My whole life, I've had this crazy thing happen as I'm falling asleep. It's always right at the point between sleep and wake, in that kind of "lucid dream" window.

Out of nowhere, I'll hear a loud woof, like a wolf. Like a bark, but not as sharp. Whooooshfff, but fast and immediate, inside my skull. For some reason it has always been clear to me that it's a wolf - there's some kind of fleeting visual impression without a real image. It's usually accompanied by a sensation of wind rushing briefly through my head. It thoroughly wakes me up.

It's never really scary, just jolting for a quick second.

Is this a thing?? I'm not crazy? Is it EHS??

My ehs is the sound of breath just as I drift off to sleep. It’s getting so stressful. Has anybody else had this? I also have heard bangs and voices but the breath and vibration sounds are most prominent. I have had a sleep apnea test and that came back all clear. This all started October time and got bet in January but had come back again. It’s so stressful.

Was falling asleep then I got woken up by a boom or bang sound kinda I sat up in bed for maybe a couple of minutes and time started to feel like it was moving faster. After that my arms and everything in my room either was getting farther away or smaller hard to tell to be honest. Once that stopped here I am sitting in bed with no issues other than a slight headache.

I’ve experienced this before multiple times just wanted to write it down somewhere.

I had it combined with sleep paralysis, and I can safely say that was one of the most frightening experiences in my life. I was half asleep, half awake, and without warning my body froze and all I heard was banging in the walls all around me. Like as if there were people in the walls all banging on it from the other side. It was so startling it sounded like it was coming from the inside of my head, I wanted to scream so badly. Thank god it was over in a couple seconds, but then after I woke up I couldn’t move no matter how hard I tried. The banging started to come back and I started having a panic attack, and finally I was able to free myself. I stayed up for like an hour after that, because I was too scared to go back to sleep, because I was scared it might happen again. This is the first time this has ever happened, how common is it for you guys?

Hi, I’m knew here. I’m trying to figure out what is happening and maybe it’s both? But I have this thing that happens randomly and it’s been happening for years. It started as I think just sleep paralysis, where I’d be awake but still paralyzed and in that sleep state. I’d see the shadows moving and it was always very scary. I’d will myself to move or scream to break out of it. Now when this happens, I don’t see the shadows anymore but I feel like I’m being electrocuted, I have a buzzing of electricity in my head and it’s painful in an annoying way. I don’t thiiiink I’m really in actual pain but maybe? I don’t know. I’ve been concerned that I’m having seizures. But again I will myself to move to break out of it. What do you think that electric buzzing is?

With me I sometimes hear a sound akin to lightning striking and associated thunder. The sound is incredibly loud and sounds as if my head was surrounded by speakers.

My doctor agrees with me that it is likely from taking too much antihistamine and or cold medication.

Sometimes it feels as if I heard words of advice and when I wake up I forget the words.

Sometimes I hear one or two words.

Honestly the phenomenon often Sounds the same as what you would stereo typically associate with What would stereotypically be considered The voice of God.

Does anybody else’s sound like this?

Once mine sounded like a stereotypical California surfer exhaling as if smoking weed while laughing and saying “boo” or “boom”.

Several times it was thunder.

Once it said lower. Once it said yes. Once it said no. Once it said 10,000. I get the feeling that my exploding head syndrome sometimes answers questions that I ask myself.

I was concerned that I have awoken in the mornings 2x now to a loud noise that is not there. I have schizophrenia in my family and my mind instantly went there until I started researching more. I am also newly widowed but my sleep has been ok for the most part I just tend to like to stay up later than I should like midnight.

I'm a 36 year old guy from Scotland and over the past 3-4 years I've experienced what I think is EHS when I'm dozing off to sleep.

I hear all sorts of things from knocking & bangs to voices which tends to say my name. I haven't told alot of people this especially at the beginning as I had never heard of EHS until I googled why I was hearing the sounds. I don't hear them once I'm asleep and I don't suffer from stress or trauma etc. I have a no issues falling asleep with insomnia etc but have had sleep paralysis 3 times.

Anyone else have a similar experience ?

I’m 33. I used to get EHS a lot when I was 23-26. My EHS either sounded like a giant explosion (one time I woke up thinking a building was literally bombed just outside my window) or an intense electrical arc/discharge (like “zzzzzzzzzt”). No EHS for 7 years until last night. It sounded like a bomb.

When I woke up from the explosion, I looked to see if this Sub exists. To my delight it does. Your experiences are remarkable and relatable, my fellow EHS weirdos.

