I have this - I hear loud cracking/exploding noises and it also feels like a zap of something in my head. So sympathy and hugs back from a fellow sufferer.

Welcome to another episode of: Areyou telling me that isnt normal and not everyonene is expieriecing this? No whispering voices, no screams or else while you transition between awake and asleep?

Wow, I never heard of this. I'm sorry you have this and I commend you for sharing your story.

Oh! Im not alone in this! Thanks for sharing! And keep drawing!

I was a little alarmed by name of the condition at first lol

I hear explosions, loud bangs, doorbell ringing and sometimes also see flashes of light. For years I would wake up my husband and tell him someone is banging on the door, make him search the basement, I even jumped up and packed my things and ran away in the middle of the night while camping because I thought someone was coming to kill me. Now I know it is EHS.

I have EHS. It's like a sudden loud burst of electric static that jerks me wide awake. Sometimes with a zapping feeling in my head. At first it made me miserable. I couldn't go back to sleep, laying there anticipating if it was about to happen again. But then I discovered if I kept my eyes cracked open for as long as possible leading up to falling asleep, it seemed to prevent it. Then it stopped for months. Now it's back again, and I'm closer to a shrug about it. Gotta sleep, right? Once I did hear what sounded like a man scream, though. Yikes.

i had that once, I woke up one morning when I was like 5 and I heard this KABOOM right by my ear, and I screamed my ears hurt so bad

I have this!! I don't have it as bad but I never thought anything of it.

I have this -- not often, thank goodness. However, mine is very simple. As I begin to drift off to sleep, there is a sudden, extremely loud blast of noise - like a gunshot or a bomb. As reported, the first time it happened, I waited to see if I was going to lose consciousness, because I was sure I had just had a stroke. However, nothing happened and I went to sleep. It has happened a few times over the years, but I'm not sure what causes it, but it IS disturbing when it happens.

Omg now I know why I have heard doors slamming in the night. I'm not crazy !!!! Yeaaaa

I'm awake tight now bc of my EHS..a non existent knock at the door tore me from my sleep...but worst one that really scared me and made me search online was a bright firework going off in my head along with the kaboom in my ears. The white light explosion filled my entire brain and I waited for death bc between it being deafening loud and so sudden I knew it must be a stroke or aneurysm....but nothing...the episodes of fireworks, door bells even when we don't have one...door knocks etc continue. I wish I didn't hear these things ... sleep paralysis also.. is that not normal to everyone??

I just got my first EHS hallucination twice in a row tonight. I'm not someone that suffers from sleep paralysis so I'm worried that's a sign that I'll start getting sleep paralysis as well.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for making this comic/article! I learned that this thing I've had since middle school was called EHS only a few short years ago. I'm 39 now, lol. I often hear a loud bang, or crackling, or (my personal worst) a REALLY LOUD BUZZING CHAINSAW for a split second. I also have hallucinations if I haven't drank enough water or something. Usually like a kaleidoscope. Yesterday I realized I'm ovulating and last night I had craploads of EHS occurrences :( I'm really tired today, needless to say. It's amazing how much energy these literally zap out of you :( I wish it were better studied and more well-known. It absolutely sucks. What's worse is I haven't been stressed at all lately, FOR ONCE, so it's weird mine showed up. But maybe it's ovulation related, like you said yours pertains to your cycles. Anyway, thanks again for sharing this! I feel your pain and wish you well! P.S. A trick I learned awhile back is if you keep your ears covered you won't get the noises. It helps

I have this, and it fact just this morning I was woken up by the sound of a loud doorbell and even checked my doorbell app to see if someone was at the door but nothing. Yesterday I woke up to the sound of someone saying “hey” in my left ear. My first real “attack” though was TERRIFYING!! I was taking an afternoon nap. As I started to wake up a little I remember seeing the clock and it was like 3:34. suddenly it sounded like a super loud arcing buzzsaw noise went off in my head, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move!! I laid there thinking it must be a stroke and I couldn’t even call anyone because I couldn’t move. I was in a total panic and my heart felt like it was going to explode! Then finally my fingers started to move a little, my neck and back relaxed and everything calmed down. I finally sat up saying “what the hell was that!?”. clock said 3:35 but it felt longer than a minute. Never had another bad one like that but often have knocks or zapping sounds when waking/drifting off.

I heard this sound two times tonight in about 1 hour's gap, where it felt like someone opened my almirah with a loud bang. I thought some thief broke in, I looked and looked but no one was there. I thought that was a hallucination, so I slept again. Then about 1 hour later it happened again. I was so terrified and confused, I can't express, I was awake for like the whole night after these events. And I have no one to share it with, so I dump this info here. I hope y'all are fine. And thanks for the post, Lulu. This post saved me from some terrible thoughts.

Wow, I've experienced this too but while I'm awake watching YouTube videos at night. It gets so loud I take my headphones off and it gets a little more quiet and then ramps up again and then I put my headphones back on and its less loud and then more loud. Sometimes its static or screaming but more often than not its the screeching metal collision sounds of car accidents. Its awful and I've never told anyone for the same reason.

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The first time I've had 4 times that night while falling asleep, I also saw bright flashes when I close my eyes. So I stayed up all night. Gladly, there isn't much to worry about.

Like everyone else here, I also suffer this, and also got told I was being crazy by a doctor, but then figured out what it was by random landing on it in wikipedia years later. (I also suffer "Alice in Wonderland Syndrome" when tired or suffering a migraine, and have ever since I had surgery on my eyes as a child, so I'm used to doctors ignoring me)

I sometimes hear a door closing or the phone ringing and when I check which number has called I find out that the call came earlier in the day and the phone wasn't ringing at all. Sometimes this happens when I'm awake and at work or somewhere else where I'm convinced that someone has called my name, I turn around and nobody is there. Glad to see that I now know what might be going on between my ears !!

Same here. Power tools, someone yelling my name, even weird squelching sounds. Dehydration makes mine worse, as well as some meds. It can trigger my PTSD startle response, and the adrenaline rush is so painful I think my fingernails are falling off! I get hypnopompic hallucination (on waking) where I think someone is breaking into my house. No fun. But I also take Prazosin for nightmares, and it has really reduced the number of EHS attacks I have!

If only people’s heads actually exploded.

I suffer from night terrors, which makes it unable for me to sleep in the dark (leave a light on at ALL times).... This results in me not being able to get a good nights sleep and it takes quite the toll on my mental health from time to time. As I know that suffering from a sleeping condition can manipulate your entire life and well being, i truly hope you're able to live with it. Thank you for sharing your story, the world needs more people like you! :)

I have this, too. I remember the first time it happened to me - I was so frightened that I was loosing my mind. Especially because in my case the auditory hallucinations are like a really really loud laughter. I honestly thought that I have schizofrenia.

I got woken up by an imaginary truck horn once.

Exploding head syndrome, lol. Today people will say anything to get attention. I have exploding penis syndrome Everytime I go online.

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So your head explodes and than you die and come back to life? No