Tinnitus Woke Me Up at 3 am

[Redocooking]

I've been getting 8 hours of sleep recently, but for some reason it's just so high pitched and loud right now, I don't know why. It's never been this bad except when I lost my job, the only thing that was different today was some almond ceral I had without milk. It's like a call of duty flashbang sound but the pitch is different



I've noticed that I've become abnormally sensitive to sound too. Like, just typing is making my head "feel" it? It's like I can feel a rumble in my head whenever I drink, eat, or there's sharpish sounds. For example when I'm taking a wiz I can feel it rumble in my head, but me talking for example I don't feel that same rumble, yet sometimes when others are talking to me I feel it.

In the past a few years, rarely my ability to hear will go out with my tinnitus disappearing too for a few seconds. Then it comes back, as if my brain noticed my ability to hear was lost or something and turned up the sensitivity. I'm not sure what triggers this, but generally I'm in a pretty neutral state not really doing anything in particular. I can even make my tinnitus louder if I pressure my jaw in a specific way, but even with a 40 dB pink noise video going I can still hear it. Since I lost my job I can't afford to go to the TMJ specialist or even afford that scan for my brain.

I wasn't letting it bother me for the longest time, but now that it's woken me up. I'm only 30, I haven't had a job at the military or anything abnormally loud, I don't understand why this is happening to me. I eat healthy, jog and train for over a hour most days, and I've never even been to a loud concert, party or nightclub. The only thing I can think of is that I use to sleep with a fan on next to me, that's roughly 50-60 dB loud overnight. It use to be able to mask my tinnitus, now it doesn't. Hell, I barely even noticed I had tinnitus before I lost my job.

 

[Flamingo1]

I've slept in hotel rooms with loud air conditioning units going at 50-60dB all night and ALWAYS woke up with blaring tinnitus much louder than I went to bed with! I don't do that anymore if I can avoid it. I recommend using a sound machine that plays nature sounds to mask your tinnitus and see how that goes. I've found it to be very soothing.

 

[Redocooking]

I don't know if it was my fan, but it's never been loud for me in the mornings. Since I wasn't able to get some sleep, it's really bad now to the point where I can hear it constantly throughout the day.

I can increase the loudness if I push my jaw from the sides, but otherwise no matter what I do it stays the same. Even though I don't have any money left, but I finally have a job again, I'm going to look for a TMJ doctor to take a look. It's just never been this bad before and I just want to sleep like I use to.