Hi @Digital Doc and thanks for that. I just feel like "making an effort" is an understatement of what I have been doing these last 12 months. I have completely changed and adjusted my life to tinnitus which includes following all of your advices. I wouldn't touch a vacuum cleaner even if someone held a gun against my head and even the garage door has really been an enemy of me as well. Im very glad you have gotten better, thats great, I hope I can get there too. My biggest fear is that the damage done was to big and therefore so severe tinnitus. I will continue to protect from loud noise and try not to over-protect though and hopeful things will turn around for me soon. How loud would you rate your tinnitus on a scale to 10? How does it sound?
Sleeping with earplugs sounds like a nightmare though? My tinnitus already goes through the roof without earplugs, but I do try to make the room as quiet as possible.
It is a definite challenge to balance protection from noise, while avoiding overprotection. I do use the vacuum, and lawn mower, but only do so with double protection as my T would increase in volume even with foam earplugs that were fully inserted.
At times my T was a 7 to 8, but these days it goes from a 0.5 to 2. It never really goes fully away, but I figure a little T left is a good reminder to keep the protection up.
I would not have guessed that T would be helped by foam earplugs at night, and may not be the right move for everyone else. I came upon it with the goal of "acoustic rest" as sleeping with an electric heater going all night, with a measured db's in the low 60's consistently made it easier to fall asleep (although I could hear my T louder than it), but I would wake up with the T worse. When I tried going in the other direction as a personal experiment, my T was consistently better when I woke up, and even better than after just a decent night of sleep. I also found that I did not get woken up from passing cars as the H clicked in. Each of us needs to decide for sleeping to mask, nothing, or earplugs, and I only figured this out for me by trial and error (I have degrees in science and have done research so was willing to try this sort of thing with an open mind).
I do not have H currently. My T is a single tone, and the volume does vary day to day, without obvious reason.
I hope your T improves, and hope what I have figured out can help you.