Does Your Tinnitus "Move" When You Are Sleeping?

[illegalmonkey77]

This has been happening just about every night for the past month at least. My tinnitus is in my right ear but when I go to sleep it seems to "move" through my head, and it'll even move to my left ear completely making my right ear seem fine. Normally when I get outta bed, after a min or two everything is back to normal.

I mainly sleep on my back but will also sleep on my left side, but usually only for a couple hours at most. This is when it seems to mainly happen and it just seems really weird that it even does that.

Is this normal?
Does anyone else have this happen?
What do you think it says about my tinnitus?

 

[Rainbowsheep]

The same thing sort of happens to me. At daytime it is only in my right ear, but when I go to sleep it moves to my left ear as well and whenever I wake up it goes back to the right ear. I can't hear a thing in the left even when I plug my ears during daytime. It is very strange.

 

[Makrohn]

This has also been happening to me lately. I can have it mostly in my right ear trough the day, and then through the night it shifts over to the "middle" or more to the left ear. Strange, and I cant figure out what causes it.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@Makrohn @Rainbowsheep @illegalmonkey77

I have this shifting too. I have only been able to pick of pieces about nighttime shifting from different research articles. I don't think it's something to be scared about as it's probably just a somatic element. 70 -80 percent have at least some somatic physical tinnitus.

The physical pathology of this could be one or more of many things. One cause could be tendons/muscles, nerves or nerve supply around the ear drums and bones which will could include the temporalis muscle in neck, shoulder and upper back region. Applying pressure to one shoulder when laying down. Not having support under neck.

Sometimes with a pair of neck muscles, one may become off balance when laying down on one side. I read that some with TMJ experience shifting when there's a connection to the C1 vertebrae. Some on hyperacusis boards mention shifting, but I have no idea why.

 

[Cheza]

Only occasionally will my tinnitus be heard in my right ear, but never my left. I shift positions while sleeping, and really don't have a preference for right or left side.

My T shifts around in my head. Sometimes it's at the back of my head. Sometimes it seems to be right behind my eyes, which is when it bothers me the most. Sometimes it fills my entire head, and that's also quite annoying, but doesn't happen that often anymore. Sometimes it's at the lower back of my head.

Mostly my tinnitus seems to prefer hanging out in the upper right quadrant of my head. Perhaps I should study the lobes of the brain a bit and see if there's a possible explanation for it. Scientists do know now that tinnitus correlates exist within a large portion of the brain, as explained in the article Tinnitus Mapped Inside Human Brain.