Loud startling boom only heard by me?

I've had a a few strange unexplained things happen to my throughout my life but they mainly started when I was around 7. Hadn't really thought much about it until I came here and seen people asking related questions.

One I want to ask you guys about today is a rare(for me) phenomenon that has happened to me about 3 or 4 times throughout my life. I will be laying down, possibly just dozed off and all of the sudden without warning there is a very loud boom, crash, or it doesn't even really have to make sense sometimes, just something really loud goes off right next to my ears it seems. I am immediately an wide awake and very startled by the what just happened. No one else heard a thing or at least they didn't wake up...

Anyone shed some light on such an experience?

I sometimes hear a weird ringing noise sometimes when I get near somebody, but other than that no.

Humm , well I never heard a loud boom or anything. But sometimes when I am about to fall asleep or about to wake up I hear some very loud gibberish , like someone talking loudly or having a conversation.

It is very very rare to occur , but it doesn't last more than a few seconds , I usually get startled and wake up completely and as soon as that happens I hear it no more.

Hmm.. I remember at one point when I was younger I described it as sound like a demolition next to my house.

Man that is strange, I thought my head was just messed up. I've woken up my wife asking if she has heard something. A few times I thought some one was knocking on our front door which is near our room, other times I could swear that some one was hitting cars with base ball bats in the street.

I go look and nothing, Ill even sit for a while outside to see if maybe some one is stirring and never any explanation.

It is always when I have just fallen asleep and it wakens me to a full blown alert state as with a small adrenaline shot, like I would if I heard some one break a window.

Freaks me out for sure.

Look up "exploding head syndrome." (no, seriously)

[edit on 28-1-2009 by kreinhard]

LOL well that exploding head sounds like what Ive experienced and it was happening very often when I was training heavily but since I have backed off it has only happened once or twice in the last few months.

thanks for the info

This exploding head syndrome thing is amazing. I had never heard of such a thing but I may have experienced it a few times. I've written off a few giant booms to squirrels crossing gaps by the power transformers. Then one time at night I heard a series of eight booms I though must have been meteorites having seen an impressive and noisy display a few years previously. The brain is very interesting.

Same exact thing happened to me once. I woke from a sound sleep when I heard a loud crash. I thought my china cabinet had be tipped over. My husband didn't hear a thing. I went through the whole house and could not find anything disturbed. Kind of nice to know this happens to others.

[edit on 1/28/2009 by sad_eyed_lady]

reply to post by stikkinikki


I have experienced this several times. It is not a distant boom. It is like a nuke going off in your head. It scared the cr#p out of me the first time. If I remember correctly it is caused by an arc of electricity between the two sides of your brain. And yes it is called “exploding head syndrome”. It is akin to when you are about to fall asleep and your body jolts awake.

Once I dreamed there was a Harrier outside my house hovering, then just when it was about to shoot, I woke up, and BAAM, I heard a very loud gunshot noise as clear as if it was REALLY in my room. Wow.

Anyway when close to have an OBE or astral projection, you sometimes hear things, other than the usual ringing tone.

For example a few times I heard what sounded almost like tuning into different radio stations. Multiple voices talking, as real as if they were talking into my ear. It startled me haha.

Astral projection explains the loud boom as the return back into the body.

Hearing the voices is as you are leaving the body and moving into the next plane of existance.

Originally posted by _Phoenix_
For example a few times I heard what sounded almost like tuning into different radio stations. Multiple voices talking, as real as if they were talking into my ear. It startled me haha.

I've had the exploding head thing off and on (which I think is actually part of the deal, but it's been a while since I 'researched' it) for at least 20 years. After a while, it got to the point where I just sort of smile and go "yeah" when it happens. Weird, I know.

Anyway...the radio station thing. I have also had something similar to that going on for about 17 years (oddly, I remember the night it first started). I hear voices like one would hear on a talk radio station, but they're faint and indistinct. I cannot make out what they're saying. The harder I try to focus and "get something" out of it, the less I can understand. Sometimes it is fairly loud, as if a radio on the nightstand were on quietly (although I have no radio on the nightstand). Sometimes it is faint and barely audible, yet loud enough that I know what it is. I have never heard music, though...just the mumbling voices.

Originally posted by azureskys
Astral projection explains the loud boom as the return back into the body.

Hearing the voices is as you are leaving the body and moving into the next plane of existance.

Nah the sound was related to the dream, it's just that because I woke up it became sort of a waking dream, like what you get when you have sleep paralysis.

The voices part was because of what you said.

Originally posted by kreinhard
. Sometimes it is faint and barely audible, yet loud enough that I know what it is. I have never heard music, though...just the mumbling voices.

Yes it was very loud, ver real to me, but I really can't remember actually knowing what they were saying, which is odd.

I've read that some people hear music, some musicians have said that they got their music from this state, and some inventors have said they got some of their ideas in this state of mind.

A very interesting state of mind for sure.

Originally posted by _Phoenix_
I've read that some people hear music, some musicians have said that they got their music from this state, and some inventors have said they got some of their ideas in this state of mind.

A very interesting state of mind for sure.

Maybe I should try harder to transcribe it...I could become a great novelist.

Originally posted by kreinhard

Originally posted by _Phoenix_
I've read that some people hear music, some musicians have said that they got their music from this state, and some inventors have said they got some of their ideas in this state of mind.

A very interesting state of mind for sure.

Maybe I should try harder to transcribe it...I could become a great novelist.

Haha yeah, I wish I could remember where I read these things. One inventor was this Japanese inventor, but I totally forgot his name, oh well...

Originally posted by kreinhard
Look up "exploding head syndrome." (no, seriously)

[edit on 28-1-2009 by kreinhard]

Thanks a lot. That explains exactly what I have experienced. Nice to know I'm not the only one. Also I noticed you said that you try harder to focus on the sounds you hear. Might I suggest instead of trying harder, relax while focusing on the sounds. Then they should come forth.

kreinhard is right, it's Exploding Head Syndrome. I get it, too, only usually it sounds kind of like a gunshot. (Then again, usually people are screaming in my dreams, too, so I can't say if it's really EHS or just a dream that wakes me up)

reply to post by SeeingBlue


Never knew the name of it, similar experience happened to me more than a few times when I was young, hasn't happened since... If it happens on a regular basis I would say it's related to hearing loss, auditory hallucinations or false-auditory hallucinations, which are usually music, voices, buzzing, tea kettle type sounds, the explosion seems more rare, the brain makes up sounds when the ear loses it's hearing I know that, don't know how connected they are.