Poll: Do You Mask Your Tinnitus When You Sleep?

[Jcb]

I tried all different sounds, rain, wind, nature etc but it didn't help much. I tried coloured noises but they seemed to make my ears angry in the morning for some reason. I now have a radio station on, low in the background that plays chilled tunes or people talking about boring stuff as they do on the radio.

 

[Dave555]

The first few days when my tinnitus was severe I could fall asleep, and kept waking up a few minutes later as any little sound, such as the heat turning on, would wake me up.

My wife also can't sleep without ear plugs. I think she has hyperacusis. She said when she was a teenager she'd stand next to speakers at concerts intentionally in order to hear her ears ringing the next day... but she doesn't have T, just sensitivity to sounds now.

Makes me wonder if it helped that she trained her brain to ignore T early on. Since I got it when I was older, I'm having a rougher time blocking it out, maybe.

 

[I Want Silence]

I've always had a fan on to mask it, but since early December, that doesn't help as much as the ringing increased. But I still keep it on. Hearing noise, watching movies, etc.. sometimes makes me forget the ringing, but the silence reminds me again.

 

[Digital Doc]

My wife also can't sleep without ear plugs. I think she has hyperacusis. She said when she was a teenager she'd stand next to speakers at concerts intentionally in order to hear her ears ringing the next day... but she doesn't have T, just sensitivity to sounds now.

Makes me wonder if it helped that she trained her brain to ignore T early on. Since I got it when I was older, I'm having a rougher time blocking it out, maybe.

At this point I don't have hyperacusis, but I would describe it more to sensitivity to loud sounds. I was also waking up with ear fullness before the earplugs while asleep, and not sure what did it as I did not have anything on where I was sleeping. With the earplugs in, this does not happen, so worth it to me just for that.

 

[Dave555]

At this point I don't have hyperacusis, but I would describe it more to sensitivity to loud sounds. I was also waking up with ear fullness before the earplugs while asleep, and not sure what did it as I did not have anything on where I was sleeping. With the earplugs in, this does not happen, so worth it to me just for that.

I'm not sure what you mean by "ear fullness" but I think I might have that. Feels like my ears are stuffed or something? In the morning I can barely hear the faint masking sound that I had on all night. I really should give ear plugs a try.

 

[Digital Doc]

I'm not sure what you mean by "ear fullness" but I think I might have that. Feels like my ears are stuffed or something? In the morning I can barely hear the faint masking sound that I had on all night. I really should give ear plugs a try.

Yes, feels like the ear is stuffed is a good description. Mine then goes away after a few hours, although the tinnitus rages on. With the earplugs in, this does not happen.

 

[Eloy Resendez Jr]

Yep, depends the mood I'm in. I've got a little speaker next to my bed, Typically soft music. Sometimes I'll do the fan sound, or crashing waves. Before this last spike I really didn't need anything but unfortunately had to pull out my speaker again.

 

[DaveN]

I always mask it when I sleep. Originally, I just turned an air filter on for some background noise, but it was too far/quiet to mask it or make any difference. In order to actually mask the T to a point where it isnt a bother I need the noise right in my ears. I now use a sleepmask that has bluetooth headphones inside them. I love it.

 

[Jalf]

I don't mask as it doesn't benefit me, but out of respect for my wife and daughter, I probably wouldn't anyway as it would be pretty loud.

My son sleeps at the 2nd floor. I sleep on a sofa bed in the living room, so he doesn't have to hear the sounds I play at night. Besides... this way I can use my main PC for the sounds and not have another one in a bedroom.

And if I can't sleep, the kitchen is very close by for a midnight snack or decaf.
I'm glad my tinnitus. does not get worse from coffee... this addiction would be too hard to quit

 

[Johnny Karate]

I cannot mask my T as it is too loud. That being said I listen to 10 hr long youtube rain and thunderstorm videos. Its just something else to listen too instead of only hearing the tone of T.

 

[Chinmoku]

Struggling really hard here, I am having horrible days.
I have this dilemma... at 20 months since inception my tinnitus has become almost unbearable, I do manage to fall asleep without masking but when I wake up, typically 2-3am, the tinnitus is so horrid that I need to mask or I go mad. It has also a nervous/vibratory quality, it's not just the sound, it hits my whole body. There are very few tracks that work in giving me relief, things with crikets, but they have to be high volume and not all work. This one



with headphones and volume at level 6 in my samsung mobile manages to keep my mind off it, but normal sounds of rain/ waterfalls/ trains etc do not work. Music is completely below my tinnitus frequency so I hear it completely (I hear it during a jet flight and in a loud restaurant, loud traffic...). I cannot bear it during the day anymore for long, my stomach twists and I feel sick, like I want to die, but if I mask for a prolonged time the tinnitus gets even worse.
I have hearing aids with white and pink noise that are effective in masking the sound but same story, if I put them on I get temporary relief but then the tinnitus becomes worse, sometimes permanently worse if I keep them for long like most of the day.
The usual nightmare, the things that work in relieving it short term make it worse.

