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The I-pod Brain: Musical Hallucinations
Imagine a world in which you had a song playing non-stop in your head and there was no way to stop it. Your brain was constantly in listening mode and the music in your head was always on full volume. This is what it would be like to suffer from music hallucinations. It is normal to hear an occasional song in your head, but generally it eventually goes away because the brain is bombarded with numerous other signals and stimuli that we are able to focus on instead. Music hallucinations occur when a set of neurons in the brain begin to misfire and patients feel as though they are always hearing music, even though in reality there is nothing playing. There is no other symptom of music hallucination and studies have shown that music hallucination tends to be the only psychosis problem in patients, the main concern being that these hallucinations are very annoying.
One study by Dr. Victor Aziz of St. Cadoc’s Hospital in Wales who studied musical hallucinations in 30 patients show that this psychosis generally occurs in elderly patients- at around 73 years old, 88% of whom are women, and 77% who live alone. [1] Many patients also tend to have some type of hearing impairment. Lesions to the dorsal pons caused by strokes or other sources of brain damage are one way in which these hallucinations can be triggered.[2] What is particularly interesting however is that musical hallucinations don’t activate the primary auditory cortex. According to Dr. Griffiths, a neurologist from the University of Newcastle upon Tyme who works extensively researching music hallucinations, his patients actually used the part of the brain that turns simple sounds into complex music.[3] Researchers believe that these hallucinations may be triggered by a disruption in communication pathways between the sensory centers in the neocortex of the brain and the reticular formation. The disruption may cause musical hallucinations by limiting the function of neurons that stop the brain from hallucinating.[4] PET scans have shown that when patients suffer from musical hallucinations, the areas of the brain that are activated are almost exactly the same areas as those of a person listening to music.[5] The brain is actually stimulating itself in order to hear music from sounds that are stored in the patient’s memory. All the songs that people with music hallucinations hear in their head are songs that they have heard before in their lifetime.
It is believed that the main cause for these musical hallucinations is from the brain not receiving enough sound stimulation. The music processing area of the brain is continuously looking for signals in the brain that they can interpret but if the patient lives alone, or is suffering from hearing impairment; there is no sound to be heard. This seems similar to the mismatch between the sensory and corollary discharge. The brain is anticipating one sort of stimulation and is actually, in this case, not receiving any.
It is particularly interesting that the brain appears to be stimulated in the same areas when hallucinating sound as when actually listening to music. Some patients were able to identify exactly who the singer of the song in their head was as well as they key the music was in.[6] If it is possible to have such an accurate replay of music in our head, and considering our current society is constantly flooded with music, from the grocery store to I-pods, is it possible that we may one day stop being able to distinguish between this music in our head and the music playing around us?
It seems as though as research develops, the distinction between what is a product of our brain and what we are actually experiencing becomes more muffled. Not only with the auditory cortex, but the visual cortex also presents this insight. If what we see and the picture visualized in our head are mainly processed through our visual cortex, then when there is damage to the visual cortex and there is resulting blindsight, anything perceived is purely an internal process. Perhaps similarly, when neurons that transfer sound are damaged, the brain still has a desire to hear sound which can result in these musical hallucinations. The brain does what it can to maintain its senses, even after there has been damage.
There does not appear to be any full proof cures for musical hallucination and it seems as though perhaps these rare hallucinations may begin to occur more frequently. Treatments have ranged from medication to patients simply listening to the radio or moving to nursing homes so that elderly patients receive some sort of cortical stimulation by talking with others.[7] The catch seems to be that since people are becoming more and more dependent on continuously playing music- many people don’t even walk down the street without having headphones on and music playing- perhaps our brains will begin to adjust so that we are never in complete silence. Hopefully the music is good.
