Does Sleeping at an Angle or Using a Pillow Wedge Help Anyone's Pulsatile Tinnitus (PT)?

Hi everyone,

I'm a bit confused on what to do as this issue wakes me up every single night, usually a few times.

I have regular severe tinnitus during the day but when I wake up in the morning or middle of the night I wake up due to my tinnitus becoming a pulsatile beeping along with my normal T. It is occurring partially in sync with my pulse but disappears when I'm awoken completely. This only occurs when I’m lying down and am partially asleep (like the point where you are about to doze off).

Does anyone else experience this, or have any advice to offer?

I’m wondering if anyone here has had any success with sleep by putting their mattress on an incline or using a pillow wedge of some sort to help with blood flow? I have lately been experimenting without success.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your responses.

 

My guess is this has something to do with brain activity.

As for mattress, pillow etc I would suggest trial and error. Your neck may have a role on the tinnitus maybe, if you are sleeping in a wrong position.

 

Hi @Juan and thanks for the advice. I agree that my neck tension or positioning is involved here somehow.

I will be purchasing an adjustable bed frame to play with different angles to see if this helps along with neck stretches and posture correction exercises.

It's the strangest thing, only in a state of half consciousness does it begin, so study of it is difficult lol

Love and respect
Stu

 

For me T changes too when dozing off. Actually it can disappear, and it rings louder when waking up slowly in the morning. So my guess is it has to do with brain activity. Like if our brain was starting like a computer does, some program, or the starting process is wrong at some point.. just to give an example.

 

Mine is only on the left and it is more like a heartbeat thing than beeping. I sleep on my left and it seems to go away. It is very mild. Plus my left is my bad ear so I can't hear the alarm form tat one anyway.

 

@Juan @spinnaker,

Thanks for the responses. I recently purchased a automatic fully adjustable bed and new mattress (free trial for several weeks) to experiment with angles and positioning of my body. Hopefully this solves the problem.

Love and respect.

 

Does anyone else on Tinnitus Talk have any experience/knowledge regarding this issue? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have a look at this, I think they offer a 30 day money back guarantee https://www.envypillow.com/tmj-pillow

 

@carlover

Thanks for the link.

 

Spinnaker. Mine is a heartbeat sound and I thought it was my blood pressure and it freaks me out. I had a bp regular check a month ago and my doc said it was fine. Do you have elevated bp for it to sound like a heartbeat or is yours normal?
Regards.

 

Pulsatile tinnitus is completely seperate from tinnitus. The change seems to be due to your change in position, which would be expected. Pulsatile tinnitus is caused by some abnormality in the fluid dynamics inside your head, usually from some alteration of the venous blood flow. Often times it can be from a stenosis or narrowing of the vein, or from another abnormality like a dural arteriovenous fistula. Part of the characteristic is the variability in the PT. Have your had yours investigated?

 

Whenever posting about pulsatile tinnitus it would be very helpful to know the person's age because that can made a big difference on what the cause is. Next would be the following: Exposure to radiological scanning done for the neck, head, mouth and jaw. Blood testing for infection and thyroid. Any neck movement exams and multiple stethoscope exams done. Any GERD, hiatal hernia or salvia gland problems. Sores in the mouth.

Often neck arteries have involvement with bone marrow, thyroid gland, esophagus, salivary glands, mouth sores, skin, bone surface, sternocleidomastoid muscles, brain, pituitary, facial, any nerves or processes above the shoulders and eyes. One example: Multiple CT exams (radiation effect) can cause thyroid problems and then this can also cause any problems in the sentence above including arteries of the neck. So neck arteries is not always cause by itself.

 

It's usually the veins of the head and neck where this originates, the arteries can be involved, but that's rather rare. And if/when arteries are involved, that's almost always a very dangerous situation.

 

True, no problem with that, but both terms (artery - vein) are used in medicine. Such as with subclavian, carotid and superior thyroid. Jugular is mostly referred to as a vein. Some doctors will call any of the 16 majors blood vessels. You may know more than me per pulsatile tinnitus. I have PT and I know my cause - it involves several events and pathways.

I study case histories and I feel that overall biology problems/conditions is important to know when assisting with physical and pulse type tinnitus. One thing can involve or lead to another.

I never knew much about regular tinnitus before getting it and I still don't. I do know a fair amount about physical and pulse tinnitus and involved anatomy, but treatment sometimes is trial and error. I had been around many ER and OB doctors for many years. I also have read over 5000 science articles on physical tinnitus and conditions of cause and probably more case studies.

