[lavieenrose]

I've been working up the nerve to write about this. This is the strangest experience of my life. About 3-4 years ago, I thought that I was hearing a neighbor's radio or an outdoor concert nearby. The sound was very faint. I realized that the music was repeating at times, as though a record (remember those?) had a scratch.

Then, some time after, the experience of hearing music in my head began full throttle. It was across all genres of music (Broadway shows, rock from the 50's - 70's, country, spirituals, etc., very realistic, some from childhood and later, faithfully reproduced. It can really sound like Grace Slick, Neil Young, Moody Blues, etc. Some was unrecognizable, unfamiliar. I heard instrumental pieces, choral with male and female voices, complex and sometimes beautiful harmonies and arrangements. I could hear the original artists' voices, sometimes my or my mother's singing voice, my grandfather or someone singing in Hebrew, 1950's and 60's children's music, t.v. show themes and jingles from early childhood. It eventually faded away, but then after weeks or months, it would return. It will play in my head all day long when it's occurring, usually the same tune for hours.

I can substitute another tune by thinking about it, but I can't stop it, until it finally disappears again on its own. I've also influenced the melody by playing an "air piano keyboard". Sometimes, if I listen to actual music, after it stops, I'll hear it accurately reproduced in my head. I was stunned when I first experienced that. It's incredible that the brain is capable of all this. It's as though some unconscious and autonomous part of the brain has stored a wealth of music of a lifetime. Old-time Christian hymns sung by a congregation, accompanied by a pump organ (??). It must have been on a movie sound track. Gregorian chant-type singing. It's often in minor chords, slow, and melancholy, sung by a male choir. Tunes will also morph into others with similar musical phrases. It's like a photographic memory but for sound. It's always faint, as though from several rooms away, but also clearly coming from within my head.

Research indicates that people who have some hearing loss, and not enough auditory stimulation in their environment experience this "I-pod in the head" or "Musical Ear Syndrome", as it's been called. It's been associated with OCD. EEG's and MRI's have been normal. It's been fascinating at times, incredibly bizarre (I've had two Hank Williams tunes playing at once), and frequently really annoying. It started up again almost 2 weeks ago, and I'm trying to wait it out. I'm getting really really sick of Danny Boy and Amazing Grace.

So, does anybody else have this experience?? I have read about it online, and read posts from people with similar experiences. even Oliver Sachs, neurologist and author, has this phenomenon and wrote about it in Musicophilia, one of his recent books about music and the brain. Apparently, the brain is hard-wired for music, and wants to create patterns from random environmental sounds like motors and running water. Interesting stuff, but more interesting if it were happening to someone else.

[alias123]

I have this. For me it's like when I'm reading text and I can "hear" what I am reading, or like hearing the sound of my own thoughts. I wouldn't call it a hearing experience, but a somehow different audible thought. And often times it is happening outside of my awareness and when I get a moment to myself, I'll notice a song looping as if it had been for a while without my noticing. I have music playing in my head all of the time. I can trigger it to happen by thinking about a song, or a song can spontaneously take root, or I can replay something I just heard. As a kid this used to happen with things people said. I could "replay" conversations, or sometimes they would replay spontaneously. That doesn't happen much anymore, but it does with music. I always thought it was normal and that this is what the phrase "having a song stuck in your head" refers to.

The air piano keyboard is a neat trick, though. Never done that. hehe.

[lavieenrose]

Thanks for your comments, Alias. What I hear goes a step beyond what I've always called "having a song stuck in my head", because rather than the music still being thought-like, it's actually sounding like a recording.

[Umbral_Seraph]

I've had the same thing for as long as I can remember, long enough that I can automatically tune it out. What's funny though, is sometimes I will hear music playing in my dream and when I wake up the music is still playing (and often remains there for a large part of the day). In my case it's partly related to my GAD; anxiety makes my mind loop and keep replaying things as an automatic self-soothing thing, and finding a good medication for me helped. I think it is partly hallucanatory; when I was taking seroquel the "music in my head" really slowed down and got quiet and wasn't carrying over between my dreams and waking life. Now that I'm not on seroquel it's picked back up...

[Perna]

Sounds like non-psychiatric auditory hallucinations to me. I've only had the psychiatric kind and the usual stuck songs :-) and dreams with ringing telephones that woke me. I'd hate the 50's radio shows with ads, etc.! http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/articles/mes.htm I am hard of hearing, maybe I'll get more. I tend to smell things that aren't there though. I hope that doesn't get worse as it's usually not good stuff (and, hopefully, med related).

[lavieenrose]

Thanks Umbral and Perna. I also think it's anxiety-related, and not a psychotic-type hallucination. It's still very annoying, and at times, impossible to ignore. I try to meditate and need silence for that. I just started gabapentin for it, an anti-seizure medication. I'll see if that does anything. On one occasion, a stronger than usual dose of xanax knocked it out for a while. I don't like to take tranquilizers any more than necessary.

[SlatkaMala]

Yes! I've had those. It's kind of like hearing a radio turned down really low where you can't quite make out the words. I wonder what causes that.

[wing]

I'm embarrassed to admit I have the same thing going on. It doesn't bother me. I kind of like having "white noise".
If it becomes too random, I deal with it by turning actual music on, and when I turn it off, the endless loop sticks on the music I've been listening to.
I don't think it is psychosis, I'm on a high dose of antipsychotic. I think it is the ultra-sensitive connections in our brains simply recalling info faster than our conscious minds can control it.

[Yoda]

I have heard a flute playing a melodic tune.

[lavieenrose]

Thanks Slatka Mala, WinginIt and Yoda, A lot of others have described it also like a radio turned way down low. Some people have heard what sounds like a DJ. It does seem like an unconscious part of the brain breaking into conscious perception. It is so "sticky", as you said, Wing, looping any real music endlessly.

[Umbral_Seraph]

Sometimes the brain just takes off racing and there's no stopping it.