Exploding Head Syndrome
Exploding Head Syndrome is a bizarre and mysterious medical condition that causes the sufferer to be woken up in the middle of the night from the sound of a tremendously loud, but painless, bang. Two case studies from a 1988 article in the Lancet:
Case 1
A sensible woman had transient attacks of common migraine with generalised severe throbbing headache, photophobia, and vomiting between the ages of 41 and 55, which then gradually disappeared in the next 2 years. At 67, she presented with different episodes which occurred with no recognisable cause, exclusively during sleep, and at different intervals (usually 2 to 3 a week) with remissions of up to 3 weeks. She described being wakened by a sudden bang in the head, “as if my head was bursting with a flash of light over both fields of vision, after which I would be dazed for a split second and would come round, terrified, my heart thumping. There was no pain, just a frightening sense of explosion.” The attacks made her fear a brain haemorrhage, but examination was normal and she has remained healthy for 7 years.
Case 2
A 68-year-old man complained of bouts of explosions in the head over 4 years with no identifiable precipitants. “It is more of a thunderclap than a pain, though you never know when it’s coming, except that it’s always when you’re asleep.” Attacks provoked a sense of intense anxiety and worry that he might have a brain tumour. His general health was good and the results of physical
examination, routine blood tests, and a CT scan (from another hospital) were normal. On postal follow-up 4 years later, he reported that attacks continued infrequently but that he remained well.
[Acknowledgments to Science Roll]
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