Tinnitus Quieter After Sleeping in Complete Silence the Night Before?

Diesel

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Feb 14, 2020
1,630
Tinnitus Since
1-2019
Cause of Tinnitus
20+ Years of Live Music, Motorcycles, and Power Tools
I made a recent discovery that I find odd...

Since I have been living with Tinnitus/Hyperacusis for the better part of 1.5 years, I have been using a pink-noise generator at a low volume to mask my high-frequency tinnitus help me sleep. I got into the habit of doing this almost since the start and haven't deviated. It's always on when I sleep.

Recently, I have been doing a little work on the house and decided to move sleeping to my basement guest room. It is EXTREMELY quiet in my basement. Can't hear road noise, can't hear anything outside, we're talking library quiet. So, obviously, the tinnitus is extremely obvious.

The past few nights, I had to switch the power off to the part of the house I was doing work; which included the basement bedroom. So, no sound machine. Instead I slept in complete silence. I have become pretty used to my tinnitus, so I was actually able to get to sleep fairly quickly.

Now that I have been doing this for a few days; I've noticed my tinnitus during the day is much less noticeable and quieter more often. As I type this in my quiet home office, I can barely hear my tinnitus over the sound of my faint iMac fan, which is usually not the case.

I don't know if I am drawing a correct correlation; but it seems be the only real factor that has changed from day-to-day.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

Just to add: My tinnitus is of the high-frequency type. I have measurable hearing loss starting at 12kHz and progressively worse to 16kHz in an extended audiogram. The tinnitus I experience sounds like tv static / white noise in the ranges where I dont register on the audiogram.
 
My tinnitus sounds very much like yours does and I have definitely noticed some morning that are much quieter than during the day and night, however it really just seems like it's luck of the draw and once I get up and start moving the tinnitus is right back to where it usually is. I had my first moment of complete silence from my intrusive tone last night through this morning, but it came right back once I got out of bed today.

I haven't been using any masking since the onset of mine back in March despite how intrusive it is. I find that only crickets mask this frequency of tinnitus and after listening to them it makes the noise in my head sound "broken" if that makes sense.

Hopefully these days of quiet are leading you down to a path of silence!
 
I don't mask/use sound enrichment for my tinnitus as I find it annoying - so I sleep in complete silence. The only noise I'd be exposed to is maybe a car early in the morning, since I live in a real quiet neighbourhood. I have woken up to silence more than once, but my tinnitus still fluctuates a lot.

Don't exactly know what makes it change by the hour. It can even change/fluctuate if I'm in bed, in the quiet.

Seems like you've found something that helps you, though! Hopefully it lasts and gives some relief.
 
I had a similar experience. When I slept with earplugs, the T was always quieter when I first woke up. On the other hand, when I randomly slept with an electric heater on, it was louder in the AM. Consistent pattern, and since I used the earplugs consistently at night, the T is much better controlled.
 
Im in the same here i use to mask mine last month before deciding to sleep in slient it gets quiet during the day and at night its the volume it only gets louder if i pay attention to it but keeping my mind busy its noticeable hell it gets pretty quite when im playing a game in a quite room now thats progress right there
 
I've noticed the same as many of you. The only silent time I have is right after waking up. I go to sleep with masking but usually wake and turn it off sometime early AM to enjoy brief period of quiet. It'll come back an hour or two after Im up and moving around. I'm about 3 months with T. I have first audiology appt. Coming up. Ill be interested to hear what they say
 

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