In our recent article about living with exploding head syndrome, we talked to Niels Nielsen about his experiences with the condition. Despite being relatively unknown, it’s surprisingly common, with 18% of students in one study reporting that they had experienced the phenomenon.

Nielsen describes the feeling as a “sudden crescendo of noise, then a profound and jarring explosion of sound, electrical fizzing and a bright flash”. This description prompted many of you to come forward with your own stories. For some, this was the first time they had come across the condition.

Garry Fowler, for instance, had no idea about the syndrome:



“I have had this happen many times but had no idea of its cause or that it was a recognised syndrome.”



And he wasn’t alone. Mat Porton commented that he only realised it was a recognised condition when he heard it discussed on Radio 4. Jess Dominguez added:



“It’s comforting to know I’m not crazy and that these are real things I’ve experienced.”



For some, like Kimia Mokhtari Aubin, it only happens once a lifetime, but others have been left haunted by the experience after many years. Aza Mohammed reached out to us by email to share a story from his childhood in Iraq. During the Iraq-Iran war, he and his classmates were evacuated from his school because of a bomb scare. That night he was woken up by an explosion and he ran to his parents in tears, only for them to tell him that no bomb had gone off. Even 30 years later he is unable to explain why his ears were still buzzing from the sound long after he woke up.