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Hearing loud sounds in my ear
Hear loud noise while falling asleep
Hear explosion sounds while waking up
Difficulty sleeping
Insomnia
Lack of deep sleep
Tinnitus
Seeing flashes of light when falling asleep
Can't go back to sleep once awake
Heart racing
Anxious or scared
Sweating at night
Not seeing your symptoms? No worries!
Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is a sleep disorder where someone hears a loud noise or explosive crashing sound in their head. The sound isn't real or heard by anyone else.
Your doctor may ask these questions to check for this disease:
Medications found helpful include antidepressant clomipramine and calcium channel blockers. Focus on possible triggers of the episode, such as maintaining adequate sleep and adopting relaxation techniques to relieve anxiety.
Reviewed By:
Kenji Taylor, MD, MSc (Family Medicine, Primary Care)
Dr. Taylor is a Japanese-African American physician who grew up and was educated in the United States but spent a considerable amount of time in Japan as a college student, working professional and now father of three. After graduating from Brown, he worked in finance first before attending medical school at Penn. He then completed a fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control before going on to specialize in Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where he was also a chief resident. After a faculty position at Stanford, he moved with his family to Japan where he continues to see families on a military base outside of Tokyo, teach Japanese residents and serve remotely as a medical director for Roots Community Health Center. He also enjoys editing and writing podcast summaries for Hippo Education.
Shohei Harase, MD (Neurology)
Dr. Harase spent his junior and senior high school years in Finland and the U.S. After graduating from the University of Washington (Bachelor of Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology), he worked for Apple Japan Inc. before entering the University of the Ryukyus School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Okinawa Prefectural Chubu Hospital, where he received the Best Resident Award in 2016 and 2017. In 2021, he joined the Department of Cerebrovascular Medicine at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, specializing in hyperacute stroke.
Content updated on Feb 3, 2025
Following the Medical Content Editorial Policy
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Link to full study:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.24312810v1Khan I, Slowik JM. Exploding Head Syndrome. [Updated 2022 Dec 12]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560817/Nakayama M, Nakano N, Mihara T, Arima S, Sato S, Kabaya K, Suzuki M, Kitahara T. Two cases of exploding head syndrome documented by polysomnography that improved after treatment. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021 Jan 1;17(1):103-106. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.8790. PMID: 32959775; PMCID: PMC7849637.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7849637/Dan Denis, Giulia L Poerio, Sarah Derveeuw, Isabella Badini, Alice M Gregory, Associations between exploding head syndrome and measures of sleep quality and experiences, dissociation, and well-being, Sleep, Volume 42, Issue 2, February 2019
https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article-abstract/42/2/zsy216/5245405?redirectedFrom=fulltext