[Health] ‘Exploding Head Syndrome’ proven to exist

[lioneatszebra]

'Exploding Head Syndrome' proven to exist, amazingly common among young people
From Modvive

A new study suggests that a condition known as "Exploding Head Syndrome" may occur in as many as one in five young people.

This condition causes the sufferer to be awakened by a loud exploding noise or noises in their head potentially accompanied by the person even experiencing the sensation of an actual explosion.

This sensation often occurs when a person is just beginning to fall asleep.

According to the American Sleep Association, attacks can increase or decrease with time, and can disappear for long stretches at a time, or entirely, of their own volition.

The study's author, Brian Sharpless, director of the psychology clinic at Washington State University, says it may be caused by brain cells associated with hearing firing all at once.

"That's why you get these crazy-loud noises that you can't explain, and they're not actual noises in your environment," Sharpless said in a university news release.

The ASA also says exploding head syndrome is a rare condition that occurs primarily in people older than 50. But Sharpless says he has had his doubts about that for awhile now.

"I didn't believe the clinical lore that it would only occur in people in their 50s. That didn't make a lot of biological sense to me," said Sharpless.

This new survey appears to have proven him right.

Of the 211 college students questioned, one in five (or 18 percent) said they had experienced exploding head syndrome at least once.

According to a News Release from WSU, the study also found that more than one-third of those who had exploding head syndrome also experienced isolated sleep paralysis, a frightening experience in which one cannot move or speak when waking up.  People with this condition will literally dream with their eyes wide open.

For most people their isn't any documented lasting harm caused from the condition, although in about 2 percent of sufferers, the effects are so startling and cause such confusion that they suffer what the study refers to as  "clinically significant distress and/or impairment."

"Some people have worked these scary experiences into conspiracy theories and mistakenly believe the episodes are caused by some sort of directed-energy weapon," Sharpless said.

Sharpless notes that exploding head syndrome lasts just a few seconds but can be extremely frightening, leading people to think they're having a seizure or a stroke, or even that they are losing their mind.

"They may think they're going crazy and they don't know that a good chunk of the population has had the exact same thing," said Sharpless, "Unfortunately for this minority of individuals, no well-articulated or empirically supported treatments are available, and very few clinicians or researchers assess for it."

However, just getting a diagnosis and learning they aren't alone can help some people, he added.

"There's the possibility that just being able to recognize it and not be afraid of it can make it better," Sharpless said.

The study is the largest of its kind, with all 211 undergraduate students being interviewed by either  psychologists or graduate students that were specifically trained to recognize the symptoms of exploding head syndrome and isolated sleep paralysis.

The results appear online in the Journal of Sleep Research.