Sound Enrichment and Sleeping with Headphones

[Mark_S]

My tinnitus gets very intrusive at night when I try to sleep. I've had some success playing white noise (actually, blue noise) at low volume from an app on my iPhone through a set of sleeping headphones, similar to these:
https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Contour-Headphones-Lining-Earphones/dp/B07FLCHCT6/

I have tried just playing the white noise sound enrichment through a speaker, but my tinnitus is in both ears and I found that my tinnitus is still too loud in whatever ear is turned away from the speaker or pressed into the pillow. But I am concerned after seeing some posts on this forum (from Mike?...sorry, I'm new here) that tinnitus sufferers should never use headphones, even at low volume because this can make the tinnitus worse.

Not sure what to do. I need to sleep, but don't want to make this worse or make habituation more difficult.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any non-headphone solutions?

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Michael B]

I tend to be a side sleeper and have bad tinnitus on my left side. Problem is my hearing is not as good on my right side so when I sleep on my left side, my right ear doesn't hear my sound machine. My solution is to use a pillow speaker which when placed in the pillow case, radiates the sound up through the pillow. Some might say this is as bad as using headphones but I don't think it's as bad and it allows me to sleep on both sides.

 

[Mark_S]

OK. Thanks Michael. I'll check out sound pillows, though I'm also not sure what the difference is between headphones and a speaker in my pillow as far as protecting my ears. In either case, I'll continue to keep the volume low.

 

[Michael B]

@Mark_S It's always a gamble. I don't know if my use of a pillow speaker made things worse for me, but it has allowed me to sleep soundly for the past 8 years of having this condition.

 

[another sean]

Since you only got tinnitus last month, you have a good chance of it going away. But sleeping with headphones sounds like a really bad idea and could prevent the possibility of it going away. Duration is a huge factor that most people dont know about in regards to tinnitus and noise. This is how I got tinnitus. Really low volume for a long duration daily for 2 weeks. I understand why you are doing it, but it could possibly make your tinnitus worse in the long run and rob your chance of it possibly going away on its own. And you are evading the chance of habituation to and eventually being able to sleep without the aid of sound machines.

 

[Nhammond]

"Really low volume for a long duration daily for 2 weeks. "

Just started experiencing T the past few weeks. I've put on 'rain sounds' from the TV to help me sleep. I am also playing masking music from my computer speakers while I work during the day. Are you saying doing this could make it worse? I work in a very quiet environment.