I read someone else on here suspected the mask, or maybe it was you? I also wear a N95 mask because of my heart failure.
I've been in the ER to get my heart defibrillated 3 x now in the past 6 months. Each time, wearing my mask for 4 hours straight. About 1 month ago two days after the er trip my stapedial myoclonus started for the first time. Mine was really bad because it lasted about 18 hours a day or so. I got about a 4 hour break during the afternoon. It went away for 1 week and I thought it was gone, but then came back harder than ever.
Now it's mostly gone again, but still comes on while I sleep. I only have it when I get up in the night to go to the bathroom.
You might be on to something with your mask hypothesis, I don't know though. I spent 3 trips to the ER wearing it 4 hour each time and only had it occur after 1 trip. I had it come back again 2 days after my last trip, but it isn't bad now. When I'm there I am also administered a high voltage shock along with strong antiarrhythmic drugs and anesthesia. One of those could have caused mine.
I asked my ENT about those things causing this problem and he said no. He hasn't seen that happen during his entire career, and he's in his 60s or 70s. Very highly respected Harvard Medical School graduate. He even does the surgery for middle ear myoclonus. One thing that made me feel better is the fact that he himself has had stapedial myoclonus! He knows how it feels and said that almost all of the cases go away on their own. He mentioned viruses as the biggest cause I think. He said the surgery is rarely needed, but he's done quite a few over his many years of practice.
I forgot to ask him if the surgery leads to any hearing loss. I'd not want to sacrifice part of my hearing because I really enjoy music.