[1] Hymns and arias: musical hallucinations in older people in Wales
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
Volume 20, Issue 7, Date: July 2005, Pages: 658-660
Nick Warner, Victor Aziz
[2] Rare Hallucination Make Music in the Mind. American Academy of Neurology, August 9th, 2000. Accessed from Science Daily, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/08/000809065249.htm 4/17/07
[3]Zimmer, Carl. Neuron Networks Go Awry and Brain Becomes an Ipod. New York Times, July 12 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/health/psychology/12musi.html?ex=1278820800&en=6ad31758c7334d06&ei=5090&partner=rss. 4/17/07
[4] Rare Hallucination Make Music in the Mind. American Academy of Neurology, August 9th, 2000. Accessed from Science Daily, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/08/000809065249.htm 4/17/07
[5] Brain Tortures Humans With Music Hallucination, Pravda, Feb. 13th 2006, http://english.pravda.ru/science/health/13-02-2006/75866-music-0 4/17/07
[6] Hymns and arias: musical hallucinations in older people in Wales
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
Volume 20, Issue 7, Date: July 2005, Pages: 658-660
Nick Warner, Victor Aziz
[7] ibid
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Comments
constant music in my head,perfect but crazy i-pod
I have been on this path for ages now and i am just 24yrs old. The music changes from one to the next and sometimes some tracks would be on replay for a while. They are all usualy songs i have heared before. Also when i am asleep i hear conversations so loud in my head. I also observed that i have the ability to know things before they happen or as they are happening i sence them and later the news wolud conferm them.I am in need of scientists to study my case. My phone number is . I wish to understand why this happens to me. I hope i am not going crazy.
Music in my head
From the look of things this is not some rare thing. I do not know if doctors would call it a disease. At times I love the songs I hear, and at times, as someone said above, it keeps me from actually hearing what others say. Some seems to be caused by medication, while other times it seems to be just normal to some of us. I wonder if there is any medical research or interest in that? I would love to know why, even if I do not necessarily want it to stop. At my age I can't imagine a day without my music. I just wish at times i could write down the songs I hear because they can be original, and perhaps they would sell! Cheers!
bell tones and other music
I also occasionally hear bell tones or notes that go up a third, completing one octave, sung in male voices. I hear all sorts of genres, often slow-paced, male choruses, female, both together with overlapping parts, harmonies, instrumental, and sometimes original or unknown melodies. I've written some down. The phenomenon comes and goes. It drifts in for up to a month, then stops, but it always returns. Sometimes, it sounds like Christian hymns. I'm Jewish. Maybe it came from movie scenes (??). When real music, that I'm listening to stops, I'll hear it continue in my head sounding like the original. I've had neurological testing, which showed normal results. It's very bizarre. When it first began about 5 years ago, it was incredibly varied and creative. I heard a lot from early childhood, albums my parents owned, children's songs, tv jingles, even my grandfather's voice singing a Passover prayer. (I was four when he died). I wish I knew what causes this, electrical impulses run amok, I guess.
music just comes often in my head
I love music. Since i was around 3 y/o i always hear music while im playing my toys. From then on, i became so interested about music, i often sing with whatever is played on the radio. At the age of 4, they said i love singing and later on, i play piano but not for long. Music, became my friend, my comfort, since i am aloner. Even to where i was staying when i was working in other country, the music became my refuge. It makes me feel good, patient and always bring peace to my inner self. And because too much music in my head, it becomes a problem sometimes, it bothers me especially when i need to focus on things, like i loose my track to what i should actually be doing ... and talking to some people that i let them repeat what they just said.....
My case is different
I make music im a producer and audio engineer Once about 7 years ago I made a melodic instrumental and while I was mixing the sound I heard a note from an instrument I know I didnt use it was one note that lasted 2 bars within a 32 bar sequence it was very beautiful. I tried to locate it by turning off one track at a time until I turned off the last track ( no music out of the speakers ) I heard the note again in the one spot it has been playing. I then unplugged everything and thought each sound thru in my head and at the excact spot where the note started I heard it again clearly by its self It happened only once in my life. I can say I was very relaxed at the time and really into the track I was making. Any thoughts on this please let me know. Im sure I can make it happen again at will
Music in my head
Sometimes I believe that certain musical tones have a mind resonance all their own. They trigger an emotion inside us. I will hear a barbershop quartet singing and they at times make what is called a bell tone - multiple harmonics from only four voices. I have heard up to sixteen harmonics at times. And depending upon the key in which these occur, they can trigger happiness, sadness, serenity, anger, and many other emotions. I know of a few other people who also have this experience. Some harmonics even mimic voices speaking a word or words.
Barbershop quartets are considered to be really good if they can create this bell tone effect. And like other sounds and noises, they can have some effect upon the listener. Does anyone else in this forum ever notice this?
