First Tinnitus, Now a Hum

[Daniel1981]

Hello all,
I've had Tinnitus for several years now and I've learnt to adapt to it. I believe it was self-inflicted after years of night clubs and loud music.

Recently I have started to hear a very low humming noise, but only at night. I assume this is because there is no background noise of day-to-day life to drown it out.
The best way I can describe it is it sounds like a diesel car is parked far away. When I first started to get it I thought it was the central heating, an oven fan or toilet fan was left on, the fringe freezer on its way out, or even the noise was coming from next door. But after thoroughly investigating none of the fore-mentioned where causing the noise.

My asked my other half if she could hear it and she can't and now I honestly think I am going insane! Ear plugs don't stop the noise so I can only put it down to another symptom linked to Tinnitus.

I have only just managed to seem to control and stop it causing me insomnia by using breathing techniques, almost like meditating to fall asleep, but it will always wake me up, sometimes 4 or 5 times a night.

I would like to ask if anyone else has had anything similar. Or even heard of anything like this?

It would be great to hear from at least one person who has experienced this so I know I'm not going insane.

Thank you for your time.

Kind regards.

 

[Paul T]

A few years back I started to get a similar type of hum (it's gone now) on top of my hiss/whistle T I'd had for a while. Always/only at night, and I initially used to wander around the house looking for the sound (it was like 50Hz mains hum) but I could never find it - I even got to the point of turning off the house mains supply as I was convinced that something was emitting this noise. I then began to realise that the sound briefly went when I moved my head and it dawned on me that I had some other type of T (?). I eventually put it down to tiredness and stress at that point in my life - I get similarly tired now, from time to time, but overall I'm much less stressed and to date I have not heard it (though the whistle/hiss T is still there).
Back then I used to do a slow stretch/relax of every muscle from toes up to scalp and I used to listen to very gentle ocean sound tapes/mp3s both as a means to distracting myself form the whistle/hiss form of T - I can't recall if that helped the hum. Now I just listen to Podcasts at very low volumes- I usually never make it to the end of a 30min podcast and soemtimes find I have to re-listen to them several times to get to then end.

 

[Jkph75]

I have it too sometimes. I think you'll find a lot of people on here who have it. I have it more when I lay down or get nervous. Prednisone seems to decrease it or take it away, so I think that it is due to some kind of inflammation.