Rare phenomenon called ‘the hum’ keeping Brits up at night

Residents of a tiny English village can't sleep at night or concentrate during the day because they have been attacked by a rare phenomenon known as "the hum".

Exactly as the name suggests, "the hum" makes a noise that is similar to a distant idling diesel engine and can be heard between midnight and 4 a.m. It is a low-frequency sound that can shake furniture in Woodland in County Durham, England.

"It vibrates through the house," says resident Marylin Grech to The Telegraph. "Sometimes we'll be in bed and it vibrates right through our bed, like a throbbing."

Grech says she has tried turning off all of the electricity in her house so she knows it's not an appliance. She also says it stops when she puts her fingers in her ears so she knows it's not in her head.

Residents claim that the noise is so loud it keeps them up at night and according to Grech, "it leaves a buzzing in your head for the rest of the day."

The humming started about two months ago and residents have been unable to find the source, similar to when a battery dies in just one smoke detector in the house.

This is not the first time the hum has terrorized a community. About 1,000 people in Bristol, England complained about hearing the sound in the late 1970s. It caused nosebleeds as well as sleeplessness and headaches and disappeared as mysteriously as it arrived. Taos, New Mexico was hit in the 1990s and the phenomenon was featured on the popular TV show The X-Files.

While some conspiracy theories blame the hum on UFOs, government experiments and abandoned mine shafts, the cause of a case in the U.S. was believed to be fans at an auto plant or an air compressor intake.

As for the people of Woodland, they have called in the council to investigate.

(Image of United Kingdom screen capture from Yahoo! Maps. A points to Woodland.)