Musical Problem
hi, i am an indian..if i go back to the root cause of problem..when i was in college i used to stay alone and listen music a lot..then i found that i has some tumor..i got operated and went ahead in life...but somehow found that i can hear music without musicplayer on..i enjoyed in the begining but later get bored by such experience.. then i ve got bells palsy and suffered with tinnitus...which was very loud ..but gradually it decreased...now only when i get cold..i hear it...
One important point to tell you that when i get depressed, confused, lonly, then these songs start coming more and when i do meditation or do some spritual activities i feels a lot better and songs can be stop by 80-90%. now by reading at this blog i think i will
do more meditation....and get rid of this problem...
Usually this problem starts in morning when i wake up...till i take a shower it persist but when i drive my car it disappear for the whole day and comes back when i reach back home and sits ideal..
We should control over emotions and try to live well....
hearing music
I read recently that there is a thing called Musical Ear Syndrome. It it something caused by hearing loss and most common in women, and those who live alone, due to lack of auditory stimulation. You can google it and it will give you alot of infor
musical hallucinations
SO GLAD to hear (no pun intended, but lol!!) that I'm not alone in this, and yet sad for my fellow sufferers!!! I have had this problem over a year, CONSTANT: waking, sleeping, inside, outside, --WHEREVER--WHENEVER--one of three instrumental arrangements (lightly orchestral,( even some intricate Peruvian flute riffs!!( with harmonies, overlapping patterns, tempos varied according to tempos in my environment, volume rising to compete with outside sounds, BUT CONSTANT!!!! None of the Kaiser doctors, or other physicians I've been seen by admit they know either anything about it, OR anyone else who had or has it!! They ask if I ever hear voices, or have tinnitus, but I've never had either. As my mother before me, I am losing clarity in my hearing, but mine, I think, may have something to do with a VERY LOUD home environment!! my loss is in the low tones, right where my husband's rich, deep voice is! (at first, he said,"Oh, you just don't WANT to hear what I'm saying!! lol ) I quipped, "Mostly!!"lol ) But, hearing tests confirmed I did have loss, but because the "music" gets louder with ambient sound, hearing aids (at $5000.00 each ear!!!) don't help much, the music volume raises to try to drown out the conversations I so value!!!!
depression and sounds
Hi,i am glad to see this site. I am 34 yr old male and have suffered from this problem of heaing heavy metal in my head.It went away for a while few yrs bout 2 weeks ago started back i used to listen to very dark metal and industrial God i need help.Taking celexa 40 mg but its giving me the shakes.Profuse sweating too.I used to take it but now i am sick and not sleepn.I am very depressed.Help anyone for advice.I hope i am not schizophrenic.
Sounds
Jeff,
I know your posting was last year, but wondering if you have had any progress with this. I too have had dpression, OCD, and now this stupid music as I am trying to fall asleep. Somewhere I read, they called it "Hypersomnia"...where your brain starts dreaming before you fall asleep. (I like that idea - better than being crazy). Please drop me aline if you have time. It is nice to know we are not alone on this thing.
Take care!
Brandon
musical hallucination s
Hi, I can understand how you feel as I have had this condition non-stop for over four years now. The noises in my head are nonsensical words to musical tones. For example, at the moment is is:' te low ta lat,te low ta lat'. At some point the nonsensical words will change something different but equally bizarre. The volume increases the more tense I am when I am around a lot of electricity for example in gyms with their running machines and other equipment, or in shopping centres, especially those with lots of stores selling computers iPods et cetera. The only medication that I have found helpful is temazepam as it reduces the volume. I assume that this is because it is a muscle relaxants and and relaxes all the muscles, including those around the neck and head. I believe that musical hallucinations have both physical and psychological causes. I believe that, in my case, the physical cause is a spinal subluxation (crooked spine)which causes the neck muscles to tighten, bringing pressure to neck and head. The psychological element is that I seem to use the noises to distract myself from pain (I have a chronic pain condition – fibromyalgia), and to avoid uncomfortable emotions such as embarrassment. The noises are so bad that I cannot work, I find it difficult to read, a short-term memory is non-existent sometimes. I keep losing things, and putting things in strange places such as the phone in the freezer. Sometimes I feel that I'm going mad or i get so I get so angry and central nervous system seems so ennnervated that I have to scream, kick walls or anything else that is close by. You are not schizophrenic.
