Habituate with new level of tinnitus when sleeping

Hello to everyone. First of all, sorry for my poor English.
My name is Cris, I am 32 years old and I have tinnitus since 2011 from going to a loud club music. First month was very hard for me, I visited several ENT's, all told me that I have to live with it, one of them prescribed me Betaserc 24. The level of tinnitus was high in my perception. What I have done? Nothing different. I continued to live my life, going to work, listen music, going to gym, travel, reading. When the panic and anxiety disappeared I started to feel better, the level of tinnitus went down so much that I barely hear it in a silence room. Tinnitus became my friend and was telling me when I was doing something wrong. I began to go again in clubs, cinema or pubs with ear plugs. I had a bad few episodes after going to loud places but it only bothered me a bit for 3-4 days then I quickly forgot about it. How did I get over it everytime? I started paying less and less attention to it and applied "I can ignore it" technique.
It just worked out fine until two weeks ago when after going to a loud pub my tinnitus increased to a level that stayed highed more than 3-4 days that I used to. I don't know if the level increased in time and didn't realized is getting worse or it was a straight increase. It' s masked most of the time by ambient noise at work and out and is over the fan coolers of my PC at home.
The big problem now is that it bother me at night when I want to sleep because is very loud to both ears. I was tired but unable to fall asleep for 4 days. I tried with TV and radio on, white noise, falling water, rain. Nothing works to masked it because I like to sleep in silence. My doctor prescribed me some lorazepam meds and I could sleep a few days. I don't want to get addicted to that. I miss the days when I could sleep by my own powers. What can I do?

 

If the noise is genuinely too much to sleep my advice would be some intensive exercise so you are physically shattered every night. Then go and lie down and try and watch a film or the tv and hopefully you will struggle to keep your eyes open. If it is still difficult try reading a book in a dim light. Always works for me.

 

Actually good sleep hygiene dictates no TV watching while in bed. Here are my suggestions for the next few weeks:

- as noted above, extra exercise...good for you and helps with sleep
- no bright light (TV, computer, house lights) after 7PM
- sleep stack with things like magnesium, melatonin, Valerian root, sleepytime tea
- anxiety med only when needed and taper off over time
- a fan set on low near bed. You will get used to the hum over time and come to love it

Two weeks is not a long time. When sleep improves so will your mood and T will likely fade. I followed the above activities and 5 months after a spike I'm back to baseline or very close. Good luck.

 

Interestingly although I have a very high-pitched T, sleeping was never an issue for me.
Because I knew that during sleep, I do not hear my T. So oftentimes it is more the fear and stress T makes to keep people awake. Nevertheless I take a sleeping aid which is Remeron. An AD where already at a low dose gets you tired. It is not addictive and oftentimes given as a sleeping aid. Of course I do not want to recommend meds. But better Remeron than any benzos. Remeron is given regularly to T sufferers in Germany. The higher the depression, the higher the dose.

 

Thanks a lot for your support. I tried melatonin but it doesn't work. What is your opinion abut my audiogram?
http://i.imgur.com/XiYIJGt.jpg Audiologist says that my hearing is good but sometimes feel that people not speaking very clearly or I don't understand soft speech. Lack of sleep may affect my hearing ability?

 

Im confused with "spikes" and "relapses". Are you saying your T actually increased in volume and then returned to a lower baseline ?

 

I agree these terms are often used differently and can confuse. Not sure what a "relapse" means. I tend to think a "spike" implies that T loudness, however that is measured or perceived, increased over some short time interval and then drops down with time.

Yes my T increased in volume and over about 5 months time it "receded", if you will, back to very close to the level I sensed for around 20 years. But to be clear, it did NOT return to a lower baseline. That, I understand, is a fairly rare occurrence among us folks.

Hope this helps.

 

Now I am confused. When I say relapse I mean back to square one. Spike to me is a temporary increase. Short term. When I relapse I honestly do not know if it got louder or just as loud as before. When I habituate I get to 'I can live with this.' I had a good ten years at an acceptable level. I call it "T" heaven. I'm hoping for that level again. When you say "receded" do you mean 20 year level. So your baseline is the 20 years living with T? Yes it is there and I don't care!

 

Yes and yes.