Does Anyone Experience 'Spikes' in Their Tinnitus?

[JustMakingIT]

My tinnitus has gotten worse overtime—fan no longer blocks it out. It gets really bad sometimes, blatant spikes for a while, a day, a week, months, then it goes back to where my brain had first habituated to it. I play with different forms of white noise (brown, pink, etc). This helps me sleep and ignore the blasted zinging. Or I just take melatonin that knocks me out. I don't normally have insomnia issues anymore, I've accepted it, but I hate the spikes—sometimes they up my anxiety, but I'm on a benzo (not for my tinnitus, but for anxiety—not caused by my tinnitus, but sometimes worsened by it), so I'm usually mellowed out anyways.

I've just wondered if others experience this, where it goes from like a 4/10 to like an 6 or 7/10 (or hopefully not worse).

Also, since I usually use pink noise to sleep at night, and play it all night, can it hurt the ears? Hopefully not a silly question—I just don't know if the constant use of white noise can irritate it, or worsen it. My tinnitus is blatant and high pitched—like a needle to my eardrum! Sometimes it's like my tinnitus actually 'hurts'.

 

[bSiDeQuiEtWaTeRS]

Oh the days where a fan (a puny fan too, for me) used to cover up the tinnitus. I don't really seem to experience "spikes", when it gets worse for me it stays that way permanently...so maybe it's just the T getting worse from further noise in my case.

I feel that if the pink noise (or any masking noise) doesn't sound loud to you when you are awake then it won't damage your hearing further. As long as your ear(s) don't somehow travel much closer to the sound source while you're sleeping (however that could even happen).

 

[Bill Bauer]

Also, since I usually use pink noise to sleep at night, and play it all night, can it hurt the ears?

It shouldn't hurt your ears. Have you tried playing nature sounds (e.g., crickets)?

 

[JohnAdams]

Uh yeah. Sometimes mine is mostly gone other times its like EEEEEEEEE.

 

[Highlands]

I usually have two nice quiet days and the third day is a spike. My tinnitus has been following this pattern now for about 5 months. Nothing with diet or activity could be causing this one day spike. It's so loud and difficult to ignore.

I got hearing aids in April and I have no problem using the tinnitus program (white noise), I also use a sound therapy at night. I don't understand this pattern I'm in. I'm extremely thankful for the 2 quiet days but then the spike day seems unbearable and difficult to cope. I'm trying my best to cope and to have patience. But this one day spike is hard to live with. What else can I do? TIA