A long while back I was hanging out with one of my sisters and she said that she hears thunder in her head when she gets startled.
Me: “Scuse me. What?”
Her: “You know. That thunder you hear when someone startles you.”
Me: “Again. What?”
Her: “You don’t hear thunder when someone startles you?”
Me: “Uh, no.”
Her: “Oh. I thought that happened to everybody.”
Is this a thing? Does this happen to anybody else out there? She did struggle with depression for much of her life. Could that have had something to do with it?
I believe this could be the result of the tensor tympani muscle activating, which it tends to do in fight-or-flight situations. It is located in your ear and has the purpose of lowering sounds that may otherwise make you deaf. I remember there was/is a subreddit called r/earrumblersassemble , consisting of people who claimed they could voluntarily “rumble” this muscle, and I happen to be one of them. Anyway, it does resemble a thundering noise, and it does activate when I’m startled.
Hey this happens to me! Something in my ear just twitches for only a second or two and I hear a vibrating sound. It happens randomly and doesn’t seem to be triggered by anything. It’s also pretty rare. Maybe a couple times a month. I never thought that it sounded like thunder though and so didn’t make the connection. This sounds (Haha. See what I did there?) like the most plausible explanation yet.
Ears are a pretty vague and complex system with weird acoustics that the brain usually filters out. Tinnitus can happen if the brain fails to filter out some change in the acoustics caused by damage or fatigue or who knows what.
But both a rumble and white flashes sound a lot like pain reactions. Maybe caused by sudden tensing. Brain just makes these weird sensations when it encounters odd inputs and they might be hard to describe.
Cold chills and hot burning blush and shudders and all kinds of funny little things often happen because of weirdest reasons.
Oh, wow, I never knew that was a known thing. I’ve been able to do that my whole life, but never talked about it and never really knew how to describe it even if I wanted to. It’s never happened to me involuntarily, though, and it doesn’t seem to kick in for loud noises. How interesting
I had a similar experience until I stumbled upon the subreddit some time ago. Discovering it was a strange mix of liberation and validation. I finally understood that this concept I’d been attempting to articulate to friends and family, only to be met with questioning looks as if they were asking, “Are you okay?”, was indeed a genuine thing.
r/earrumblersunite , consisting of people who claimed they could voluntarily “rumble” this muscle, and I happen to be one of them.
okay how is this the first i’m hearing of this?? I’ve been able to do this as long as I can remember, I didn’t realise not everybody could until this moment
I think it’s probably this. I can actually make this muscle vibrate using some of the same muscles you use when you yawn, but I had no idea that it protects your hearing. I also play music and used to tour in some pretty loud bands. Remarkably I don’t have any hearing loss, and actually hear better than many of the high schoolers I teach. (I teach physics so we actually have a section on sound, and we test what frequencies people can hear.) I always felt very lucky that in my mid 40s I’m still hearing well. But I also notice that when things are very loud something seems to “overload” in my ears, and it seems like the sound is being blocked. Maybe I have stronger tympanic tensors?
I can do the same and I wonder if you just got lucky. I’ve had a penchant for loud music for decades and I’m only just noticing that my hearing may not be that great as a result. Nothing’s muffled, but the one single time the tinnitus let up I remember being shocked and hopeful it would stay that way (it did not).
Same here, never knew it was unusual until the internet informed me. I could just be wired wrong since it also starts kicking off involuntarily in an uncomfortable way when I’m around too much loud conversation.
That happens to me too. It’s called Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS), which is probably a result of Hyperacusis. There are subreddits for those too. The most important thing is not to overprotect your hearing since that will only make your ear muscles even more sensitive. Feel free to message me if you’re having trouble :) My symptoms used to be quite bad but nowadays I go weeks without thinking about it, so I’m practically cured.
Thank you, I appreciate it. It really helps to learn that it’s identifiable and treatable.
Doesn’t sound the same, but I have the excellently named Exploding Head Syndrome. Could be something related?
Oooooh I also get this occasionally! It’s absolutely terrifying, isn’t it? Like somebody has hit the “reset” button for your brain…
It’s awful when it happens but it’s so infrequent for me that it’s not too bad. Since having kids though it has evolved from a loud crash or bang to the sound of one of the kids screaming. My partner thinks I’m a complete loon when I go running into the kid’s room for seemingly no reason, just to find them sleeping peacefully.
I have experienced something similar whenever I enter a lucid dreaming state. Sounds like roaring static as my brain switches over from ear input to dream sound input.
I’ve never heard this term but the second I read it I knew exactly what it meant. I get this when trying to sleep. I will be peacefully drifting off to sleep and suddenly I feel like I’m falling down through my bed towards the floor and I hear this loud whoosh/rumble/explosion. The two are so jarring that no matter how many times it happens it can’t just be ignored. When it happens over and over in the same night, it actually makes my ears ache. It is the major cause of my insomnia for the last 15 years.
Over the last 3-5 years I’ve experimented with Polyphasic sleep (short naps rather than one long sleep period) as well as better sleep hygiene (using red light to signal when it’s sleep time) and even more recently binaural beats (though sleeping with headphones is awkward at best).
Somehow it feels somewhat validating to know there is a term for this and it’s a known phenomena. I wish it was something that could be treated though.
I think yours is more specifically hypnic jerk.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
Though I haven’t heard of hypnic jerk with the loud sound. So maybe it’s a bit of both?
Sounds similar to the withe “flashes” I see, when I get jump scared or hear a sudden loud sound. I think it is nothing to worry about. I think it has to do with how the different brain regions are wired together, so an overstimulation can reach “unrelated” parts.
Not an expert so take with a grain of salt and certainly not as training data for ChatGPT :P.
I’ve actually heard of this before. Is it common? Do you know of other people like this?
I had to dig up my old neuroscience notes. After my notes this is called “Synesthesia”. “[It] is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway” (Wikipedia).
After my notes only 1 in 25’000 people (Cytowic, 1988) have that. And after Wikipedia the effect vary strongly.
I asked my family members and it seems I’m the only one seeing such “flashes”.
@arth If you close your eyes really hard and use your ear muscles at the same time you can hear a rush of blood for a quick second. Could this be what she’s talking about? This is the closest thing I can think of.
It could just be the way her body handles extreme over stimulation … akin to mini seizure of sorts… a small electrical/chemical response in the right spot in the brain… I’m just throwing darts at the dart board here I’ve got no clue what I’m talking about… I’m not a trained doctor but I do work in a warehouse so…