Can You Advise Re: Reactive Morse Code-Like Beeping?

Hello lovely people.

I am wondering if anyone can offer any kind of advice and relate to what I am currently experiencing.

To keep it brief, I have had noise-induced tinnitus for years but it was made life changing after an acoustic trauma around 2 years ago, mainly in my left ear. Around 5 months after that hyperacusis set in, again in my left ear. But at some point after that, months after, I woke up to a faint morse code like sound in my right ear. That was at least a year ago. It has bothered me every now and then but the last couple of days it has actually affected my sleep by being fairly intrusive. It also reacts to sounds like faint traffic, even my daughter breathing close to me. Is this just another form of tinnitus? My main fear is it continuing to enforce its dominance onto me.

A few observations I have made:

• It can get worse after driving.
• If I wear my big Peltor earmuffs, it can appear worse. Can there be some kind of vacuum effect caused?
• I also did fairly heavy weights yesterday (wearing the earmuffs).

Or are all these things just coincidences?

I have searched this on the forum and various things do come up. I just wonder if there are any of you are going through it right now and if so, whether you have any tips/suggestions/thoughts etc.

Thanks in advance to anyone who reads/replies. Like many of us, I just cannot believe how horrible and intrusive this condition is.

 

Hello @SonOfUhtred,

I am going through a similar experience after having a bad cold then being exposed to loud noise so I can empathise with you.

My tinnitus experience is not too dissimilar to you (noise-induced tinnitus which has led to noxacusis) and an array of tones and ear activity. I started with a ring in my left ear, then got morse code which blended in with the ring. My right ear has a ring with like a swirling sound. Now I have a new reactive morse code in my left ear since last Sunday which is lower in frequency, and just the past hour, a faint morse code in my right ear.

To answer your query - I think it is a form of tinnitus. From you saying about feeling like a vacuum in your ear, I have felt the same since the new morse code and also on/off facial pressure.

I have felt really emotional this week after 24 months of stability in my tinnitus, and understand your comment about fear. I have reached out to the RNID about hearing therapists as I know I need the support now.

Unfortunately, there’s not much advice I can give that you probably don’t already know. For me, it’s auditory rest and just carrying on. Currently distracting myself with TV shows!

Wishing you all the best and that your ears calm to how they were from the past intrusive days.

 

@SonOfUhtred, yes, it's just another style of tinnitus. It's truly amazing how many variations there are. My original tinnitus sound didn't sound like Morse code, and I didn't even know what people on this website meant when they spoke of their own Morse code sounds until it happened to me a few months later. It just came out of nowhere--a series of high-pitched beeping tones with a rapid and highly irregular rhythm.

I still hear Morse code sometimes. It's one of six kinds of tones that come and go at random. I've never determined what causes a change in tone at any given moment, or why my brain will select one tone instead of another. It's like a jukebox that will play whatever it wants, and I'm a captive audience with no ability to control the playlist.

Lots of people report changes to their tinnitus after some form of physical exercise, but it's usually only a temporary change. As for the Peltors, I have not heard anyone say it's bad to wear earmuffs while exercising (but someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

I think most people here say that their tinnitus seems louder when they are wearing ear protection, so you are not along in that regard. It happens to me too, and when it does, I just take the earmuffs off for a while, provided that I'm in a fairly quiet, safe environment. Then I try to distract my mind with something really interesting to redirect my attention away from the noise in my head.

I hope you can figure out a way to make this noise go away or at least fade. Chances are, it will subside on its own very soon, as long as you are careful to avoid loud noises that will make your ears tense up. You can also try some dietary supplements for a few weeks or months to see if that might lower the volume. Things like ginger, turmeric, NAC, etc.

@Jenny_S, I know what you mean about the ringing tone with the "swirling" sound. I have that too. In my mind's eye, I can see a brightly lit police siren that spins around, or a noisy ice cream truck that circles my block over and over without ever stopping. I've often wondered what causes this sensory impression of rotation or swirling because all the other tinnitus tones I have seem stationary.

 

So sorry to hear about what you are going through. Do you mind me asking what your noise trauma was? Did you lose hearing?

I’ve developed a new unusual tone in my left ear. I wouldn’t describe it as Morse code like but more just like a faint ring/echo. It gets much louder when I yawn. I’ve been getting it on and off.

I see a therapist for tinnitus. He’s an audiologist who also has tinnitus. I just lost my father four weeks ago and we lost a good friend two weeks ago. He said sometimes people with what he calls fluctuating or reactive tinnitus will develop new and different tones for no apparent reason. And they can come and go. Stress can cause it. It’s a reaction in the brain. Have you been under a lot of stress lately?

I thought fluctuating tinnitus just meant that it got louder in response to noise but he said no, it can actually be a different sound, pitch, quality and volume.

I’m getting a hearing test tomorrow to make sure that nothing has changed with my hearing in that ear. It does worry me that it’s in one ear only. I had a recent CT scan so I know I don’t have a tumor or anything. I’ve had dips in my hearing at one mid frequency in that ear before with accompanying tinnitus but then my hearing recovered spontaneously. And it was not the result of noise trauma. I have to admit I’m a little nervous about what tomorrow will bring.

Fingers crossed.

I hope your noise gets better. It’s hard enough to deal with this but even harder when you have interrupted sleep. I sleep with so much noise in my room that my husband has now started to sleep in the guestroom.

 

The weight lifting surely raised your blood pressure, which would have raised the tinnitus level too. There seems to be conflicting info on the blood pressure part, but I think that exerting yourself raises it. When I bike really hard, it has my tinnitus screaming. Thankfully, it has always gone down to base, but at 71 I should take it a little easier and focus on aerobics.

The new sounds you're hearing are what I've been going through after moving from a desert climate to a high humidity Southern climate. Mine is a lot higher pitched than before, and a lot harder to mask. I might have to find different frequencies to mask it, which is something you probably should look into too. I can't wear any sort of ear protection, it eliminates any masking effect I might get from ambient sounds, and makes the tinnitus seem much louder.

Do some research and see if any of your medications could be causing it. Sometimes over time things change, so it would be a good idea to see if any of them are linked to tinnitus when using them long term. I have had several instances lately where I woke up a/ a different sort of tinnitus than I went to sleep w/. It is really annoying, but there doesn't seem to be any way to effect it. I just eat healthy, ride my bike daily, take a walk, do my meditation, etc. It's a good idea to have a schedule that keeps you busy to get your mind off it.