What Happens to Your Tinnitus When You Pinch Your Ears Closed with Your Finger?

[ringinghours]

I want to know what happens to other tinnitus sufferers when you close your ear with your finger. Does the sound become louder/more noticeable or does it have no effect.

Mine gets louder, more noticeable.

 

[GregCA]

I want to know what happens to other tinnitus sufferers when you close your ear with your finger. Does the sound become louder/more noticeable or does it have no effect.

Mine gets louder, more noticeable.

It's common and easily explained: your ear doesn't have any external stimulus to mix with your "internal tinnitus", so your tinnitus stands out more and you perceive it as louder, more noticeable.

 

[ringinghours]

It's common and easily explained: your ear doesn't have any external stimulus to mix with your "internal tinnitus", so your tinnitus stands out more and you perceive it as louder, more noticeable.

Yes but when I close my ear with my finger it gets louder even if I am already in a completely silent room. Why is that?

 

[Brenda in NJ]

I want to know what happens to other tinnitus sufferers when you close your ear with your finger. Does the sound become louder/more noticeable or does it have no effect.

Mine gets louder, more noticeable.

Mine gets louder too. So this move is a no no for me. I'm not habituated yet so I'm not doing anything to scare myself more. :/

 

[GregCA]

Yes but when I close my ear with my finger it gets louder even if I am already in a completely silent room. Why is that?

Because what you think is a silent room isn't actually silent. The closest to a perfectly silent room is an anechoic chamber, and I doubt that's where you're conducting your experiment.

 

[ringinghours]

Because what you think is a silent room isn't actually silent. The closest to a perfectly silent room is an anechoic chamber, and I doubt that's where you're conducting your experiment.

Even if I close my ear with my finger and I am in a noisy room or a silent room, the sound gets louder in volume by the same exact amount.

I know that even if I were in a anechoic chamber and closed my ear with my finger the sound would still get louder the same amount. This happens regardless of the amount of noise is in the room. I am trying to find out why that is. And also I want to know if other tinnitus sufferers have that same experience.

 

[Brenda in NJ]

Because what you think is a silent room isn't actually silent. The closest to a perfectly silent room is an anechoic chamber, and I doubt that's where you're conducting your experiment.

Nor do I want to be here with tinnitus. no no no. did I mention no? lol.

 

[Digital Doc]

I think just about everyone's T gets louder when you cover the ear. This also happens upon insertion of earplugs.

 

[ringinghours]

Even if I close my ear with my finger and I am in a noisy room or a silent room, the sound gets louder in volume by the same exact amount.

I think just about everyone's T gets louder when you cover the ear. This also happens upon insertion of earplugs.

Yes but I want to know the reason. Because even when I'm in a completely silent room, when I cover my ear the tinnitus gets louder or more noticeable.

 

[Digital Doc]

Yes but I want to know the reason. Because even when I'm in a completely silent room, when I cover my ear the tinnitus gets louder or more noticeable.

It was explained above by @GregCA

When the external sounds are taken away, the brain focuses more on the sound of the T. This is how white noise, or masking works as an additional background is presented so the brain gets distracted, and the T volume is lowered.

 

[ringinghours]

It was explained above by @GregCA

When the external sounds are taken away, the brain focuses more on the sound of the T. This is how white noise, or masking works as an additional background is presented so the brain gets distracted, and the T volume is lowered.

No it wasn't explained. Because when I close my ear with my finger in a quiet room the sound still gets louder. I want to know if other tinnitus sufferers also have this experience.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I think just about everyone's T gets louder

when I close my ear with my finger in a quiet room the sound still gets louder.

It doesn't Get louder. The noise level is constant, but you can hear it better this way.

If you take a radio from the outside into a small room, it will also sound louder to you, even if you don't adjust the volume.

 

[Digital Doc]

No it wasn't explained. Because when I close my ear with my finger in a quiet room the sound still gets louder. I want to know if other tinnitus sufferers also have this experience.

A quite room is not a silent room as a quiet room is about 40 db so there is still some ambient noise level that is blocked out by covering of the ear.

 

[ringinghours]

A quite room is not a silent room as a quiet room is about 40 db so there is still some ambient noise level that is blocked out by covering of the ear.

Yes but this explanation is problematic because when I close my ear with my finger in either a quiet room or a noisy room the sounds gets louder by exactly the same volume. If the explanation given (that a quiet room is not in fact completely noise-free ) was true it would be expected that when I close my ear in a noisy room the degree of loudness of the tinnitus would go up noticeably more than when doing so in a quiet room.

 

[Digital Doc]

Not really, I think the T is more constant (at least for me), and closing off the ear, and in turn the sound, takes it down to the same amount.

 

[ringinghours]

Not really, I think the T is more constant (at least for me), and closing off the ear, and in turn the sound, takes it down to the same amount.

Can you be more clear? It is difficult to understand what you mean.

 

[JohnAdams]

louder

 

[OnceUponaTime]

This is why I hate earplugs. ugh...louder of course.

 

[Jr_time]

I have a ringing that seems to come from my head and a buzzing sound coming from my ear, if I wear earplugs the ringing seems louder but the buzzing seems to fade away.