Nightly Tinnitus Attacks/Spikes — The Reason?

Hi folks.

I am getting crazy piercing tinnitus attacks during the night which is up to 5 x time louder than my usual level. I always wake up shocked and scared with the intensity of the sounds and physical sensations in the head/ear connected to the tinnitus.

The weirdest sensation is a humming, vibrating sound as of a generator or refrigerator. It has my brain/head buzzing/vibrating every 3rd second. Its like having electrical stimuli in the head which makes sleep impossible.

Whats the reason for this? I am spending the days in a silent environment, so it's not that my ears are responding to bad exposure to sound during the day.

When I wake up in the morning my bad ear is "aching" and feels tired from enduring the storm of the night. Once upon the time my ear would feel rested after 8-12 hours of sleep and not exhausted like this!

I´m taking Mirtazapine for sleep, but I feel with these attacks getting worse and worse it's not enough.

Thanks in advance.

Regards
L

 

Hello Lesky have you been to your Doctor to rule out any current problems in your ears, nose or throat? If there is a current undiagnosed infection this could be what it causing you problems at the moment.

 

Molan: Thanks for the reply.

Should I not feel any symptoms of infection to have it? I mean I do not feel like I am sick or have a cold or anything else. Could I still have an infection without experiencing any of the usual symptoms of a cold?

 

Lesky-
Do you think it's the Mirtazapine? How long have you been taking it?

I take it and I really like it. It gives me good dreams. But could it be affecting you differently?

 

Hi Karl.

I have been taking Mirtazapine since 2009 and have never experienced any change to my tinnitus on it previously. It does not have tinnitus as a side effect as I am sure you know.

Without going into specifics: In October 2011 I overexposed myself to sound and as a result got worse tinnitus, hyperacusis and also chronic ear pain.

Even since then - the last 16 months I have been getting gradually worse = more sound sensitivity, more chronic ear pain and lately my tinnitus has also begun flaring up on a regular basis. I think these nightly attacks is related to my ongoing aggravation of ear problems.

I can´t know for sure, but my feeling is that Mirtazapine has nothing to do with it. I say that because when my ears were "better", I never had any issues that could possible be related to Mirtazapine.

I just figured I would ask if others has similar experiences at night. Furthermore I have no explanation to why my general condition is getting worse, thus not being able to say for sure whats causing these nightly spikes. I just hope they won´t leave a more lasting impression on the days than it has thus far.

Amazingly some of the sounds I hear these nights I have not heard in my head since back in 1997-1999 when I first got tinnitus.

 

Lesky -
Tinnitus is a constantly puzzling. A neurologist may be able to help.

 

Does anyone get tinnitus spikes right before or while lying in bed? lol... Had two spikes one night after the other...

 

My tinnitus always increases in the late hours.

It can be because your body is tired. It can also be because the overall noise level around is lower which makes you perceive the tone as louder. It's probably a combination of things.

TBH I have no idea. Those are my best guesses.