Auditory hallucinations caused by noise

[Lunt]

Yesterday, I was learning fitter work with thirty-two other students in a classroom of about 120 square meters. There were lots of sounds, hammers, files, hacksaws.

After about two hours, I felt very uncomfortable, not only because of the loud noise, but also because I had auditory hallucinations. I heard the sound of audible calculator numbers, like someone was pressing a calculator over and over again, and I heard something like: 5565786234965...random numbers. I felt bad and wanted to leave, feeling dizzy and groggy, but I was in class so I tried to ignore the sounds and kept doing my job. Thank God, the teacher organized us for the next step of explanation after about ten minutes, and I was able to take a break while he was explaining.

I think this is an auditory hallucination because I twice tried to get close to the sounds and listen carefully, but upon getting closer they disappeared.

I guess I heard the calculator sound because I heard it a lot as a child because my parents used calculators in their jobs at the time and I was often around their workplace.

This is my first time experiencing this and just wondering if this is normal? Or is this not part of the normal range of sensory issues?

 

[kenaij]

I don`t exactly experience the same. Usually in loud places I think I hear my children calling me, or sometimes I think they are crying. Even if they are not around. Or I hear my name when no one is actually calling me.
The crying children thing also happens if my wife and I are watching a movie which has loud music.
Whether or not that is part of being a father or it is part of autism I don`t know. My wife does not have it.

But I think it is a quite logical response of the brain to try and make sense of sound. And with that much sound around for it to pick something that is very familiar. You getting closer to the sound would let your brain figure out it might not be that actual sound and thus it dissapears. For it to reappear again when the sound gets in the background.

 

[Slime_Punk]

It's pretty normal to hear repeating sounds in white noise, and I think this has something to do with the random values that exist within audible noise and audio pareidolia.

So, nothing to worry about probably.

 

[kenaij]

Now if you do find out you happen to have some kind of superpower do let us know. Because that would be really cool.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

There is a Wiki page on "Auditory Hallucination" that may or may not be helpful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_hallucination

Having said that, as a child of 3-6 years of age, I would experience things like: Hearing bacon crackle in a pan, but realizing nobody was in the kitchen. People talking in my bedroom when nobody was there. My grandmother had a painting of a clown hanging at the top of the stairs, and one morning I watched that clown walk up the stairs and into another bedroom. When I peaked into the bedroom, nobody was there. These sorts of things scared me as a child, so I remember them vividly, but upon doing some research, my best conclusion was that it was a temporal lobe phenomenon.

 

[Judge]

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/auditory-hallucinations

 

[Rodafina]

It's pretty normal to hear repeating sounds in white noise, and I think this has something to do with the random values that exist within audible noise and audio pareidolia.

View attachment 119288

So, nothing to worry about probably.

I agree.

With the way you described all the noise and sensory stimuli, @Lunt, it’s as if your brain was just trying to organize the chaos.

If I were you, I would start documenting exactly what happens and the types of environments in which it happens. I think it would be more cause for concern if this was happening at all different times, including very quiet times.

 

[Judge]

I occasionally think I'm hearing unintelligible human voices when hearing the drone of certain undulating, repetitive sounds, such as my furnace or air conditioning. I don't give it much thought as I know it's a benign auditory hallucination.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I used to worry that I was losing my mind because late at night after going to bed I'd hear the faint twittering of birds, even when it was quiet and I knew I was only hearing them in my ears. It got especially bad soon after the Covid pandemic.

 

[Neat Hedgehog]

I am fairly prone to some auditory hallucinations in general, and I also have "exploding head syndrome" now and then when going to sleep.

I usually hear things like chickens, cats, random squeaking sounds, or whispering when the furnace is running in the house, or when I'm riding in a noisy car, or when exposed to other similarly droning sounds. Sometimes air whooshing noises, from planes, passing cars, or fans, suddenly sound like fire and will scare me momentarily, but that one kinda makes sense because I was in a burning building once.

Then when I go to sleep, sometimes I'll hear explosions, people shouting, or dogs barking. Rarely I'll hear quieter "talking" sounds. I actually don't mind the super loud noises as much, because they are obviously not real as I can tell there is no dog in my bedroom. The quiet talking sounds, like people outside the house or in the next room, are harder to disprove. I leave the light on in the kitchen specifically so if anyone were actually standing in the next room they would cast a shadow on the wall.

It usually is pretty manageable. If I stay up over 18-20hrs it quickly starts getting more noticeable and harder to ignore the longer I stay awake.

 

[Human Avatar]

I have auditory hallucinations all the time as well . Especially when I am stressed and tired .

 

[Fino]

I have experienced various auditory hallucinations all my life. When I describe them to doctors, they don't seem particularly alarmed and don't medicate me. They did do some tests when I was younger because of it but not much came of that. All of which is to say that it's not necessarily always a cause for concern to hallucinate.

 

[Lunt]

If I were you, I would start documenting exactly what happens and the types of environments in which it happens. I think it would be more cause for concern if this was happening at all different times, including very quiet times.

I think it's a good idea and I'll try it. And I find that recording and analyzing it in detail makes me feel safe and less panicked anyway. Thanks for your advise.

 

[Lunt]

I have auditory hallucinations all the time as well . Especially when I am stressed and tired .

Yes, something similar happens to me when I'm tired, I hear someone calling my name or talking to me, or I feel like my mind goes blank and my responses to others are very frozen.