Can someone explain this phenomena to me?

Exploding head syndrome?

Wouldn’t that just be classified as tinnitus? That happens to me all the time.

It sounds like Tinnitus. Here is a wiki page that gives more info about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus

That situation happens to me every now and then too. It doesn’t seem like tinnitus to me, because, I generally have ringing in my ears. It’s almost like when your ears pop when you are going from a low altitude to a high altitude, but there is no traveling involved. It only happens when you are just sitting there minding your own business. It happens kind of randomly, but is somewhat frightening/irritating when it happens.

This happens to me, too. I always kind of assumed it was some kind of tinnitus. I’ve sent this question to one of our members who is an audiologist, so hopefully she can give us the definitive answer.

It happens to me too. I think it has a bit to do with fluid in and around the very sensitive nerves in your ear. It’s not ‘resetting’ itself exactly, but there are pressure differences and fluid pressure that could be finding an equilibrium and that is what you’re feeling. There is blood and lymphatic fluid flowing up and down your neck all the time. When we tense up, we can restrict the flow of lymph and blood. It can give us headaches, ringing in our ears, migraines… sinus problems. Just a thought.

Per wiki: “The hollow channels of the inner ear are filled with liquid, and contain a sensory epithelium that is studded with hair cells. The microscopic ‘hairs’ of these cells are structural protein filaments that project out into the fluid.”

What I’ve heard is that one or some of these ‘hairs’ periodically dissipate, and when they do, that ringing sound is generated.

It can also be from allergy pressure. You need to see an ENT. My wife can eliminate the ringing by humming, as it vibrates the fluid from whatever the pressure is causing.

Hello, I am an Audiologist.
(@augustlan – I did get email notification about this, but it said it was sent by a different member… is that a bug or glitch?)

Pretty much everyone has the fleeting tinnitus you describe – the old wives tale says that it means that someone is talking about you. When it happens to me, I check my hearing on the effected side by rubbing my fingers together a few inches from my ear, and I can still hear that… but I definitely have the sensation of the ear closing up. I always have ringing in both ears, but the ring that accompanies this is louder and a different pitch than my constant whine. I can pop my ears, but that doesn’t help it.

I suspect that it is related to the potassium:sodium balance in the inner ear, because there is no apparent external cause. I have had days where it happened several times on just one side, too. As long as it goes away within a few seconds and there is no dizziness with it, it is normal. I will be attending a big tinnitus seminar at the convention this spring. I am as hopeful as anyone that they’re making advances.

You are gradually losing your hearing in one ear. this was my early warning stages of ear deafness. i now wear a hearing aid in each ear. sorry to tell you this, but you and i are not alone. there are many more people about to join us, because of loud music and boom boxes. also, this can be hereditary. i lost most of my hearing in a gunfight back in 1966, attempting to arrest a prison escapee in a raging 32 minute gunbattle. the good guy won.

@hearkat Thanks for the info.

I’ve commonly experienced this many times myself—maybe once every few months. It’s always a high-pitched pure tone with a flute-like quality typical of a sine wave. I’ve heard (can anyone confirm?) that it represents the death of a single cochlear hair cell. As I understand it, the cochlea produces a kind of fourier transform of the signal (it’s a frequency analyzer) so when a hair cell goes, it represents permanent loss of that particular narrow frequency.

In my experience the pure tone decays, while normal hearing returns, all within seconds. Only once did it last much longer (better part of a day—scared the heck out of me) but still went back to normal. Now that I know it’s very temporary, I enjoy the otherwise pure silence in that ear—minus the low-level tinnitus hiss I’m accustomed to—that accompanies the phenomenon.

@Kardamom @cazzie @hearkat @Brian1946 Excellent answers! I feel much better now! It is especially comforting knowing these things don’t just happen to me. You think they might be universal, but how can you ever know unless you ask?

@hearkat, I sent it to you after posting a mention of your name above, which was apparently judged to be off topic.

Yep, I have had that sensation too, but, infrequently so I have never made mention of it to my doctor.
I have to be feeling really bad to go to the doctor aside from the basic yearly routine exams.
So, I don’t go for random visits. I’ll probably be one of those people that ends up dying 2 weeks after they are diagnosed with something, that’s the plan anyway. hahaha

@Jeruba – OK, Thanks!
I found @augustlan‘s notification after writing this… she had sent it via Facebook.