Auditory hallucination or sign of something really really bad

July 18, 2006 12:19 PM

You know the movie Scanners? I think that happened to me last night. Is there some sort of real medical condition that could duplicate that?

Basically, last night, I was feeling a strong cold coming on. So I took three shots of Nyquil and went to bed. Shortly thereafter, what can only be described as serious fever dreams started kicking in.

Now I've had those before. They're intense. You sweat them out of you. You prepare for some crazy visions. And all that happened. But then, it went from vision to sound.

Crazy sound.

Imagine a dully-painful. high pitched oscillating noise that actually sounds, in your eardrums, like they're being overloaded. Like a car stereo speaker setup being played well above limits. It went in, it went out, it pulses. All I know is that I wasn't sure what the hell was going on. Maybe my eardrums were throbbing with blood. Maybe I had some tinitus that was coming on all at once. Maybe I was being bombarded with high frequency sounds by an outside source.

Trust me. I'm not one of those tinfoil hat types. But there's nothing in my life experience that in any way explains last night's events in my head. It scared me in a way I have no way of communicating.

So today, the insides of my ears still hurt slightly. Should I see the doctor? I don't even know how to explain what happened. Is there some sort of medical explanation for this? Or should I just get ready for the insane asylum?

posted by rileyray3000 to health & fitness (13 comments total)

So today, the insides of my ears still hurt slightly. Should I see the doctor?

Probably yes, if your ears hurt.

Perhaps you fell into a deep sleep and weren't awoken by a loud noise coming from your neighbours, but instead filtered that noise into the dream.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 12:23 PM on July 18, 2006

about a quarter of migraine sufferers experience a form of migraines called migraine with aura that includes all kinds of weird sensory effects, usually visual ones like flashing spots and lines. usually they are very sensitive to sound and light as well.

maybe you had one of these and suddenly became sensitive to some sound that you don't usually notice? the rest of your symptoms sound like classic migraine.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 12:26 PM on July 18, 2006

Could be the DXM, I wouldn't think you'd have done enough but you never know.
posted by geoff. at 12:27 PM on July 18, 2006

See a doctor. I think we can all safely agree that Scanners is just made-up-Hollywood stuff.
posted by pissfactory at 12:27 PM on July 18, 2006

You've got a cold coming on, right? Maybe it's merely something to do with pressure changes in your inner ear brought on by congestion in your sinuses. I wouldn't be overly concerned about it, but I do agree with everyone else -- if it's persistant (over the course of today, not this week) see a doctor.
posted by macdara at 12:33 PM on July 18, 2006

Could've been a migraine. Could've been an auditory hallucination from the nyquil/fevered sleep, with an ear infection coming on atop the cold.

It's probably nothing to be seriously worried about, but you should go to a doctor and make sure you don't have a nasty ear infection building.
posted by chimaera at 12:36 PM on July 18, 2006

I'd really doubt it was a dextromethorphan overdose as that's not a trivial matter to accomplish, nor do auditory hallucinations compose a large part of the ensuing process. I wouldn't rule out an interaction with the drug and other medications or your current body chemistry though. Your description makes it appear to be fairly mechanical, so no, I wouldn't say you should just get ready for the insane asylum. If you didn't have the pain today I'd write it off, otherwise I'd say if that persists you definitely need to explain this all to your doctor.

DXM, when consumed in low recreational doses (usually over 100mg)... 3 x 15mg, you probably ended up in the 40-45mg range which should be relatively harmless.
posted by prostyle at 12:43 PM on July 18, 2006

What you experienced was an auditory hallucination. I used to get these with high fevers as a kid and it's almost exactly as you described, a dull, high-pitched humming or 'ringing' type noise that oscillated. Sometimes it corresponded to weird visions I saw. scared the hell out of me, and was also commonly a sign I was getting a full-bore ear infection.

mine always came on with a fever above 102. if your fever doesn't break soon, go to a doctor.
posted by lonefrontranger at 12:45 PM on July 18, 2006

The title of your question is misleading. As far as I know there is no medical condition that would cause your head to just explode like that.

As for what actually happened, I've had migraines complete with that sort of high-pitched hellnoise before, FWIW.
posted by drumcorpse at 12:48 PM on July 18, 2006

What you describe is called tinnitus, the medical term for pathological ringing in the ears.
It's a known side effect of Nyquil and many other drugs.
Three shots of nyquil is an overdose so the side effects would be exaggerated.
posted by dkippe at 4:02 PM on July 18, 2006

prostyle - you probably ended up in the 40-45mg range which should be relatively harmless

Unless (from the same page)...

A significant portion of the population has a functional deficiency in this enzyme (and are known as poor CYP2D6 metabolizers). As CYP2D6 is the primary metabolic pathway in the inactivation of dextromethorphan, the duration of action and effects of dextromethorphan are significantly increased in such poor metabolizers. Deaths and hospitalizations have been reported in recreational use by poor CYP2D6 metabolizers.
posted by daksya at 6:22 PM on July 18, 2006

i got this often when i was younger, and found that sleeping with white noise in the room (a fan, usually) eliminated the problems. the sound for me was so loud and startling that it would scare me awake. i often described it as tympanies being thrown down stairs....
posted by casconed at 9:00 PM on July 18, 2006

Maybe you were clenching your teeth in your sleep, because of the Nyquil? That might make your ears hurt, or your jaw or teeth.
posted by hammurderer at 9:39 PM on July 18, 2006