Do Daytime Naps Make Your Tinnitus Louder Too?

I haven't enjoyed a nap in 7 years. Even falling asleep for a few minutes can make it an instant 10.
Other things that crank up my tinnitus
Driving in a car more then 10 to 15 minutes.
Working out or anything strenuous
Weed whacking, running a buffer or sander at work...
Sex...not always but usually
Heck even just eating food. I can go days on my bad spike days not eating more then a few pieces of toast.

Is this normal? Does anyone have similar issues?

 

Yeah I have that. Quite common unfortunately.

Sometimes I have horrible hissing when driving. I took some meds last time and I was okay though.

 

What kind of meds?

 

I think I took diazepam+ gabapentin together before a 1.5 hour one way drive last time. But that's up to your Dr. and yourself if you want to experiment. Sometimes your brain becomes resistant to some meds as you probably know.

 

Yeah, I have tried like .25 to .5 mg of Xanax before rides and didn't help tinnitus. I live in mountains so I don't know if it's the flux of going up and down in elevation that's the problem or the drive it's self. I know a 25 minute drive to the next town and a few hundred feet of elevation is enough.

 

I would like to see the mountains again sometime and also the ocean, but my noise is somewhat of a handicap. I live in the U.S. midwest on a farm, so quite flat.

 

Yeah I'm from Florida so I know about living in a flat landscape. I just hate how family and friend think I'm lazy because I don't want to drive an hour to there house. They think I use tinnitus as an excuse to be lazy.

 

Yes, many T sufferers report that their T spikes after a nap. It is called Awakening Response. Dr
Dr. Nagler’s explanation of the Awakening Response of louder T after a nap:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads...xiety-level-is-on-alert-why.9370/#post-111180

“I have always felt it to be due to the role of the reticular formation in tinnitus perception. The reticular formation is a primitive structure in the brain stem. It's a "vital sign monitor." When you wake up, the RF checks to see whether or not you are alive! It looks for heartbeat, respirations, blood pressure, temperature - basic bodily signs. It does not care whether or not these signs are good or bad - just that they are present. And as far as the RF is concerned, tinnitus is part of "expected" body function in an individual suffering from severe intrusive tinnitus. So when you wake, your RF checks to see whether or not tinnitus is present. And if it doesn't immediately find the tinnitus, the RF seeks it with a vengeance - - especially in the post-nap state, when there has been inadequate REM sleep and when, therefore, the RF is on already "high alert" that something might not be quite right. Theoretically - very theoretically - this RF hyperactivity in seeking tinnitus, which in a person with severe intrusive tinnitus it equates with life, results in temporarily markedly augmented tinnitus perception.”

 

I like Florida. My parents had a condo in Naples. I have some relation in that area and Fort Meyers. People that don't have tinnitus will never understand unless they get it themselves. A very hard affliction to live with as you know.

 

Thanks for the info bille.. Very interesting....

I am from fort Myers too... Grew up in San Carlos park in south fort Myers then bought a house in Cape Coral....then moved out here to Northern California about 9 years ago. Small world.

 

So you have both the mountains and the ocean....that would be nice. I heard it's quite expensive to live in CA. I had a quiet period today after I took some diazepam. Hopefully Autonomy's injections will come through and help us out.

 

I'm still depressed over the aut00063 or whatever it is not working. I am looking into tramadol but don't wanna end up worse in the long run. My tinnitus use to be predictable it would be a bad day followed by 1-3 good days. Now it's a few bad days in a row then a few less bad days then a few good days. Sometimes a good week before bad days.
I just wish there was something I could do to have a little control or slowly make things better.

 

Oh I meant Trobalt not tramadol

 

Trobalt (Potiga here) seems too dangerous to me. Yeah it's a bummer Autifony's tinnitus drug flopped. But we have to move on to other solutions. Maybe TRT or just using the WNG's would help? Does your noise get elevated from salty fries from Wendy's? I had some today and may be paying for it now. I read somewhere that Wendy's fast food was the worst for tinnitus.

 

Yes

 

I notice any time I am sleeping and wake up my T is louder. Doesn't matter if its overnight or nap. Especially if I'm woken up suddenly. The T usually returns to a normal level though after some time.

 

For naps I'm doomed the rest of the day....at night is a different ball game

 

It's always louder when I wake up. Especially after naps, but that may also be because I am tired that day.
If I stay in bed -awake-, it stays loud. If I get out and start doing things, it goes back to 'normal' in an hour or so.