Your article about MES symptoms
I, too, have had this condition for over toe years. I spent a week in the hospital with horrendous sounds & untrollable body movements. Like you, I hear nonsensical sounds - like hums, whirling sounds which are insinc with my heartbeat. I awaken every morning to the same sounds like at rain coming down the track. It rapidly picks up speed &sound. Would love to talk with you!
Music in My Head
In November of 2006 I was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy (facial paralysis). Woke up with it one morning, no accident, injury or illness, but I'd been under an enormous amount of stress in the two years leading up to it, and a whopper load the few months before it.
They never got to bottom of exactly what caused it, it went on for about six weeks, was on the left side of my face, and within time cleared up completely. In the beginning, I was put on a short dose of Predinsone to help get the nerve canal inflammation down. Five days, then off. Within 24 hours of coming off the Pred, the BP paralysis was 100% worse than it had ORIGINALLY been, and became quite painful (which it usually ISN'T at all). They then put me on a longer, more intensive dosage of Pred - I believe it was two weeks, with the latter part the "weaning off of it" phase. I might have been on it three weeks total from beginning to end that last round.
While on the high dose of Pred, I got NO SLEEP, I was full of energy and felt great (and boy was my apt. clean and organized!), for all that lack of sleep, I was not even tired. But being up all night was bad. In the weeks and months afterwards, I continued to have great trouble sleeping through the night, and realized this was partly due to hearing music in my head...the same song would play in a loop over and over and over in my head. I had one night in the beginning, where every time I woke up and went back to sleep and went into a new dream, I was saying to everyone IN THE DREAM, "Can you hear that song? It's playing in every dream I have and I CAN'T MAKE IT STOP!"
This has now been going on for almost four years - NON STOP. I'm writing this in Aug. of 2010. I am a healthy 44 year old woman, never been on any psychiatric meds of any type, take no regular medications for any health problems. But for almost four years now EVERY DAY ALL DAY LONG, I've got a song running in a loop through my head, non-stop. It's always a song I know, most often one I've heard that day, usually one I like (sometimes I get stuck with something God Awful like Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus), but it's damned annoying. It's like "having a song stuck in your head", only ALLLLLL THE TIME. It's worst at night, my friends will now ask me, "What song was it LAST night?", and it seems to change on a daily basis, but rarely more than one time a day. So I hear the same damn song over and over and over, whatever it is my brain has picked for that day. It's always "background" music as I go about my day, and I tend not to notice it when I am busy (now, anyway), but quiet times like reading, doing crossword puzzles, trying to mediate or SLEEP, it's very much present and very distracting. I love music, but this is ridiculous.
The only way it stops when I sleep is if I fall asleep with the t.v. on so that there is THAT background noise. It's almost as if my brain is saying to me, 'If you don't give me something to listen to, I'll entertain myself"...but sleeping with the t.v. on all night is even more exhausting!!! And then I'd have bad dreams and wake up feeling icky because of whatever content I was absorbing while asleep...AAAAUUUUGGGHHH!
I'm SO GLAD to have found this info and these postings and now know that I am no where near as nuts as I thought, and the more I read the more convinced I am that my hunch all along that it was directly related to taking the Prednisone is correct. For a while I was thinking it was a behavioral problem that needed therapy, but now I really believe there's some wacky chemical thing going on and some brain function has gone a little hay-wire. It's VERY frustrating.
I'm going to go see a holistic doctor who practices Integrative Medicine to talk about doing a series of cleanses/detoxes including a heavy metal detox to see if I can get residual chemicals/meds (ie: leftover Pred.) totally out of my system to see if that helps. If I get any results or learn anything beneficial, I will come back and post. If anyone has any helpful info, please email me at curranspets@aol.com
Hello May I sugest you learn
Hello
May I sugest you learn the basics of a musical instrument like the piano, violin recorder, flute - you may find you have a 'good ear ' for tunes and by playing the melodies of the songs in your head you'll shift 'em out. It helps me sometimes when I get stuck on a tune
i had one case of delusion
i had one case of delusion post which doc gave me medicines related to schizophrenia. iam on medicines since then. i hear musical hallucinations all the time is there a solution pls help.
