When I Put in Earplugs My Tinnitus Reduces?

I put in earplugs as I was laying in bed. No external noise. After a while it really reduced the T!! Can anyone explain why this happens?

 

Seriously? Whenever I put my fingers in the T gets louder. That's something new

 

It's gets a bit louder for sure, but then slowly the volume decreases and some of my tones seems to fade. I didn't realise how bloody noisy my T was until I did this!!!! Wanna try and see if it happens for you? You need be relaxed though and accept the sounds.

 

This is baffling to me! My father, who also has severe T, claims that ear plugs greatly reduce his T. I use ear protection a lot and hate it because my seems to go off the charts! Maybe your T is reactive? Glad you can get some relief with ear plugs.

 

I might try it. These past few days I've been getting more fleeting T on my not affected ear so it's been disturbing me

 

I think this depends partly on the pitch and whether the cause is hearing loss or not.

Most people have their T get louder (or at least more noticeable) when it's very quiet. Mine is kind of the opposite. Because my pitch is so high (at least 10 KHz) it becomes more noticeable when there are low pitched sounds around (which is pretty much all the time). Blocking those out makes my T less noticeable since my T's volume will "rise" to match the volume of any external low pitched sounds (some kind of trick of the brain since low pitched sounds don't mask my T).

A warning though. Constantly using ear plugs when not in a noisy environment can trigger hyperacusis. I had that happen to me when I used to wear ear plugs all day in a fairly quiet environment after shortly getting T. Fortunately I got over it.

 

What exactly is hyperacusis? I've read up on it, but I don't understand it

 

It's when normal volume sounds sound "too loud" and in many cases can be painful. Basically someone can be talking in a normal voice and for someone with hyperacusis it feels like someone is screaming in that person's ear.