Mystery: Tinnitus Only at Home?

Hello everyone. I am new here and would love some help. I have had tinnitus for four years in just the right ear, possibly quick onset after an ear infection, but unsure. It’s a humming vibration that sounds like my eardrum vibrating. I feel like I can even feel my eardrum vibrating on the pillow. At night it is so loud it sometimes wakes me up. I have been to ENTs and had two MRIs, which revealed nothing. I only hear it sometimes and when it’s quiet...

...and most strangely, I only hear it at home or when I have been home recently. When I leave the house and it’s quiet, I still hear it sometimes, but after a few hours away it gets fainter. After 24-48 hours away from home it disappears completely, for example, if I am staying at a hotel. If I stay at a hotel, friend’s house or Airbnb for a week, even totally quiet, I don’t hear it for the whole time. As soon as I get home, I start to hear it again. And yet, it is not an objective noise, but something causing my right eardrum to vibrate, something only I can hear.

The mystery is mind boggling. Any ideas on what it could be? And yes, I have moved twice, and the tinnitus follows me.

I suspect it might be due to posture/computer use as I only usually use my computer a lot at home, possibly caused by a certain head neck position putting pressure on Eustachian tube or allowing ear pressure to build, even though I have tried different neck positions while working. An alternate theory is that there is some electronic device in the house that is triggering it. I don’t have any pest sound repellent devices.

And for those with a sense of humor, I am perfectly stable, professional, family man, etc. so no tin foil hat theories, thanks. I would be eternally grateful to anyone who could help me figure out this mystery.

 

Lucky you! If only all of us could get rid of our tinnitus by leaving home! I would walk out and never come back. Live nomadic life. Whatever.

One a serious note, I don't buy the posture thing. EMF is possible culprit. But you wrote you moved twice, so that is weird.

I'd still check for magnetic fields sources (high voltage power lines, cell towers, 5G antennas). Is your bed or desk near electrical service entrance or electrical panel? Magnetic field near those can be very high. Maybe your computer or monitor is some strong EMF emitting junk? Buy magnetic field meters both for low and high frequency. You can check for these things.

 

Welcome to Tinnitus Talk. I don't know the real reason but this has happened to me and many other members. Not just in the house, but also in the car. It seems once inside a more close-up environment where it is quieter, then the brain searches out the tinnitus and becomes more aware of it. People also said going away on vacation usually will tame their tinnitus. It may be because the brain is distracted with many fresh stimulus that it will have less time to focus on the tinnitus, and so may become unaware of it. Tinnitus is after all a phantom sound created by the brain, so when there are other things to occupy the brain, it can't create the sound as much. My humble 2 cents on the possible reason.

 

This reminds me of my low-frequency tinnitus. I almost never notice it away from home because it stops when there is any external low-frequency sounds, so I never hear it in my office at work due to the HVAC system noise, and I never hear it when driving due to the car noise being very loud in low frequencies. If I run a fan in my home or the furnace runs, I don't hear it or at least not as much. My high-frequency tinnitus is always still there, though.

See if it goes away if you play low-frequency sounds in your house. Or it could be the opposite, and a particular sound in your home is actually causing it.