Music in my ears
I am now in my early 50's and I used to hear music in my right ear which is hearing impaired -not totally. It only came in flashes and lasted for a few seconds or minutes, it was like having a ear phone in your ears or picking up radio waves the music was crystal clear and could could hear ever instrument etc. I loved it yes but did nt talk about it to anyone obviously for fear they would think I am mad
constant
I am 31 and constantly have music playing in my head. It only stops when I am listening to music or playing music. I learned to play piano by ear at age 6. Then learned guitar, bass, and drums. The music isnt annoying. It is ALWAYS music only, no voices. More than half the time it is something I've never heard or something I have written in the past. It is where all of my writing comes from. Some of the patterns or chord progressions have shapes but not all of them. No colors. Also, when i hear a washing machine on spin cycle or a turn signal, or any everyday noise....it turns into a beat then is sometimes followed by instrumentation....but only if the external noise continues for a while. The only thing that annoys me is that over time this has made me become bored with typical music. I can't listen to the radio or online stations. It has to be music i have downloaded and is usually only one or 2 songs from a whole album unless it is film music. Yep.
music
You sound just like my son... I have some questions.. please email me.
autumn
Your story sounds like that Autumn movie about that orphan kid. Not to say you are making it up, because without people of that stature go on to become famous for their talent.
I hear ya, I wish you the best of luck, and where can i find your music?
World War 111 in her head?
My mother, who is 86 and hard of hearing, has been hearing religous singing for a couple of months now. It sounds like it is coming from outside her house and she has even tried to go out and find it's source. She's now convinced that the source is the satellite dishes people have on their houses as it only started when 2 of her neighbours had dishes installed. She also hears marching sounds (like troops marching) in the sky, and also hears lots of planes just like during the war. It's all obviously recollected memories coming to the surface, but, she's convinced its real. Her recent memories are not too good, but her old memories are returning.
She lives alone and tends to play a Dominos game on her computer a lot. She is not on the internet (thank goodness) but is convinced the cartoon character she is playing against talks to her and they have conversations. They even have arguments. The character has called her name sometimes.
In the past she has had some serious falls, but never broken anything....maybe there was some brain trauma?
Thanks for all the stories listed here. Now I know she's not alone, and I may be able to deal with it better.
Constant music
In reply to your post two years ago now, my mother who is 82 has been experiencing musical hallucinations for four years now. We have tried several treatments with now success. She feels all alone. Just wondering if your mother is still living and hearing music? If so, would she be interested in talking to my mother about it as sort of support? You can contact me at Thanks, Jan
Omg.
This happens to be every now and then. Mainly when a fan or something is on. I really thought the neighbors were playing the freaking radio...I've honestly never heard about stuff like this... At least I'm not alone.
What musical hallucinations are like for me.
Hi,
I came upon this page while trying to find information about what has been happening to me. This year I began to hear music in my head. I am 44 years old. One of the things that is different in my experience from the above article is most of what I hear/hallucinate musically is not only something I've heard before. I do hear pieces of music I've heard before but that is not the majority of what I experience. I have mostly listened to classical, new age, ethnic/world, and electronica/trance music. What I hear/hallucinate is mostly classical in genre. It varies from a solo instrument to symphonic. I notice it most when I'm near fans, air conditioners, and other motor driven things. I regard it like seeing shapes in clouds. I think it is my mind picking out frequencies and arranging them musically. I don't hear voices normally-I have heard very rarely short words like my name. This has occurred maybe 2-3 times in my life.
Medically I have high blood pressure, tinnitus, and PTSD. I have no other mental aberrations that I am aware of currently. I work in public safety communications.
I am almost never in an environment without sound.
At first this was curious-then annoying-now I have adapted. Initially I couldn't control it but have learned to shift my awareness away from it or play with it. I often find myself while reading (book or computer) becoming aware that it is going on. If I am not paying attention to it-it seems to do its own thing both simple and complex.
It has become more complex. I have noticed my tinnitus has increased significantly the last week or so as has the music. The tinnitus is very loud in my right ear only and nearly absent in my left. It is like a constant ringing static from a tv or radio-white noise.
