Violently loud sleep paralysis/exploding head, a simple solution

[nina]

**Exploding head syndrome is a parasomnia condition that causes the sufferer occasionally to experience a tremendously loud noise as originating from within his or her own head, usually described as the sound of an explosion, roar, gunshot, loud voices or screams, a ringing noise, or the sound of electrical arcing (buzzing). Exploding head syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I've often been aware of the moment that the ear transitions from hearing the outside physical world and shuts down so that you only hear the "inner" workings of the body, such as very loud heartbeat. I used to think that this transition to hearing the heartbeat was the sole cause of the exploding head syndrome**...or the violently loud throbbing noise you might experience during SP. But now I'm aware that this transition is even more affected by any noises in your bedroom. For example, a fan, music, or television, will change from normal sound...when the ear makes that transition to shutting off the outside world...and will turn into extremely loud static. It's as though someone changed the channel to snow and turned the volume all the way up. I'm pretty good at turning violent and frightening SP noises and physical sensations into more pleasant things, but even for me, at times the exploding head noise is too loud and invasive to allow me to fall asleep or enter a LD. So because I sleep with my fan on pretty loudly, I experience this quite a bit. But I can't sleep without my fan on. If you do sleep in dead silence, then you might never have this problem. But quite simply, blocking the noise by covering your ear with a blanket or sheet 100% effectively stops the violent noise. I sleep on my side so one ear is already buried in the pillow, so I just threw my blanket over the uncovered ear, and it worked at stopping any unpleasant sound. I've tested it several times, with different noises, including the tv, and it works every time at stopping the violent noises of SP. So I realize it's an oddly specific situation, but if you find yourself plagued by exploding head syndrome/violent noises during SP, just cover your ears. Or hell, get some soft and comfy earplugs if your situation is bad enough.

[Seroquel]

Mhmm Auditory hallucinations. This is relevant: Hallucinate Like You Just Took LSD, Legally Yes, that's right kids! Tell your dealer goodbye and worry no more about winding up naked on the roof of an office building after a bad trip. Now you can be stoned out of your mind by building a homemade deprivation chamber out of some regular, completely harmless household objects. Holy Shit, How Can I Do It! You are going to need three things: a ping-pong ball, a radio with headphones and a red light. Step 1: Turn the radio to a station with just white noise (static), and put on your headphones. Step 2: Cut the ping-pong ball in half and tape each half over your eyes. Step 3: Turn the red light so it's facing your eyes. Step 4: Sit there for at least a half an hour. Step 5: Follow Ben Franklin and your new friend, Harold the unicorn, into the gumdrop forest, and live happily ever after. It's called the Ganzfeld effect, and it works by blocking out most of the signals that go to your brain. It's the same kind of effect you get when looking into a soft light for a while and lose vision, except at a larger scale. The sound of the white noise and the light from the outside of the ping pong ball are eventually ignored by your brain. With all those signals out of the picture, your brain has to create its own, and this is where the hallucinations come in. We can't guarantee they won't involve, say, the ghost of Lizzie Borden trying to hack off your scrotum with an ax, but that's the risk you take, dammit. 5 Ways To Hack Your Brain Into Awesomeness | Cracked.com

[nina]

That couldn't be any less relevant my friend, lol. Ganzfield is very different, and doesn't involve going to sleep or entering sleep paralysis.

[Seroquel]

What are you talking about. What do you think you experience during SP? Hallucinations. Dreams are hallucinations.

[nina]

What are you talking about. What do you think you experience during SP? Hallucinations. Dreams are hallucinations. Hypnagogia and sleep paralysis are two separate phenomena and don't necessarily occur hand in hand. You can have one without the other. My point was to acknowledge a physiological change most likely caused by middle ear adjustments which occurs during sleep paralysis, that results in unwanted violent auditory hallucinations. My solution to this was to block outside noise. Your post involves tuning in to static in order to attempt auditory hallucinations while awake. So basically, you're post discusses the opposite phenomena. Considering the point of my post is to help people suffering from these violent SP noises, I don't really see the point in bringing up ganzfields...which is an entirely different subject.

[Seroquel]

Life is a hallucinationnn.

[nina]

Life is a hallucinationnn. Can't argue with that. Btw I've tried the Ganzfield thing...it didn't work at all. Even for a second. And I did it for at least an hour, and then got bored and gave up.

[Seroquel]

I haven't tried it either. It's too much trouble for something that comes naturally. Uhg sorry for sidetracking your thread. /out

[Darkmatters]

So THAT'S what it's called!!! I get this every night just before I fall asleep... though often it wakes me and then it takes a while before I get back to sleep. It feels like a mild electric shock running from my brain all down my spine and sometimes I feel it out to my fingers and toes. And yes, it takes any ambient sound (fan etc) and amplifies it ridiculously in an instant... Thanks for posting this Nina... I was afraid I had some terrible neurological condition or something!! Ok, just read the wiki page. Apparently it normally only happens occasionally, during some sort of 'episode' or 'attack'? I get it every night, and have for years. I also suffer from insomnia. But anyway, thanks for the advice about blocking out sound... I'll have to try that if I can manage to do it and not roll over afterwards.

[nina]

Sure thing, I'm glad you found it informative.

[brokencog]

I have been dealing with sleep paralyses for some time now. The overwhelming feeling is that I can't move (obviously.) However, at times I have been able to extort this dream state to my benefit, and extend the sleep stage into a new zone. I have extended it into a lucid dream where I just walked into to the kitchen, tried the lights, not working. Then it turned on me. A glowing white girl attacked me in the dream. This not what I was planning. My question to the forum is this. Is there a way to continue to use sleep paralyses to my favor, i.e. extend in to lucidity? The frequency of the sleep paralyses is about once a week to every two weeks. Is there any way to escape the Old Hag that appears to haunt me at times? I would rather have fun than suffer, you know?