Trying to Sleep with Maskers — Need Advice

[garywi]

I struggle with sleep as I need to keep my left ear that is ringing off the pillow so the two white noise makers I have going can mask the ringing. This is a struggle because at night if I roll over and my left ear becomes covered by a blanket or pillow, I hear the ringing at I get woken up.

Those of you who make have ringing in both ears, how do you keep your ears uncovered with the pillow so the noise makers can work.

I can't sleep on my back at all.

Have any of you found an ear appliance or headphone that you can sleep with to mask.

Thank you

 

[Michael Leigh]

I struggle with sleep as I need to keep my left ear that is ringing off the pillow so the two white noise makers I have going can mask the ringing. This is a struggle because at night if I roll over and my left ear becomes covered by a blanket or pillow, I hear the ringing at I get woken up.

@garywi
White noise generators WNG/ maskers shouldn't be worn in bed at night. Furthermore, when using them during waking hours they shouldn't mask the tinnitus. Their volume level should be set slightly below the tinnitus otherwise you will never learn to habituate to the tinnitus. The brain cannot habituate to tinnitus unless it can hear it.

Please read the post below.

Should I mask my tinnitus?

Tinnitus is a complex condition and if hyperacusis (sensitivity to sound) is present it is even more. Many newbies have difficulty coping with tinnitus and understandably, getting rid of this constant intruder, that has suddenly invaded their life becomes paramount on their mind. In an attempt to do this, they will usually try every means possible to distract themselves from the tinnitus which will include masking it completely with another sound so that it can't be heard.

However, tinnitus is quite resilient, any attempts to mask it completely are usually unsuccessful. As soon as the masking sound is removed or stopped temporarily, the brain will immediately focus back on it and often, it appears to be louder and more intrusive. This causes stress especially for someone new to tinnitus. For anyone that doesn't know, the more stressed we are the tinnitus becomes more intrusive, and the louder the tinnitus is the more stressed we are. It can become a vicious circle.

Anyone that is seasoned to tinnitus and has habituated, knows that trying to mask it completely so that it can't be heard is not achievable. A much better way and preferred method that Hearing Therapists advise tinnitus patients, is to use sound enrichment. One can use music or nature sounds from a sound machine and set the volume slightly below the tinnitus. By doing this, the brain over time will learn to no longer see the tinnitus as a threat and gradually push the noise further into the background giving it less importance, which is called habituation.

In-ear or BTE (behind the ear) white noise generators can also be used as part of TRT. They do a similar thing. By setting the volume slightly below the tinnitus, over time the brain habituates to the white noise and gradually pushes the tinnitus further into the background.

Michael

PS: in my opinion, anyone that has tinnitus, especially when it was caused by loud noise exposure, it is not a good idea to use headphones, even at low volume to play music or white noise for sound enrichment.

 

[RaZaH]

Also, white noise is the full spectrum which is not needed it most cases , I would try rain sounds, this one for example, you can eq away the bottom end and just leave the top end sufficient to mask your T.
https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

 

[garywi]

Thank you Michael for the response. Have you heard of or found a way to position your head at night to allow the ear to hear the white noise? I almost need a pillow that supports my head but does not block my ear. Not sure how that would work. Luckily only my left ear is ringing. I have no idea how people with both ears ringing could sleep since one ear would always be sunk into a pillow depending on what side of their body they were sleeping on. I would be interested to know any ideas about how to overcome this, placement of ear, pillow predicament while sleeping. If I could overcome this, I could cope much better. Thank you.

 

[Michael Leigh]

@garywi
I have always used a free standing sound machine by my bedside for sound enrichment at night and don't have any problems sleeping. When I first got tinnitus many years ago, it was difficult at first to sleep but I still only used a sound machine, and I have tinnitus in both ears.
You could try using a pillow speaker. This is a pillow that has built-in speakers and has a cable with a 3.5 jack, that plugs into a sound machine or MP3 player for cell phone. As I suggested, you MUST not mask the tinnitus. Keep the sound level slightly below the tinnitus.
Best of luck
Michael

 

[garywi]

Thank you. I have not been able to overcome when my ringing ear is buried in my pillow, it can't pick up the white noise from my noise machine so the ringing becomes loud in my head and wakes me up. I will look for this noise pillow.

 

[Tweaker]

I use underpillow speakers. I have T in both ears. BTA sell them. They come as a pair so you can have one to the left side of the pillow and the other to the right. That way you can hear a speaker whichever side you sleep on. You can connect them to a sound machine. I connect mine to an mp3 player.

 

[Wojtek Kalka]

New bose sleep buds

https://www.bose.com/en_us/better_with_bose/better_sleep.html

 

[Michael Leigh]

New bose sleep buds

https://www.bose.com/en_us/better_with_bose/better_sleep.html

I do not recommend these devices to be used by anyone that has "noise induced" tinnitus. I consider them to be headphones and therefore dangerous for anyone that has tinnitus caused by noise trauma, even when the volume is set low.

Michael

 

[nick-tko]

There is a pillow out there that has a speaker in it and you can send and sounds to it thru Bluetooth Helped me for a while. Its quite enough that it wont bother a partner.