 

Listen, it's not a competition. I'm speaking from my experience and from talking with, and being treated by some of the best doctors in the country. They've educated me very well on my condition, as well as the lack of knowledge of most doctors, and their ability to diagnose and treat. I've had 3 cerebral angiograms to date, 3 brain surgeries to repair these issues. This consisted of two dural arteriovenous fistula, which caused pulsatile tinnitus (among other things), and were cured. Also a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, and a pulmonary embolism. With all of this, I have gotten through without any lasting damage and with curative treatment. This is due in part to my persistence, diligence, and choice of the best doctors I was able to go to. There are a lot of people on this forum suffering from this ailment for a variety of reasons, and a large portion of them, unneccessarily. Most times this is a curable issue, and can also indicate a life-threatening situation, as it was in my case. I'm leveraging my experience to try to help others, and to motivate them to seek appropriate treatment and diagnosis, rather than guessing and speculating about the causes, and not doing anything about it. I'm frustrated by the amount of misinformation here.

I suffer from general tinnitus as well, which was drug induced, that will probably never go away. I also had pulsatile tinnitus, which is not even related in any way, which was cured.

 

I have been experiencing exactly the same symptoms for the last 3 months... It started first on my left ear with severe regular tinnitus, and after awhile I had the sensation of "waves" when I was about to fall asleep... lately this feeling has been focusing on my left ear only (again only when I am about to fall asleep) as regular waves with "pressure". My regular tinnitus has been getting better but not gone...

I went to 2 neurologists an 2 ENT doctors, I had MRI, MRA and carotid ultrasound which found no specific pathological problem. My ENT has put me on Ginkgo Biloba, Magnesium, and B12 (my B12 level was just on the lower range), and my neurologist prescribed me with Brintellix 10 mg (Vortioxetine) which is antidepressant, and 25 mg of Atarax to help me with my sleep issues. His opinion is that this is stress/anxiety related, and by the time the antidepressant starts working it will be resolved.

I was wondering whether you had any update on your problem?

 

Hi @JohnEfi, I have no updates, mine never resolved. I had various tests done but I couldn't get an MRI at the time due to severe tinnitus and hyperacusis. My hyperacusis has almost completely healed but my tinnitus is still severe and for some strange reason becomes pulsatile when sleeping along with my regular tinnitus.

@Greg Sacramento would you be kind enough to weigh in here about possibilities?

 

@Greg Sacramento, hi, well as I wrote on my previous post, I have done all tests (MRI, MRA, etc) and the doctors (I went to 2 ENTs and 2 neurologists) couldn't find anything pathologically wrong with me... they all think is stress related (due to my work - I am running a hedge fund in Greece), and that's why they prescribed me with antidepressant (Brintellix), alongside with B12, Magnesium and Ginkgo Biloba. My regular tinnitus is a lot better than it was when it started (almost 3 months ago)... there are days that I don't pay any attention to it, I have actually correlated it with the weather changes...


Now, the pulsatile tinnitus (actually my doctors don't think that is a pulsatile tinnitus) after the 3rd week on Brintelllix (I am now on the 4th week) some nights disappears completely, some nights it's so "light" that it doesn't bother me with my sleep, and sometimes it is annoying... but all in all I think it is getting better. My doctors think it's still to early to see any changes (antidepressants take up to 5 weeks to start regulate the mood and the stress).

Anyway many thanks for your reply, I will definitely post you any updates...

Just a last question, does your "pulsatile" tinnitus come on every night, and if so, do you get it from the time you go to bed? Mine doesn't start when I initially go fall sleep, but when I wake up in the middle of the night for several reasons (e.g., toilet), and then try to sleep again, this is when it kicks in (as you wrote on your initial post - "like the point where you are about to doze off".

I truly understand what you re going through and how difficult is even to describe this symptom to the doctors... I hope you start feeling well soon.

 

Thanks

Yes it comes on every night to my knowledge. All I know is when I'm drifting into unconsciousness I hear a beeping or some other noise in partial rhythm with my heartbeat that is separate from my normal severe tinnitus. It's all very strange and it's been 2 years without much change. I'm on sleeping meds and it still wakes me up. Please let me know if you find a solution as what we have seems to very rare and debilitating.

Love and Respect

Stu