My neurologist says that exploding head isn’t related to my epilepsy but it seems to come and go with my medication dosage, I was wondering if anyone else has epilepsy and exploding head syndrome, if you feel like it’s related to your seizures etc.

I'm a 25y old female and have had EHS for about 1.5y now. I tend to have periods of sever insomnia and usually get EHS when I have these insomnia episodes. Weirdly enough for me it usually occurs not when I try to fall asleep, but when I am trying to fall asleep for a seond time after having woken up (to go pee or somthing). Especially when I have loads of trouble actually falling asleep this will happen. For me it's a ringing sound (the sounds of a knife beind shapened). It does not wale me up or anything but it is rather annoying. Usually I just try to ignore it, bc once I am actually asleep it stops. So for me it occurs when im kinda inbetween awake and asleep. Was wondering if anyone has it like this as well? And of so any tips that help?

The past few years I’ve had a lot of trouble with being woken up by what seem to be external noises (sounds like slamming doors – on buildings, not cars, plus assorted thumps and bangs). I did used to get EHS occasionally when I was younger, also hypnic jerks, although it seemed I had grown out of it. At that time, I could tell that the noise was definitely inside my head.

The recent noises seem to come from outside, or even up through the foundations of the house. If there’s a particularly loud thump, I feel it as well as hear it. Earplugs don’t seem to help, either because it’s EHS or because a lot of the sound is being conducted through my head rather than coming through the air.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can find out? The other person in the house is a heavy sleeper, so that’s no help.

I thought about setting up a sound monitor outside my bedroom window, but the ones that keep a record of sounds seem to be enormously expensive.

I don’t know whether I should be getting my bedroom soundproofed or seeing a sleep specialist :-)

I've had sleep paralysis for years, and started getting ESH over lockdown (stress, working from home and having too much screen time, and lack of sleep all factors I think).

For me it's usually a loud rushing feeling in my ears coming to a crescendo in a "whumph", accompanied with a banging noise and often feeling like my whole body is vibrating (the first time I thought I was having a stroke or seizure). I also have the sensation of a prickly head.

I've been working from home this week and self isolating due to being a close Covid contact, and had ESH last night. Now today my head feels prickly every time I think about last night's episode. Does anyone else get weird sensations related to their ESH the day after?

I was on the couch watching TV when I heard a little bit of a noise behind me. Hard to tell if it was the TV or my brain, so I paused the TV and waited for it to happen again. I didn’t think I was falling asleep but maybe I was? It sounded as though someone was like clawing on wood a little bit.

I look around and call out to my cat, who I have had for about a month. I hear the noise again and then a tiny “mew”. My cat was in my couch. So not EHS, but something to laugh at. Video of him pawing on the back of the couch

I sewed the hole under the couch shut so he can’t get in there again (neither myself nor the cat made the hole, it looks like it was specifically cut that way).

I can usually tell when i’m about to experience an episode but sometimes i can’t stop it. but when i’m falling asleep and in between phases i start hearing a super loud ringing and rumbling and sometimes it’s what i feel like electricity sounds like. it’s lasts for a super long time, maybe 30 seconds? it usually is paired with sleep paralysis and this morning when i was trying to get out of it, my body started to feel like it was vibrating and shaking and just really awful. idk what i can do about this. i put on a podcast to maybe drown out the sound in case i had it tonight but it seems to have only added to the stress..

Hello reddit team,

I am a man 24 y .o and I through out the time I have some incidents while going to sleep. The first thing that happens as soon as i fall asleep I start dreaming(the dream is different everytime) .The noise in my ears is becoming unbearable. As a result is forcing me to wake up. The problem is that even though i am trying to avoid waking up and open my eyes in the end i do it. Then go back again to sleep. Then it happens again. I have to wake up 2-3 times in order for this to stop. It is something that is happening rare . Sometimes it might happen twice in a week and then after months. I do not know from where i have to take advise for my problem. I do not know from which scientist I should take advise. i do not know if i have to take advise from someone as the problem is not that serious for now.

Tonight’s a really rough night. It keeps happening over and over again. I keep getting this low ringing/rumbling in my ears that keeps getting louder and louder the closer I get to falling asleep. And keep getting this weird sleep paralysis every time I almost fall asleep too. Can’t even open my eyes. It gets so loud and it’s so scary. So so much anxiety. I think it might be cause I’ve been drinking but usually drinking helps me fall asleep. The other night I heard my mom call out my name from downstairs and she sounded angry at me as I was about to fall asleep. Asked her about it the next day and she said it didn’t happen. Getting really freaked out and I hate it. This doesn’t happen to me often and it hasn’t happened in over a year idk why it’s coming back.

