Nocturnal Tinnitus: I Need to Find People Like Me

[Jhodi]

Hello,

I very much need to find people who experience tinnitus the way I do.

At night, while sleeping, it gets super loud, all over head ringing, or mainly unilateral super loud, or sometimes bi-lateral super loud. A high-pitched hiss, tonal tinnitus.

In the morning, as I wake, it subsides, retreating to what I think many people consider having "a little tinnitus".

I am scheduled for a sleep study.

Does anyone else experience nocturnal tinnitus?

Thank you.

 

[Marcuso22]

Not sure if the term nocturnal tinnitus is accurate. Do you use any sound therapy during the day or at night?

Two things to consider:

1. It's not uncommon for one's tinnitus to get worse throughout the day as there are many factors that could contribute to causing it to get louder or spike i.e. stress, lack of sleep, environmental sounds, salty foods, certain medications etc...

2. There is a theory that as you go into a more quiet room, like your bedroom, you will end up with auditory gain where our auditory system becomes more acute to compensate for lack of sounds. This may be what you're experiencing. After a good night's sleep you are less stressed & therefore your auditory system has returned to its baseline. That doesn't always happen as in my case but many do feel better after a good solid sleep if you can achieve that.

 

[Jhodi]

Thank you for your kind reply. I do not know another way to describe this besides "nocturnal".

I live in the south where the cicadas and the tree frogs are LOUD. I mean, L.O.U.D. and so, the bedroom is not a quiet place until winter.

The tinnitus I experience is just so qualitatively different at night. I have even recently been getting a completely new sound, different from the tonal tinnitus, a clicking, that appears during deep sleep and goes away as I come into lighter sleep. Other times, the tonal whirring sound is so extremely loud I have to get up and wake up for an hour, it dissipates, and then I go back to sleep. That extreme occurrence has only happened a few times. I just need to find people who experience this like I do.

Thanks again for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

 

[Marcuso22]

Thank you for your kind reply. I do not know another way to describe this besides "nocturnal".

I live in the south where the cicadas and the tree frogs are LOUD. I mean, L.O.U.D. and so, the bedroom is not a quiet place until winter.

The tinnitus I experience is just so qualitatively different at night. I have even recently been getting a completely new sound, different from the tonal tinnitus, a clicking, that appears during deep sleep and goes away as I come into lighter sleep. Other times, the tonal whirring sound is so extremely loud I have to get up and wake up for an hour, it dissipates, and then I go back to sleep. That extreme occurrence has only happened a few times. I just need to find people who experience this like I do.

Thanks again for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

I notice that if I listen to a particular ambient sound for a while, my tinnitus starts to mimic that sound. Maybe the sounds of the cicadas is contributing to your night clicking sounds you are experiencing. When waking up in the middle of the night & one has trouble falling back asleep due to their loud tinnitus, it is helpful to just get out of your bedroom & do something else for a while to direct your attention elsewhere. This is fairly common with people with troublesome tinnitus. You may want to consider listening to some kind of relaxing sounds off an app for tinnitus or YouTube video throughout your sleep time.

 

[Jhodi]

I notice that if I listen to a particular ambient sound for a while, my tinnitus starts to mimic that sound. Maybe the sounds of the cicadas is contributing to your night clicking sounds you are experiencing. When waking up in the middle of the night & one has trouble falling back asleep due to their loud tinnitus, it is helpful to just get out of your bedroom & do something else for a while to direct your attention elsewhere. This is fairly common with people with troublesome tinnitus. You may want to consider listening to some kind of relaxing sounds off an app for tinnitus or YouTube video throughout your sleep time.

Thank you SO MUCH for your kind reply. After your reply, I put a sound machine in my bedroom, just in case it is too quiet now that it is winter.

 

[Fightthearmy]

After a good night's sleep you are less stressed & therefore your auditory system has returned to its baseline.

Baseline, my foot! Serotonin levels in the morning are the highest, which might aggravate your anxiety and probably tinnitus.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

At night, while sleeping, it gets super loud, all over head ringing, or mainly unilateral super loud, or sometimes bi-lateral super loud. A high-pitched hiss, tonal tinnitus.