I am curious as to the changes that are occurring with it and what they might mean. I suspect a connection between the tinnitus and the hallucinations although I have had tinnitus all my life from childhood and never musical hallucinations before. On average I don't find this odd experience to be disturbing or affecting my function. It doesn't wake me up or prevent me from hearing important things in my enviroment.
I thought others might be curious about what this is like and how one person has adapted to it. It is nice to know I am not alone :)
gentle day,
lmb
I know the feeling exactly.
I know the feeling exactly. It started when I used to purposely think of music in my head, as if I had an i-pod - I would simply think of the song I wanted to hear and I would hear it. Imagining songs was great, until it become involuntary and interfered when I wanted to concentrate.
Now, when I'm walking along the street, normal everyday sounds are competing with the noise inside my head. If someone mentions a word connected to a song I know then I automatically hear it. I read about 'loony toons' the other day and the song popped into my head, repeatedly.
My musical hallucinations only cease when I hear music or practice Yoga; concentrating on the sound of breathing drowns them out. It doesn't affect my sleep and if I concentrate hard enough I can do my work, but it is slighly annoying at times!
i have schizophrenia. one
i have schizophrenia. one case of delusion was reported and doc gave me ECT. after that i hear songs in my head. continously.any song that i have heard in my lifetime.any cure . pls help.is it a case of musical hallucinations.
music in da roof
Hello,
thank you for posting your comment.
Did any subsequent antischiz medication help you to get rid of music playing in your head?
I have this problem as well, but I was not diagnosed schizophrenia, yet I think I might have one. However I do have Attention Deficit Disorder, besides attention my memory is junk as well.
I actually wanted to try on of the antischiz med, called risperidon and see how it works against music playing in my head. it is very annoying.
I would like to know your experience.
I am really worried that one day all that music in my roof will turn into the auditory halucinations, that schizophrenia is known for.
any treatment you are taking
any treatment you are taking for this disease (musical hallucinations in head)...........guide me
Music
My mother suffers from Alzheimers and is taking amenda and exelon. When I first took her to see her PCP the PCP questioned her if she heard music playing at night and my mother's response was yes. My mother had not mentioned that to me. After being on both medicines for about 2 weeks my mother complains of hearing religous songs, first she started complaining that it woke her from her sleep early in the morning and now 4 months in she is telling me that the music is playing almost all the time. It it always religous music and I don't know how to help her. I don't want to stop the meds. I'm plan on taking her to the doctor this week. Any other suggestions?
music in my head
I have music in my head and its music that I’ve never heard before. It not all the time but I can pull out parts and change it at will but when I do it sound less loud. I have to try and not focus on it too hard or it well go away. It happens at night most of the time, but it has happened in the day time. Its like nothing I’ve ever heard, it sounds like some new genre that’s like techno but more messy and out of control but yet in a perfect rhythm.
My name is Cody and I’m 16 years old and have symptoms of bipolar and few but some traits of schizophrenia. And I was wondering if this music is because of a mental illness or am I just a musical genius?
The Music in Your Head
Cody, I don't know if you'll see this because it's March 2011 and I am just researching to see if others also hear music in their heads. I am a few years older than you and consider myself "troubled" by life but I refuse to be labelled with anything. Sev. yrs. ago I began hearing these "tunes" and they are NEVER anything like the music we hear in society. It began coming to me At Night, after getting into bed. I sleep on my left side, and It Is Audible in the Left Side of my Head only! At first it sounded like video arcade machine tunes, sometimes it is faint, like you said, you can learn how to hold your mind so it won't go away..... You are OK, I think, don't panic (I know it's two years later). There's more, I think it is a way that our inner selves communicate with us, for one thing. It seems to respond to what I am thinking about or feeling curious about.
WOW, that is exactly how I
WOW, that is exactly how I would describe what I hear, like you stole the words out of my mouth. Did this happen around the time you posted your comment because this started happening around that time for me....I've had some depression, but who hasn't.
