What Is the Theory Behind Tinnitus Spikes and Is There Any Way to Avoid the Spikes?

[Hopeful1]

I have low tinnitus days and moderate tinnitus days.

Sometimes it spikes from a loud noise and stays high for a couple of days.

Other times it spikes or comes down during sleep. Day before yesterday night it came down during sleep and today afternoon I slept with out proper neck support deeply and it came back up again. Makes me wonder if the issue is with my neck though my hyperacusis and tinnitus started after a couple of days after clubbing.

 

[glynis]

Hi @Hopeful1,
Once we have tinnitus it seems to spike for lots of reasons.
Some we might find out as we get use to our tinnitus but not for some.
My ears are really naughty monkeys at the moment in full blast mode.....lots of love glynis

 

[Hopeful1]

Thanks @glynis
Hope your spike comes down soon.

I wanted to check with the forum if know if any scientific theories on spikes?

 

[Hopeful1]

Bump

Any one know any theories on T spikes?

 

[Hopeful1]

Any ideas on the reason behind spikes
@Markku

 

[Markku]

I wanted to check with the forum if know if any scientific theories on spikes?

None I know of.

 

[Hopeful1]

Thanks @Markku .... i did not find any when i googled so wanted to know for sure.

 

[Cityjohn]

Thanks @glynis
Hope your spike comes down soon.

I wanted to check with the forum if know if any scientific theories on spikes?

There is no scientific study but there are clear theoretical underpinnings we can use to reason as to the cause of spikes. Since the auditory path is only subject to voltage and chemistry it stands to reason that either is altered by sound, motion, and food.
The best course of action seems to be to not strain or manipulate any part of the nervous system in the neck or face. To not eat anything that can excite the central nervous system. And to protect yourself from sound with earplugs.
If you have a spike something physical has changed.

 

[glynis]

I know when we wake up our brain starts to check all our body is fine and waking up from a nap in the day is not what our brain is use to and on more alert while napping for danger and sound and causes tinnitus spikes.
I find also waking up from a busy dream pushes my tinnitus to spike and a quiet more natural wake up keeps my ears from spiking as much.
Great to hear how others find waking up from a sleep or nap or dream effects their tinnitus ?......lots of love Glynis

 

[Hopeful1]

Thanks @glynis
@Cityjohn

My T has been high when i sleep in the last 2 weeks but once i start doing something is comes to levels i am used to before. So i am not sure why my T increased in the sleeping times.

It also goes up during(but i wont notice) and after( i am quite aware of this) excercise. So i stopped intense excercise and only doing light excercise.

 

[Path Maker]

If you have a spike something physical has changed.

In many cases (food, exercise), yes. But I am perplexed by this too. What about when you're just sitting there, in a steady state for several minutes/an hour and out of the blue, you get this sudden, high "eeeeeeeeeeeeee" that then just divebombs into silence again? I've gotten them before the tinnitus (they've been described a a "hair cell dying" and I have no idea if that is the case or not). But those have all been very sporadic (2 - 3 times a year, if that, all the same pitch and loudness and lasting about 6 seconds). Now, having tinnitus, these spike things just arise out of nowhere like fish leaping up from the river, and plunge down again, and it can just be out of the blue. Feels like neuronal instability, in the same vein as epilepsy, perhaps???

 

[Cityjohn]

you get this sudden, high "eeeeeeeeeeeeee" that then just divebombs into silence again?

That's the nervous system trying to reset the threshold on your filtering. If you pay attention your hearing should also become more sensitive prior to the reset attempt, this is usually heard as a hiss that becomes gradually louder until the reset attempt. There should also be a sensation of going slightly deaf.
Mine usually last for a minute until the spike settles down. This is the beep in the ears that everyone experiences, a form of temporary tinnitus.

 

[Markku]

That's the nervous system trying to reset the threshold on your filtering. If you pay attention your hearing should also become more sensitive prior to the reset attempt, this is usually heard as a hiss that becomes gradually louder until the reset attempt. There should also be a sensation of going slightly deaf.
Mine usually last for a minute until the spike settles down. This is the beep in the ears that everyone experiences, a form of temporary tinnitus.

Yeah, we have a long thread on fleeting tinnitus here:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...fleeting-transient-spontaneous-tinnitus.1834/

Incidentally, I had a pretty bad scare the other night.

I had like 8 fleeting tinnitus episodes in a period of 10-15 minutes, with a short pause between each.

The kick?

The last one didn't settle down - so I was a nervous wreck, luckily I was able to fall asleep (had had a loooong day), but I kept thinking if this isn't gone by the time I wake up, not sure how I could deal with that sort of increase, it was just mind blowing (and my current one is already such that only shower & the like mask it, I can easily hear it outdoors, over music etc).

It settled during sleep. Thankfully.

 

[Path Maker]

Yeah, we have a long thread on fleeting tinnitus here:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/loud-tone-for-a-few-seconds-—-fleeting-transient-spontaneous-tinnitus.1834/

Incidentally, I had a pretty bad scare the other night.

I had like 8 fleeting tinnitus episodes in a period of 10-15 minutes, with a short pause between each.

The kick?

The last one didn't settle down - so I was a nervous wreck, luckily I was able to fall asleep (had had a loooong day), but I kept thinking if this isn't gone by the time I wake up, not sure how I could deal with that sort of increase, it was just mind blowing (and my current one is already such that only shower & the like mask it, I can easily hear it outdoors, over music etc).

It settled during sleep. Thankfully.

Mama mia! This ole nervous system is like one of those monkey-clanging-on-cymbals toys amped up on steroids and high on sugar! There MUST be a way to calm this ...

 

[Alue]

That's the nervous system trying to reset the threshold on your filtering. If you pay attention your hearing should also become more sensitive prior to the reset attempt, this is usually heard as a hiss that becomes gradually louder until the reset attempt. There should also be a sensation of going slightly deaf.
Mine usually last for a minute until the spike settles down. This is the beep in the ears that everyone experiences, a form of temporary tinnitus.

Sometimes it's accompanied by sudden deafness (or muted hearing) and then loud ear tinnitus that lasts a few seconds then goes away. This normally only happens on one side at a time and never both sides at the same time.

So it seems in my case the hearing threshold becomes less sensitive prior to the fleeting tinnitus (in that ear).

 

[kamil1364]

I am curious about it too. If tinnitus is really caused by hearing loss, then any spike should be a sign of further damage, and because of it every spike should be permanent. It puzzles me too.

That whole thing has nothing to do with logic. Many people with tinnitus wouldn't even be bothered by their hearing loss, since it's so mild, what's the point in creating that phantom noise then.