The Neuro-Protective Lifestyle

photo credit: Puppy Zwolle

Not to be confused with “music-induced tickle” where playing the piano triggers a sneeze or “blip syndrome” when relaxation brings on the sensation of an impending loss of consciousness–exploding head syndrome is all bark and no bite.

No headache in fact! Just the sensation that your head is going to explode and then just as your are slipping into the twilight stage of early sleep–a really, really, really loud bang (like a gun going off inside your head) and you’re awake, startled–head intact.

Although uncommon, I’ve had several worried but otherwise well patients ask about it. No worries though, Exploding Head Syndrome is not associated with any known neurological disease.

The current best guess scientific explanation goes something like this:

You collapse into bed and fall fast asleep before your built-in brain-alerting pathways have had the chance to fully finish “powering down”. As a result, that ever so slight delay grants you a “listen” into the inside workings of the “not-quite-asleep-not-quite-awake” brain.

Then KABOOM!

Or as the Boy Wonder would say to Batman: “holy metacognitive musings Batman!”, “is my head still intact?”

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