Sleeping with the Bad/Good Ear Against the Pillow and Tinnitus

[Rainbowsheep]

I have noticed that a lot of people with unilateral tinnitus tends to want to avoid sleeping with their bad ear against the pillow because the tinnitus becomes unmaskable for obvious reasons.

Am I the only one who actually wants to sleep with my bad ear against the pillow because my tinnitus goes absolutely screaming if I'm sleeping on the side where my good ear is against the pillow?

Like I'm perfectly fine when I sleep with my bad ear against the pillow or if I'm sleeping on my back but as soon as I turn to the other side my tinnitus goes screaming to the point where it is unbearable and almost impossible to mask. Is that weird?

My tinnitus is usually moderate on the bad days and mild on the good ones though still audible over some ever day sounds.

 

[Paul Burdett]

I'm the same. Whether I've had a good day (little-no T) or a bad day (loud T) I always fall asleep with my left ear, my "bad ear" against the pillow. It's louder if I try to sleep on the "good ear" side. During the day my T is often slightly to the left of centre in my head. My problem is that I wake up with loud T every morning, but after a shower and/or exercise (I play squash) it can reduce to almost nothing. Today and yesterday are loud days, but the previous 4 days were pretty well no T (except for the morning). I'm grateful for the "good days" (not often 4 in a row...usually 2 days)...but trying to habituate is difficult, not knowing how it's going to be each day. I'm 31/2 years in and as much as I try it still occupies my thoughts more than I'd like. I'd love to get to the point (like William Shatner) that I only hear it when I think about it...but when it's loud it's impossible, and having good and bad days is frustrating...although as I said I'm really grateful for the good days. I sometimes think that when I can't hear it maybe it's going (or gone)...but when it returns it's like a kick in the guts...and it always returns!

 

[dorje]

Same here, I prefer to sleep with my bad ear against the pillow, as it reduces the loudness. I noticed this pattern -when I wake up like this after whole night sleep, my T is reduced to minimum or even sometimes total silence. But when I wake up with my good ear against the pillow, it's noticeably louder.

I also noticed that, when I lie down in the afternoon for 15-20 min. it helps me to reduce the sound.

By the way @Rainbowsheep
I love your nickname and avatar and I think you should watch that

 

[SugarMagnolia]

I usually sleep with my good (right) ear to the pillow, only because I'm used to sleeping on my right side.

The result is that I minimize the amount of environmental sound that I get, and I often like some sound so I can become distracted from the T. So sometimes I will lay on my bad ear for a while to hear the environmental sound, but I'll eventually end up on my right side.

If it's noisy in the morning (say, construction work with sounds that hurt me), I'll roll over onto my bad ear to protect it.

 

[Tinniger]

I am not sure, whether good or bad ear to the pillow is the better choice. But I have the impression, that the sleeping position has influence of making the following day a better or a worse tinnitus-day...

 

[Michael B]

I may be alone in this, but I sleep with a pillow speaker and listen to my favorite masking sound at a low volume on my bad side. I also have a sound machine on my nightstand and play the same sound for when I sleep on the other side. It may be overkill and my wife thinks we're outdoors but it distracts me enough that I get a good night's sleep. My only concern is the fact that having the pillow speaker so close to my ear for hours at a time may be causing more harm than good. I advocate against earphones but this method may simply be a variation of the same.