Music in my head
I always have a song going in my head. It has always been that way ever since I can remember, I am now 54 yrs. old. It does not bother me in the least, it is cheap entertainment to me. I duplicate EXACTLY every single note and instrument, not much on the lyrics. I can break apart and seperate each instrument and then pick up the istrument and begin playing the song on it - just match it up - it's easy. I have perfect pitch so I can stop the tune on whatever instrument and go to a piano and pick out the note and it is EXACTLY the same as the real thing. I was always able to detect when disk jockeys were speeding up the songs on the radio to get more commercials in. It is as if I have my own IPOD in my head.
Until I was grown, I didn't realize that not everyone had this going on all the time - I thought it was normal.
Anyway, it doesn't bother me, it entertains me and it doesn't bother others so I guess I'm O.K.
musical hallucinations
I am most interested in connecting with others who experience & suffer from musical hallucinations. I am willing to participate in any study that may bring me more understanding,perhaps some relief.
My 'music'began 5 yrs.ago-simple tunes,I was then able to switch to religious prayers when I could NO LONGER TOLERATE, "24 bottles of beer in the wall"
Now the I hear Harry James, sounds of a Carousel,Jazz,or final notes of a concert. I CANT CONTROL THE SELECTION Only out of doors city noise can block out the constant music. I fit the profile- I am an active 70yr old female,I have been wearing hearing aids for 35 yrs.
I truly want to connect with others who can understand, sympathise, and share this disorder.
I stumbled upon this blog
I stumbled upon this blog while trying to find information about this subject for my Mother. She has experienced "songs in her head" for quite a few years. She is 86 years old and her hearing loss began when she was a telephone operator in London during WWII. I feel so sorry for her, having to cope with other ailments and not being able to ever get a decent night's sleep because of the singing. However, she is happy to know she is not crazy (which I knew all along - I don't know a more sane person than her!) I am hoping to find some help for her. I have read the NY Times article, "Neuron Network Goes Awry, and Brain Becomes an Ipod". I will continue to scout around the internet and would like to contact the doctor from St. Cadoc's Hospital in Wales. Please feel free to email me at the above address.
Music In My Head
This musical hallucination began for the first time about 10 days ago. At times it's been entertaining, repeating riffs and improvizations from rhythm and blues music. At other times, it's been alarming even though the volume is low. It's certainly been bizarre, the musical genres vary, beginning with country western waltz tunes, then 50's-60's rock n'roll. Those have dropped away and I'm hearing mostly classical and requium-sounding choral music, sometimes all male, sometimes female voices as well. Once there was a gospel-sounding song by an off-key male voice with female backup. I usually don't recognize the melodies. I don't know what's causing this wierd experience I'm having. I fit the scenario I read about, i.e. living alone without much external auditory stimulation. I also have a creative imagination and am an artist. A doctor said maybe having stopped prozac abruptly caused it. I went back on prozac and it did not stop the music I hear. I hope there's some explanation short of a tumor, lesions or the start of dementia. I also have ADD and menopause was just added to the mix.
Music in my head
All my life the music never stops. I have add somtimes the music takes over. When I was a child I loved Warner Bros cartoons the sound effects have never left me. I also enjoy laten music and I am not at all Laten. It's sort of funny I am always taping drumming and somtimes dancing. I have a good rumba. I must confess I love it!
But it has a price it drives other people crazy. I don't mean to make lite of this its just the way things are.
Adjouse,
Haunted by Carmen Miranda
Music in my head
Ever since I was able to speak I have had tunes playing in my head. Sometimes they are very creative symphonic pieces, other times they are Captain & Tennille's Love Will Keep Us Together, which I awaken to everyday. In fact I have awakened to that song for more than 20 years now.
Sometimes the music is very soothing, but it never really goes away. It's always there, in the background, drowning out conversation around me, distracting me to the point that I often miss important data at meetings. It definitely keeps me from getting a solid night of sleep.
When I walk I wiggle my fingers in time to a song only I can hear, and I often tap on the walls, doors, tables, etc., to a tune that plays over and over and over again.
At first I thought it was just my ADD. But it's more than this. Could it be bipolar? Or am I just going crazy? Well, if it's the crazy route I am following, then it's been more than 50 years in getting to this point. Does it drive me crazy? So, imagine being rather intelligent, some say genius, but not being able to complete anything without such intense focus that your head is splitting from the effort of two or three minutes. After writing this I will get another axe-to-the-cranium headache. Indeed, it's starting even now.
