Hello Everyone — Trying to Find Some Coping Strategies to Help with Sleep

I'm new around these parts, and figured I'd stop bye and say hey.

A little a bot me, I'm a 23 y/o student from Florida. I have worked in manufacturing plants, music festivals, and other things to that affect. There is no denying the fact that I've earned my tinnitus. I've had some mild tinnitus for at least 2 or 3 years, but the past year it has been getting worse. At this point its been hard to get to sleep at night. Even worse than the tinnitus is trying to explain to my loved ones just how bad it is and just how frustrating it is to have a constant ringing all the time. A lot of the time I feel like they aren't even listening to me because they either don't understand how bad it is or that its a big issue for me.

I've been trying to find some coping strategies to help me sleep at night. If anyone has anything that they have tried and has worked for them, sorry for the pun, I'm all ears.

 

Warm welcome to the forum. There are several things to help get some sleep. Most people use masking sounds, some use medications or natural supplements. Have you tried masking?

 

Amitriptyline (10 mg) helped me to sleep back when my tinnitus was very loud and it didn't make me feel drowsy the next day. Amitriptyline in large doses (over 100 mg) has been used to treat tinnitus (and it was found to be somewhat effective for some people). However, just like with most tinnitus treatments, a very small minority of patients experienced a spike after taking this drug. Having said this, most people who take it end up being ok.

You should also try masking. The idea is give yourself something else to listen to besides your tinnitus (and not to play sounds that are so loud that you can't hear your tinnitus anymore [something that's often not possible]). The sounds of crickets work well for high pitch tone tinnitus.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

Doxlyamine succinate.

 

Has your loudness come down over the time you had it? What does it sound like? What sounds do you use for masking? I'm asking because you mention cricket sounds and that's what seems to work best for me.

 

I've had quite a few problems with sleep - currently reading this excellent book about sleep problems https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/the-sleep-solution - I am finding lemon balm works well for sleep https://newnordic.co.uk/en/melissa-dreamtm.html

 

Hi @Loonybin56 - Regenerative and rejuvenating effects of sleep are definitely useful in dealing with and treating tinnitus. I know it sounds cliché, but develop a good sleep routine and over time you will hopefully adapt. For me several things have helped -

Go to sleep and wake up at the same times each day.

Eat a neutral and healthy meal at dinner. Avoid excessively salty, sugary, and spicy foods at dinner.

Eat dinner at least 2-3 hours before going to sleep.

Avoid electronics and blue screen use in the evenings and at night before bed. If it is necessary, use blue light blocking glasses.

Run a humidifier at night if your sleeping area is really dry.

Avoid excessive exercise besides yoga or some mild gentle stretching to avoid increasing your heart rate before bed.

Do something before bed that relaxes you - read, meditate, deep breathing, etc...

Try some non-habit forming sleep meds and sups. I take 25 mg of nortriptyline at night as a daily migraine preventive at night which causes drowsiness along with 5 mg of melatonin. This knocks me out and helps me get at least 7 hours of sleep a night while waking up once or twice.

I subscribed to Dr. Michael Breus's weekly email list here - https://thesleepdoctor.com/. Ignore all of the products he endorses and tries to push on his subscribers. Regardless, this has led me to a lot of useful information, free sleep courses, and podcasts that have helped since my tinnitus onset in July 2019.

By far the best thing that has helped me sleep better with tinnitus is anti-inflammatory smoothie I make every night between dinner and bed. I usually follow this recipe - https://ohmyveggies.com/kale-smoothie/. Lately I have been experimenting by adding fresh pineapple, turmeric extract, and sometimes mango as well, so I am fine-tuning my own version of this smoothie. My latest versions of the smoothie contains almond milk, kale, ginger, cinnamon, pineapple, and turmeric; all of which are anti-inflammatories and the smoothie is not overly sweet. In my case, this really calms the nerves and helps reduce stress while performing mild self-care regiment in the evenings before going to bed.

Some colleagues with tinnitus listen to these podcasts at night which help them drift off to sleep - https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/. The host basically rabbles on about useless stuff that is so boring it puts people to sleep. It does not work for me, but may work for others.

I do not like outside noise of any type when sleeping so I do not use masking sounds or anything similar to fall asleep, but these things have worked for others as well.

 

You may need to make the distinction between strategies that help fall asleep and then stay asleep moving forward to help tackle this problem.

 

The strategies that worked for me are:

- melatonin at bedtime
- green tea with aloe an hour before bedtime
- earplugs in at night to keep it quiet, and avoid getting woken up when the trucks start running in the morning

Hope you can get some rest, it is quite important.

 

A "sound soother," which is a noise generating machine, next to your pillow. Crickets (as everyone has found) and rain are the best. I use mine every night and it helps so much. Mine is Homedics, it can run by batteries or a/c, but there are a lot of brands, and they are not expensive. Some companies make pillows with speakers in them, I have not tried them, as the sound soother is very effective. During the day, you can have it on, even on the other side of the room, and it helps. We always need a background noise, that is the number one truth of what I call the Demon T.
Now, if you live in a place where it rains, open the window! I live in Tucson, AZ, so I need the electronic rain....although we do sometimes get rainstorms and it is heaven (except for the low barometric pressure of course which is a different topic). If you hearing aids with maskers, or headphones on low, you can't really sleep in them.
Try the sound soother.

I am a newbie to posting on this forum but I have been a "lurker" for a while. I find everyone's comments and suggestions very comforting and helpful, it is nice to know we are not alone in this misery. Thank you everyone for sharing your life on this forum!