Low Frequency Tinnitus That Stops When I Breathe In!

[Debbie Took]

In Sept 2015, my sleep started to be disturbed by an on-off low vibrating/electrical sort of sound that *sounded* as if it was coming from the house, or outside the house, ie definitely not within me! To summarise the Autumn...disturbance to sleep affected my life dramatically. Checked everything - heating/plumbing, water, phone/electricity wires, aerial - and many more things, to try to find the source of the noise. Noise comes 'on' for a few seconds, then go off. Sometimes there every night for ten consecutive nights, sometimes not there for weeks...no pattern. Unbelievably, really, it took me six months to find out that if I take a sharp intake of breath, the noise stops! Then returns... (Only conscious of it at night). It doesn't sound the like the noise of my breathing - it's just as I describe at the start of this post. (It's not 'pulsile') Please, does anyone else suffer from this particular sort of madness?

 

[valeri]

I do but mine is 24/7 so consider yourself lucky!

 

[Debbie Took]

So, just to clarify, yours, like mine, stops when you take a sharp intake of breath?

 

[valeri]

No, it's the same noise but it never stops!
And if yours goes away for weeks I would say: lucky lucky you!

 

[Cath Connor]

I have been experiencing hearing a low hum/electrical noise for 18 months which stopped for a period of months after I moved to a new suburb. In my old suburb I was convinced that its was an industrial sound- but couldn't identify it as it would magically disappear as soon as I went outside or heard and "white noise". I complained many times to the council ( who were extremely understanding and concerned)

My husband reckons he can hear it and one of my young students complained that it kept him awake at night (he lived a few streets away. So I was convinced that I wasn't going mad.. (except that the sound prevented me from sleeping so actually I was going mad!)

So in December we moved housean hour away. No noise.. brilliant!! However in the last 2 weeks the sound has come back. EXACTLY the same. I can't believe it. I know I have a bit of a blocked feeling in my left ear so now am considering that it is in fact Tinnitus. Im trying to block it with clocks, unsucessfully- its really getting me down.

My husband claims he can hear it but "blocks it out" mentally- how, I don't know. His theory is that it is the compressors in household air conditioners which will be much that same anywhere. And yes, the noise has started again since the cold weather has kicked in. I hope thats it...