If You Put In Earplugs/Headphones, and Listen to Your Tinnitus for 15-30 Minutes, What Happens?

[martinberryhorse]

Brief background:

Got 7/10 tinnitus/plugged ears with painful burning sensation during a hard coughing fit while smoking, 8 months ago. I quit smoking immediately.

After the first two days while taking prednisolone tinnitus would drop to a 3 or 4 then spike back up to 7/10 by the afternoon or night, along with my ears feeling more noticeably plugged.

I found that completely flushing my nasal cavities with saline would drop it back down to 3 or 4 when it spiked most of the time.

T stopped spiking two months after onset, and has stuck around a 3 or 4. Ears became less plugged but still crackle and feel irritated when I swallow/yawn/move my jaw around. Also the burning pain is gone now and hasn't returned in the last 6 months. During spikes ears would feel like water was in them and wouldn't crackle.

My question for you:

If you put in earplugs/headphones on, and listen to your tinnitus for 15-30 minutes, does the volume go down or does the sound change?

I've noticed now that when I do this, the tone/buzzing I hear will morph into a quieter hissing sound that is more manageable and can allow me to fall asleep within a few hours instead of staying up all night.

I would say it drops it from a 4/10 to a 2.5/10, or for even a few moments I almost can't hear it all after a shower, but it always comes back. If I take the headphones off and work on the computer or do anything really, it will spike back to a 4/10 and a loud buzzing will overtake the hissing sounds.

Do you think there is a way to capitalize on this as a form of treatment? I would really love it if the hissing replaced the tones forever as they are less upsetting and intrusive.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Digital Doc]

Yes, T goes down when I put my earplugs in. I use this at night to help me sleep, and I always wake up with my T quieter.

 

[Tybs]

Do you think there is a way to capitalize on this as a form of treatment? I would really love it if the hissing replaced the tones forever as they are less upsetting and intrusive.

Not a treatment, but it can indicate that your baseline is lower than what you usually hear. Assuming your tinnitus is actually "reactive" and responds in higher volume to external sounds, then it should lessen once your ears get less input. Considering that reactiveness often reduces/fades with time, this can be a positive sign.

My tinnitus used to act similar, but its reactiveness eventually faded.

 

[TheDanishGirl]

My tinnitus gets louder with ear plugs in.

 

[Kriszti]

My tinnitus gets louder with earplugs/earmuffs because outside noises don't mask it. First it's bad (perhaps not as bad as it was around the end of the last year), after a while it settles down a bit (or just doesn't bother me that much). But if I have earplugs in for hours, when I take them out, tinnitus gets a lot worse.
I think, it's more common that earplugs make tinnitus louder than the other way around.

 

[PhoenixAcademy]

Earplugs make mine louder and I'm way too scared to use headphones.

 

[jasonbourne]

When I force myself to listen to my tinnitus it does decrease in intensity I've noticed. But most days I don't have that strength.

 

[Ken77]

My tinnitus always decreases when I am in a quiet environment (or when wearing earplugs). It is extremely reactive to sound. It is a 2/10 low buzz in a quiet room and a 5/10 high pitched, very annoying hiss in a moderately loud room.