Is This a Spike? Tinnitus Seems Less Maskable in Left Ear After Going to Gym with Earplugs

Hey everyone, I did not want to start yet another thread however I have to ask if someone can make any sense out of this.

So for the last 4 months my tinnitus was pretty stable I'd say, slight fluctuations all day but in general getting better.

Since around 1 week my tinnitus seems to be a bit more present (I hear it more throughout the day). This weekend I woke up to a very loud fleeting tinnitus that took around 10 minutes to go away. I had 2 bad nights of sleep after that but things seemed to calm down.

Then yesterday I went to the gym, I put my earplugs in my office and wow, my tinnitus was very very calm. A bit of head noise but not bothersome even with earplugs in a silent place. So I was kind of happy already. Went to the gym for 2h, and after that I noticed already a bit of an increase (what happens often after the gym). The Gym is around 70-75 dB.

However this time when I went to bed the tinnitus was as loud as never before, and I needed masking to sleep. I also did a sinus rinse yesterday since my sinuses are always kind of blocked.

Today I woke up to more or less normal tinnitus, but while driving to work I could hear it even without earplugs faintly in my left ear in my car. That never happened before. My left ear always had a very high pitch so even while not being loud I could hear it more often. Right ear normally is masked by nearly everything.

So what the f*** is happening? My tinnitus normally never spikes or something, but going to the Gym with earplugs does it now? Is this even a spike? Am I just paying more attention to it? Until now I slept always with no masking without a problem.

Sorry for asking these questions, I know that probably there is no clear answer. I just don't get it, since I am very careful with my ears since onset.

Thanks guys

 

Have you been stressing a lot lately or are you listening to your T more than normal? I am going through a bit of separation anxiety right now and the stress is making my T very loud

 

Well, i always listened a lot to my tinnitus, since it was normally very mild. Now since last week i am surely more anxious about it, but more because i suddenly hear it more often. Also i never had it so loud like yesterday evening before sleep. And i dont get it because after work with earplugs in silence i was really really happy since i heard nearly nothing.

Other than that no additional stress.

Sry about your seperation anxiety. That sucks

 

For some reason my T is more noticeable tonight... Did you eat anything that might have spiked your T? I ate a lot of salt just now... I went out and grabbed Chinese food... I think the salt content is very high or perhaps because the house is very quiet but my T is suddenly very obvious to me and I hate it. The anxiety might be making it sound louder, for what it's worth... I am going through it too .

Honestly tomorrow can't come fast enough. I hate that it's midnight and everything is so dark and quiet and the only thing echoing is tinnitus.

 

No, not really. Nothing out of the ordinary. Well could be anxiety, but hell, i was also anxious when first getting tinnitus and i never heard it this loud at night.....So no idea. I am learning to meditate, so maybe today is a good day to continue with that....

 

Oh Nooo I'm so sorry... I know how you feel... I had fleeting tinnitus for over a year after noise exposure... It has slowly faded and I get less and less fleeting T. Perhaps the same can happen to you.

 

I sure hope so, since i couldn't explain the increase otherwise really. I try to stay at home the weekend and see if it fades again. But yea, this sucks big time.

 

Also, working out increases my T. I am convinced it is the blood flow that gives me increased T... Much like how coffee does it too. I think this is normal?

 

Well that happend always, after workouts i got always a small increase, but mostly just noticable with my earplugs in. Before workout really quiet and after i had a lot of white noise and more whistling. But yesterday was so far off, never happend before.

 

Are you still in your first year of T?

 

A bit over 4 months now...But my tinnitus started out fairly mild and now it feels like it is getting worse.

 

Update: Sry for venting yesterday, i normally try to handle it on my own, but yesterday was a bit to much. The spike has lowered again a lot, since i practically can't hear it anymore with my ears plugged in silence. I dont't get my hopes up, but at least thats a good sign. I now do dailay meditation sessions to control my anxiety. Lets hope it helps. Thanks @coffee_girl for responding

 

You can barely hear it even with your ears plugged? Thats good news! Seems like improvement to me.

 

I'm a casual bodybuilder and going to the gym every day spikes my tinnitus every time for at least three hours afterward. Sometimes it doesn't reset to normal until I wake up in the morning. I wear earplugs in the gym and I know it isn't caused by noise. I think it's pretty normal and I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

Yes, but that already happend loads of times so i don't want to get my hopes up to much, because if it gets worse again it's like beeing new to tinnitus all over again. Right now i am happy but i try to stay a bit prepared that it eventually comes back again and also maybe stays.

But nontheless a huge relief after the last days.=)

 

I hope so=(. Because i went from going to the gym 4-5 times a week (i was a competitive powerlifter) to going maybe twice a week and i don't like it at all because im always afraid of doing something which makes it worse...so yeah, i hope it is just a temporary spike always.

 

In my experience, the heavier the lift, the worse the resulting tinnitus spike. I've heard stories of people rupturing membranes in their ears from heavy lifts, but it seems extremely rare and I think it's usually accompanied by dizziness.

 

I do not practice powerlifting anymore, i normally go a bit on the bike and do a few other excercises, stretching, abs and so on. But nor hard lifts like squat, bench and deadlift at the moment, at least until my T gets a bit more stable.

Tbh i think it was just a fluctuation without any real trigger. Otherwise i can not really explain it.

 

Did the spike eventually go down? Has it happened again since?

 

The spike went down a few days after writing this post. Actually my tinnitus subsided completely. I need to plug my ears or put in earplugs to hear a bit of remaining head noise (some kind of static, like a tv on standby).

But if i have in earplugs for a longer period of time it gets progressively louder, not sure why.

 

I think I have said this to you already, but I'll say it again.

YOU LUCKY SON OF A BITCH!

All love brother! lol

I honestly think that when we reduce the sound we hear, our brain ramps up everything else to get some stimulus thus increasing tinnitus. Hence why when we try to go to sleep tinnitus seems so loud in quiet rooms, but with a white noise machine our brains don't need to ramp it up and can help "mask" it.

 

Ahahahaha Well, i know i am lucky, but i know also that this can change really fast and go back up. I actually think that my T has something to do with allergy or chronic sinusitis, since my nose is full all the time. And i always seem to get this huge impovements after i either use nasal spray for a bit or do a sinus rinse. So tomorrow i finally will do an allergy test and my ENT wants me also to do a CT of my sinuses. So we‘ll see