Cheers,
Jeff T.
music in my head...
hi.
yes, this happens to me too. it happens when i'm falling asleep. i'm able to replicate, distort, and create musical symphonies or just your average song into something with a bit more beat. lately, i've been hearing a broadcaster talking, etc late at nite. i don't want to decypher his messsages or even pay close attention since at times i sense they're "messages" if you know what i mean. at times i think i'm going crazy, but in reality i know i'm not since i live a very good meanigful life. i don't have any disorders or take meds but "this" can be annoying. i also have lucid dreams and i'm also very hypersensitive to smells, people, and enviroments. yeah, i complain but i clearly enjoy falling asleep to mozart's 5th symp.
music in my head too
I just turned 45 years old...........I was so shocked to hear people singing 'happy birthday too you...........', in my head!!!! No brain probs here [that I have ever been aware of]. I have heard the 'radio broadcast' too, and many songs that I used to listen too when I was a teen. Now they have changed to celestial or I try to replace hard rock (very annoying when trying to fall asleep) with lulaby's, which works ok, but I get 3 to 4 songs playing at the same time, now that is enough to drive a person insane! When it gets that bad, I turn up some softer music (real music that anyone could hear:) I was embarrassed to tell anyone this, and it didn't happen much until the past 6 months, now it is there every night and sometimes the daytime. I finally mentioned it to a doctor once when he asked me if I had any 'ringing' in my ears, I mentioned that I did and that it sounded like music, then asked him if he had ever heard of that. He was a neurologist and just kinda laughed and said "no, you need an anti-depressant"!! I am so relieved to see that it is actually more common than I thought. Computers are helping shed a lot of light on a lot of issues!
I wonder if all of that extra brain that we 'don't use' does more than we think? Maybe we do have recorders in our brains that have the ability to 'play back' since it is music we have heard through our lives. Or, maybe it's spiritul since getting the celestial type of music that I have never heard before and the surprise 'happy birthday song' being sung over and over and over the day of my birthday.........................strange
non stop music in your head
Is there anything that can be done about this problem, such as medicine, retraining your brain or even possibly shock treatments
training
I'm a 15 yea old male whom pretty much has the same problems as all of you. However, instead of the songs repeating, i can manipulate them, alter them(change what the singer says), and sometimes i even create my own music(even though i can only play one instrument in reality). I have been training my brain to stop the sounds, but i only have silence for a 10 secs. And if any one could tell me why this music starts, then that would be great.
I wonder if this is what
I wonder if this is what Mozart (or other prodigy composers) experienced.
Replying to your comment
I can relate. I had this long ago as well. I also learned to manipulate the music somewhat, so I can stop and start over, change the key and even add new words. I was recently told by my shrink that this was a learned "habit". I disagreed and said I didn't chose to start this. And since I was in my teens I have even created new music, so I don't think I learned to do this by copying songs I heard on the radio.
The odd thing is, he refuses to believe it is anything but a habit, just like most shrinks also believe. I always look for a psychiatrist who understands people with this condition, so if anyone knows of any in the Chicago area, or in an area that could help others on this list, please let us know.
Cheers!
Chef Jeff
Music Hallucinations 24/7
I have been able to control the sound by about 60% by taking clonazepam 1mg. Take 1/2 about 5:00 pm another 1/2 @ 9:00pm.
Hope that helps
Shock treatment?! Shock
I have a history of TIA's
I have a history of TIA's (mini-strokes). I also have bipolar disorder. For the last two months I have been awakened from sleep about 8 times in the early morning hours by the sound of a bell or ringing of some sort. It can be the doorbell, a telephone, a school bell, and so forth. It sounds very real, like it is outside my room. It clearly is a hallucination - but otherwise my bipolar condition is stable. I'm wondering whether I'm having a recurrence of TIA's. Or - could it be seizures? Many researchers now wonder whether bipolar illness is on the spectrum of epilepsy disorders. I've been surfing the Web in order to find stories of other people with musical hallucinations. I don't expect to find an answer here in this particular comment section, but I thought I'd throw in my story for interest's sake.
I was wondering how musical
I was wondering how musical hallucinations might decrease quality of life, and interrupted sleep seems pretty unpleasant.
Best of luck with your health.