"face ignorance") Once thought to be incredibly rare, with only
100 or so documented cases up until the last decade or so, it's now thought that around
1 in every 50 people has some level of this, with those on the Autistic spectrum particularly
usually experiencing the condition. Of course, for most people, they just have
a really hard time recognizing people by their faces, rather than being completely unable
to. That said, for some, the condition is so severe
that they can't even recognize their own face, let alone someone else's. There are also instances of people with prosopagnosia
who are unable to tell whether what they are looking at is a face at all or simply a picture
of an oddly shaped rock or just random objects. To be clear, face blindness isn't a problem
with the people's ability to see, nor do people with this condition have memory problems. They just can't, or have difficulty with,
recognizing faces. Why not? It turns out when most people see faces, their
brain processes the face as a whole, rather than by its individual parts. For people with prosopagnosia, they see the
individual parts, but are not capable of perceiving the face holistically, making it incredibly
difficult to recognize someone by their face. As to why this is happening, there is a special
part of our brain that has facilities for "seeing" faces and recognizing them later. This shouldn't be too surprising as most people
know from experience that when they see people from other racial backgrounds they aren't
very familiar with, there is often that politically incorrect thought of "They all look the same." However, if you spend time around a lot of
people in that other race, you'll quickly find that your brain begins to be able to
distinguish between people that not long before you thought all looked the same, but now no
longer do. Once this happens, you'll easily and quickly
be able to distinguish between such people and might well wonder how on Earth you used
to think that people of that ethnicity "all looked the same". The specific part of the brain that's thought
to not function properly in the cases of prosopagnosia is known as the fusiform gyrus, This handles
things like visual word recognition, color processing, and face and body recognition,
among other things. This system of the brain allows people to
more readily distinguish faces than they would, say, one rock from another rock, or other
similarly complex inanimate objects. For people with prosopagnosia, they rely more
on the brain's facilities of object recognition, which takes much more training to distinguish
one similar looking object from another. This more generic object recognition system
is how an arborist can instantly recognize what tree a leaf came from, even if it's extremely
similar to another leaf from a different type of tree. They can do this through significant training. Similarly, a geologist can recognize what
type of rock something is even if it strongly resembles a different type of rock- again,
they can do this only after quite a bit of experience and training. For most people, we simply learn faces quickly
and easily without conscious thought using the special "facial recognition" mechanism
of the brain designated for this, rather than relying on the generic object recognition
system. As you can imagine, people with more severe
levels of the condition have difficulty with certain aspects of socializing, leading many
to adopt the practice of always looking down when walking, so that they can act like they
don't see people, in case they come across someone they know, but don't recognize. When they do encounter someone, many often
adopt the practice of being overly friendly to everyone, in case the person they are talking
to isn't a stranger. In the course of the conversation, they try
to determine whether it's someone they actually know or not and who the person is. How clever people are at naturally masking
face blindness is, according to one Dr. Thomas Gruter of the Institute o Human Genetics,
"probably why [the disorder] went unnoticed for so long." As one woman with this condition, Cecilia
Burman, said, "People think I'm just snobby... It makes me really, really sad to lose new
friends because they think I couldn't bother to say hello." Burman's fairly low on the spectrum in that
she has trouble recognizing her own mother's face and even has difficulty recognizing her
own face in pictures or the mirror. The problem isn't just about saying "hello",
though. Not surprisingly, people with face blindness
also tend to have problems interpreting facial expressions. This can make it difficult at times to properly
gauge a person's mood or the like, which can further make someone with face blindness seem
insensitive or misinterpret what someone's saying. In the end, there is no known cure for prosopagnosia
and treatment options have proven fairly ineffective to date. The primary way to treat the condition is
simply to teach people to pay attention to things like hair style and color, body types,
frequently worn clothing, jewelry, etc. to help recognize people. As most born with this condition already do
this naturally, having picked up on it from a young age, there really isn't a whole lot
in the way of actual treatment that can help them yet.