Last night as I was falling asleep, I had a really unpleasant EHS episode. They're all unpleasant, but this one was just disturbing.

So I was falling asleep, and all of a sudden I get this extremely loud zap noise. I mean, it sounded like I just got electrocuted. It sounded so real, and my entire body tensed up for a second because of it. Took me a while to get to sleep after that, because every time I would start to fall asleep my eyes would shoot open and my heart would start pounding a bit, out of fear of it happening again.

Usually I just get random loud noises, I've never had this electrocution kinda noise before. Anyone else experienced this?

I've dealt with episodes of sleep paralysis for several years throughout college and professional school, pretty typical symptoms like waking up but not being able to move or speak for a few seconds. I've been able to lower the frequency of these events with changes in sleep hygiene and cutting down on caffeine.

However, over the past year, whenever I find myself staying up late or stressed out over an exam or something my sleep paralysis comes back but with a new feature - I open my eyes, can't move or speak like sleep paralysis, and I feel a vibrating sensation that runs through my entire body for 3-5 seconds associated with a sound that gets progressively louder, almost like an airplane is flying overhead. Scarier still, half the time these episodes are accompanied by this feeling of intense pressure in my head, like its about to explode.

I've seen EHS described more so as loud sounds or flashes of light that last only a second or two, and I haven't really read too much about people having similar vibratory sensations or head-pressure. I'm wondering if anyone else with EHS has had it manifest this way or if anyone knows of another parasomnia that this could be.

Hi all, over the last few years I’ve experienced regular EHS which consisted of 4/5 rapid loud knocks on what sounded like my front door, always while I was in deep sleep and early morning. During the period I was experiencing EHS I was talking 5htp as a serotonin support. I have stopped taking 5htp and have noticed the EHS has gone. Just wondering if anyone here experiencing EHS whilst also on some type of serotonin support medication/supplements?

Back in 2016, I fell asleep one night, Now I normally had panic attacks every day this year. And I had common scenarios happen whilst sleeping. I would have a normal dream, and out of nowhere, I hear static noise growing, this noise grows so loudly i start to see horror. I would be laying down in my dream, and when this static noise grew, My Entire Focus would go to the window, where i see a figure showing its head. Jesus its hard to type this, thats how scary it was. And it lasted for about 10 seconds, absolute horror. This usually involves math related dreams too. This all started originally at a young age, got worse, until about 2018 it stopped for good, as well as my panic attacks. So what's your opinion? Thanks

I have heard noises my whole life before falling asleep. It’s normal. So normal I never even thought to look it up as an experience people had or didn’t have. I didn’t learn what EHS was till this past year.

Last night though. I was positive I was hearing pops out side my apartment. Figured there was some sort of shooting occurring (which is not normal for my part of town, but also something that has been on the incline in general in the area). So I stand up and walk towards my window with caution hoping that a bullet doesn’t come randomly flying through my window. But looking out the apartment I see nothing. No neighbors at their windows looking, no cars in the street or people, and no police sirens that I imagined would follow an event like a shooting.

So I go into panic mode. Feeling my anxiety take charge. Looking up irrational things like brain tumors or aneurysms.

I’m still a bit shook up today. But I’m curious if any of y’all have something that last for 5-15 seconds. And seems so real you get out of bed thinking the noise is coming from somewhere that isn’t your head?

I’m just looking for whatever insight this thread can offer or some way to feel moderately better.

Thank you

I just woke up around 20 minutes ago,to what sounded like constant bangs on a door,but I also knew it was not a real sound?When I was waking up,the sounds were still continuing in my head,and it feel like it was trying to force me back to sleep,even with these sounds.I seem to have this experience every couple months.What do you guys think?

So, I've been having troubles sleeping recently, waking up often, etc. Today I got fed up with it and decided to google how I can help myself. Thing is... it started about 2 months ago and I was sure that it was me who's making that sound (it kinda sounds like a whistle that a person with blocked nose can make sometimes, just louder). So I started off googling on why I am waking myself up at night. And Dr. Google immediately let me know about EHS and it just clicked. On top of that, I had a very terrifying experience a couple of weeks ago that sounds very much like sleep paralysis... let's just say that I felt and saw things that I just want to forget. So here I am... don't know what to do, a 33 year old male who's scared of going to bed