 

I have the same problem. I'll have loud days and loud days that start off loud then gradually fades to quiet as the day progresses. There really is something that goes on in the brain during sleep that alters T. You would think that would be a study point in the current research.

 

You're right about that. I tell my 2 brothers that I have T. No response from one of them. The other one says "oh yeah...have fun with that".

 

Same here. I was attributing being quite normal after taking my med combo when I got up (1 hour or so after) but it could have been just being awake somewhat also. Seems like a endless cycle with awakening loud tinnitus.

 

Before my recent spike i had no problems with naps. Was the same always because i never cared about it. Now i have a harder time with naps because my emotional response to it with the spike is really bad.

 

I have very similar symptoms. Even a brief doze off for a few seconds triggers my T to a 10 that lasts for hours. It doesn't happen when I have my normal nightly sleep. I also find a similar occurrence when doing a strenuous activity.

 

It depends on the duration of the nap in my case.

I find if it's a short nap my tinnitus is unaffected. However if I nap for 1-2 hours upon waking my tone is a lot more noticeable.

 

Ooh, I know this problem all to well. After waking up from a nap my t spikes to a 10/10 (as severe as it gets I suppose).. it s accompanied by feelings of dread and total exhaustion.. these are the moments where coping is impossible and anxiety/depression are at their worst... fortunately though, it drops down to baseline after a couple of hours and I manage to return to "normal".
Same applies to when I wake up in the morning (during the week, if I did not have proper rest the night before). If I get the chance to sleep as long as I want, it is usually much less of a problem and recovery time is shorter.

I have noticed that key factor is the general level of stress/tiredness/exhaustion.

Although I am not a big fan of Dr. Nagler, his theory (quoted above) concerning the brain stem function during sleep sounds plausible to me.
Interestingly, recently I also noticed, that during my waking up phase, if I manage to stay in a semi-concious state (half awake, half dreaming) I do not perceive my tinnitus at all. It only becomes noticeable the moment I return to full conciousness. Has anybody else noticed that too?

Anyway, here is a short list that helps me with my "T-nap-hangover":

- long, hot shower.
- listening to music or sounds with noise cancelling head phones at moderate to louder volume for a couple of minutes. Seems that the brain adjusts it's acoustic perception "filters" faster that way.
- exercise (if I dont feel to tired)
- masturbate (yes, it helps!)
- ...whatever else gets your mind of your current train of thoughts.

 

I hate going to sleep if that makes any sense . Because I know when I awake my whole head will be ringing so l can't lay in bed any longer I'll get up early morning 4 am and that's it tinnitus is about 6 / 10 for rest of the day.

 

Been looking at this thread, I never catnap, already had tinnitus 9 years, spikes a lot, but after a catnap it's vicious, even barely falling asleep, if I sleep for example 6 hours wake with the usual racket, two hours the same, not sure what period of time a catnap stretches to, to cause the spike, not sure either why some of us are afflicted so, and others not, why, why, why, always the unanswered tinnitus questions and the general supposition that follows, I mean I have neck arthritis, at the base it hurts, plus it's arthritic around the atlas joint, consultants tell me that's unrelated, I'm not convinced, I'm living with this, they're not, when a catnap happens I question my neck position, I've never taken a catnap on my bed and woken with a spike, but it's severity hits me like some form of punishment for being tired, I live in the south of UK, must sort this insanity out before we sink ( financially that is), then I'll really have some head noises

 

Tennitus causes anxity and in turn causes fight or flight and that in turn causes your system to get tired. Boy what a predicament only thing to help this is to keep busy and that in itself can cause a person to be tired. Right now I guess I fighting a spike and for what I do not know? My mouth is dry and head sounds like a 747. Only options here are to just watch the clock slowly tick away until bed time.

 

Ha. I just searched for "naps" and found this thread. I guess feel better that it's not just me . Just had a super tired hit so stretched out on the floor, partly for the spine stretch, and had a 20 minute nap. When I woke - ka-pow! THERE it is. Oh well, I know I'll be tired when I go to bed, and I'll use my earbuds and do a sound sequence of some sort. I'm having good luck with intense exercise + AudioNotch + myNoise with Neural Symphony; most of the time those things will drive it down to nothing by the next day.

I do miss a short nap though!