I Went to Bed without Tinnitus, Had a Nightmare, and Woke Up with Tinnitus — It's Been One Month

Hi Everybody,

I am one month into tinnitus and I wanted to share my story in the hope of receiving encouragement and to encourage others if possible.

I am 36 years old. Just under a month ago I woke up in the middle of the night from an extremely intense nightmare. As I got out of bed and got a glass of water from the kitchen I became aware of an excruciating ringing noise coming from my ears. I went immediately to the bathroom to confirm it. As I went back to bed I was unable to sleep as the ringing would not subside. I can confidently say that the following 3 nights were the worst of my life. The ringing was so intense, it was as if there was an alarm clock going off in my head. I slept an hour each night as my body would eventually exhaust itself by 6am and then by 7am I would jump up in a state of panic due to the ringing. At that point I was not able to mask it with the television on and a fan directly into my ear.

My wife is 6 months pregnant with our first child and it brought me to tears every night having to sleep in the living room and leave my wife alone in the bedroom. A few visits to the ER all resulted in the same message from doctors that there was no ear infection or hearing loss and unfortunately there is nothing they could do for the tinnitus which was nothing short of debilitating.

By the 5th day I noticed a slight reduction in the noise. My tinnitus was accompanied by high blood pressure (169/100), being the highest it reached. As I started to exercise and eliminate salt from my diet, I noticed slight changes in the ringing. The volume was decreasing and after 7 days I was able to sleep in the bedroom again with the television on at a low volume and a fan on. I would not be able to turn my head on the side on the pillow as the ringing would become too intense the closer my ear got to the pillow.

10 days later I noticed a slight reduction in noise and I was able to sleep with the television on very low volume and with the fan off.

5 days ago I was able to start sleeping without the television on and without the fan on. I would still hear the ringing but it was a lot quieter and I was able to turn my head comfortably on the pillow without hearing the ringing. Another observation I made is that at times when the tinnitus got very loud, if I started reading a book and whispering the words out loud the tinnitus would slowly go down in volume.

Despite all the progress I still do hear the tinnitus and in small spaces such as bathroom, car or closet it is still extremely loud although slightly quieter than before. I do find outdoors also seems to confuse my ear and the tinnitus tends to increase. Although my trend seems to be one of consistent improvement, I have noticed that the tinnitus has increased since yesterday and I am able to hear it when I put my ear down on the pillow. While this is a setback I am trying to stay positive and believe that the positive progress will resume.

As many who are suffering with tinnitus I feel I am depressed, particularly as I am 3 months away from my son being born, a moment I waited for for so long. There are days where I fear that I may not be around to meet my son if the tinnitus becomes unbearable. Part of the fear I think can relate to the unpredictable nature of the beast, how external sounds can go off at any time. I also notice areas of the house that set off my tinnitus more than others, something I cannot explain. In some areas of the house the tinnitus is, low however in others I can hear a high pitch varying tone which seems to be coming from every direction.

So this is my story. I would love to hear some positive comments and thoughts of more experienced folks who may be able to offer some encouragement based on the progress that I believe to be making after one month.

Could the fact that the tinnitus loudness lowers when I read out aloud suggest that the ear/brain can be trained to ignore the tinnitus, and should I purposely put myself in closed spaces such as the bathroom or a closet with a book to try and "train" my mind?

Thank you in advance to all, best regards.

 

I'm sorry you are going through this during a special time with your wife expecting a baby. There are moms and dads on the forum with infants, it may help to talk to them.

I am 15 weeks in with both tinnitus and hyperacusis. It has been a struggle with constant sound and very little reduction. The hardest part for me has been the sound sensitivity as it separates me from spending quality time with my family. It's difficult to realize how much sound encompasses our lives until it becomes dangerous or painful for us.

When I need encouragement, I read success stories by JJflyman, TomCnyc and Jason C. They've been helpful and positive.

Blessings,
twa

 

I'm surprised to hear that. My tinnitus started in the same way: after a nightmare.

I can understand your feelings. First days after tinnitus onset are the worst days generally. I hope you feel better day by day.

How can you be sure the cause is stress?

 

Welcome to the forum, James. Your tinnitus is quite new and usually people may take months to a year or two to get well. I was hit with both ultra high pitch tinnitus plus severe hyperacusis so I took a little longer before I wrote my success story by the 3rd anniversary of my tinnitus journey. I think the positive stories and comments are best to be found in the Success Stories category under Knowledge Base. I provide my success story and hopefully you can find something useful from some of my shared strategies. Try to be positive and relax about the future. I made the mistake when my tinnitus was new that everything was too loud and that life in the future will be all dark. I was also hit by severe hyperacusis too soon after. So it looked as though good life was done and gone for good. How wrong! I was doing so well for almost 10 years and then suddenly my left ear suffered profound hearing lost suddenly about 4 weeks ago. This time around I am not going to believe that good life is done for good. I am managing as good as I can to recover from this latest episode, even if it means I am going to have only 1 good ear left and another new round of loud tinnitus from my deaf ear.

So don't panic nor despair about the future. It may not be all dark as it seems right now. Take care. God bless.

From Darkness to Light, How I Recovered from Tinnitus & Hyperacusis