Should I keep searching for sounds that mask it without worsening it? They do not seem to exist from my experience so far. I read of people listening to music and the radio, I wish I could do that. In the early days that was enough to mask it but the constant worsening I had from inception has now left me with a maddening tinnitus, I am desperate, look at my kids and run to cry in the bathroom because I want to die. It's horrible. Sorry this is not the suicide thread, just venting. Anyway if anyone has any advice on masking please let me know. Thanks in advance.

 

[Julien87]

Hi @Chinmoku
There is a free phone app that may help you. It is called "Sleepo", and basically you can create your own tracks, choosing which sounds you want to hear, at what volume etc.
There is an interesting range of sounds (some continuous, some intermittent etc.) you can select and mix together, such as:

Might be worth giving it a try

 

[Chinmoku]

Hi @Chinmoku
There is a free phone app that may help you. It is called "Sleepo", and basically you can create your own tracks, choosing which sounds you want to hear, at what volume etc.
There is an interesting range of sounds (some continuous, some intermittent etc.) you can select and mix together, such as:

View attachment 39022

Might be worth giving it a try

Thank you Julien, I have already a similar one. The problem is that either the tracks (typically natural sounds) don't mask anything, or they do it too strongly (for example violet noise works) but then irritate and spike my tinnitus. I have been trying several combinations to no avail. If I put the effective masking sounds then the tinnitus gets worse. If I only use natural sounds they don't mask anything. I'll look at the app you suggested, maybe I can get lucky there

 

[Tybs]

Should I keep searching for sounds that mask it without worsening it? They do not seem to exist from my experience so far.

Hard to say, as it really depends on your individual case of T. My best advice would be to try out a multitude of coping mechanisms, and stick to the ones that work.

I stopped masking when I found out that the sounds were actually exacerbating my T. If I was in a (fairly) silent environment long enough, my T would eventually settle down and lessen a bit. The months after were the second-toughest period of my life: learning to fall asleep while I was surrounded by my T. I managed two, maybe three hours a night, but sometimes I couldn't sleep at all... I was a total wreck.

Eventually things started to improve though. Occasionally I got a four-hour night, which was a valid reason to celebrate for me. As more weeks progressed, five-hour nights got introduced. That was the point where my mental state suddenly got better, and a few weeks later I reached the seven hour average.

Granted, my case of T has been improving slowly since past October, so I cannot exclude that as a variable in my current equation. But I can say that I learned to fall asleep before the improvement, even during bad nights with T raging. Not having to depend on an external sound source to sleep is a blessing in itself, and I'm glad I made the decision to stop masking at that point. It's also nice that no outside sounds bothers me at all now: I always needed complete silence to fall asleep, but that's no longer an issue

It was a major struggle to get there though, and I can imagine it would not work for everyone. Again I'd say, try different coping mechanisms and see what works out best.

 

[Ken77]

I don't need masking to sleep because my tinnitus is very quiet when there isn't a lot of background noise. I only use masking when I watch tv (my tinnitus is very reactive and the sound of the tv makes it spike).

 

[Gabriel5050]

I fall asleep listening to podcasts every night. I wouldn't call that masking, since I can hear my t loud and clear.

 

[GaryTH]

Stop masking and start sound enrichment instead. This simply means turn down the volume of your sound device so it's barely audible. Mask the silence, not the tinnitus. It worked to bring down the morning volume for me.

 

[DebInAustralia]

I don't mask as it doesn't benefit me, but out of respect for my wife and daughter, I probably wouldn't anyway as it would be pretty loud.

I'm with Ed on this one.

Usually, no masking. I go to zzz listening to my brain...

 

[donotringatme]

I tried masking with earplugs using binaural, nature, rain, ASMR, nothing works. As if my brain is fixated, afraid to shut down, it's not as if my tinnitus is severe. But the lack of good sleep is getting to me, it's almost a month. I have bags under my eyes and definitely feeling a bit foggy. Do you guys get good deep sleep once you habituate?

 

[cjbhab]

That's interesting that more people say never than always.

I always mask, I play Netflix lightly to my left, a fan to my right and rain noise under my pillow. It gets me to sleep.