In the morning, as I wake, it subsides, retreating to what I think many people consider having "a little tinnitus".

I have even recently been getting a completely new sound, different from the tonal tinnitus, a clicking, that appears during deep sleep and goes away as I come into lighter sleep. Other times, the tonal whirring sound is so extremely loud I have to get up and wake up for an hour, it dissipates, and then I go back to sleep.

1. An imbalance in thyroid hormone is very possible for what I quote from you above. Hormones is a possibility with clicking during sleep - thyroid hormones causing swelling of the thyroid gland. This can cause tinnitus and would react with tinnitus time patterns that you describe. This is somewhat common and thyroid and hormones tests can confirm. If so, your tinnitus is curable.

2. Muscles and soft tissues surrounding the larynx or voice box may swell or contract, narrowing the passage in a condition known as laryngospasm. If that happens during sleep, the condition may be termed sleep-related. The condition can easily cause clicking sounds when sleeping. This can also relate to #1 above. Laryngospasm is most often caused by anxiety or stress and can also relate to hormones and/or thyroid hormones.

 

[Jhodi]

1. An imbalance in thyroid hormone is very possible for what I quote from you above. Hormones is a possibility with clicking during sleep - thyroid hormones causing swelling of the thyroid gland. This can cause tinnitus and would react with tinnitus time patterns that you describe. This is somewhat common and thyroid and hormones tests can confirm. If so, your tinnitus is curable.

2. Muscles and soft tissues surrounding the larynx or voice box may swell or contract, narrowing the passage in a condition known as laryngospasm. If that happens during sleep, the condition may be termed sleep-related. The condition can easily cause clicking sounds when sleeping. This can also relate to #1 above. Laryngospasm is most often caused by anxiety or stress and can also relate to hormones and/or thyroid hormones.

Greg, thank you so much for your reply.

I do have hypothyroidism and take medicine for it. Time for a re-check? Maybe so!

At 56, I am perimenopausal and take bio-identical hormones. Time for a re-check? Maybe so!

The tinnitus appeared suddenly, unilaterally, at age 54. It has progressed to bi-lateral. It is a high pitched whirring sound, with some variations. The clicking is new and weird and super transient and only appears for mere moments or seconds, maybe a minute or two, when coming out of deep sleep.

Muscle relaxers help. I take them very rarely, and only 2.5 mg of Flexeril. When I take them, the next day I have a great day. I don't know how that is related. I do clench my jaw at night.

Thanks again for your input. It means so much for you to take the time to try to help.

 

[Joe Cuber]

At night, while sleeping, it gets super loud, all over head ringing, or mainly unilateral super loud, or sometimes bi-lateral super loud. A high-pitched hiss, tonal tinnitus.

In the morning, as I wake, it subsides, retreating to what I think many people consider having "a little tinnitus".

Hey @Jhodi - I might have something similar to what you're experiencing. I'm not sure, but perhaps if I describe what I experience and ask you a clarifying question or two, we can see if they're similar enough.

My tinnitus during the day is either loud (like, I can hear it in the shower loud) or absent (or so quiet I have to pay attention to hear it). What's peculiar about it is that it switches in my sleep. So, on my loud days, I wake up to it being loud. Sometimes it is like really loud, like a cacophony of sound, like being in the middle of the Niagara Falls.

The characteristic that seems similar to yours is that sometimes when I wake up and it's loud, if I lay there on my right side (my bad side) for 20-30 minutes, it'll subside to the absent state and stay that way for the day.

One thing I wanted to ask you is whether it wakes you up in the middle of the night when you're sleeping. Mine doesn't. It's like I don't know it's loud until I become conscious. Only then do I hear it.

 

[momus]

Lying down to sleep increases tinnitus levels in itself (sure does w/ mine). I use a fan and a little sound machine at night, you should play around w/ different sounds to see what works best for you. The house crickets in Tucson almost drove me over the top and made my tinnitus and stress level go up. Waterfall sounds tend to work well too.