Increase in Tinnitus Severity and What Feels Like Hyperacusis — Sleepless Nights

I have always gotten by ok with my right ear's tinnitus which seems to unfortunately overpower any noise in the room once it hits the pillow. Despite this it is easily maskable with most noise throughout the day.

This month I have noticed an annoying crackling in my left ear. It is very apparent when I sleep on it.

I am also now experiencing what feels like hyperacusis. I can't find a way to mask this crackling ear at all and am now having sleepless nights and panic attacks for the first time. I can't find a way to calm down. Now my right ear feels louder once it hits the pillow and am not comfortable sleeping on either side.

I really feel like I'm going crazy and my best days are behind me now. I would appreciate any advice.

 

As far as I know, crackling in your ear could either be an Eustachian tube or Tensor Tympani muscle issue. Does the crackling react to sound?

 

It felt only slight before but now that I haven't slept in two days it feels like it reacts to normal sounds like talking. Is crackling uncommon for a tinnitus sound?

 

Sounds like your tubes opening. Try to equalize them a bit and use a cortisone nasal spray. Hyperacusis also means you'll hear internal sounds like that more. You get used to it and it certainly changes depending on mucus inside the ear.

Sleep as much as you can, helps the tinnitus. Also try sleeping face down or on your stomach, found it helped with draining of the tubes when they felt stuffed up.

 

Thanks for your input.

Unfortunately I don't think I have a nasal spray at the moment but will have to look for one the next time I go out. I don't think I can fall asleep on my back and front but I'll try.

I am not sure if I can for sure describe it as crackling. It is a high pitched sound that fades in and out making it extremely unpleasant. I have no idea when exactly this came about this month or what tone it is. I wonder if I was somehow ignoring it. At this rate I don't think I can get to sleep for a long time. I can't stop shaking thinking about how screwed I am.

The only plus is I don't think it is as loud as it could be. Can people really habituate to weird sounds like this? I know everyone has their own suffering but the high pitch irregular beat ones seem like they would be harder to habituate or mask.

 

If you hear the clicking as a reaction to sounds, I would think it is Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome which seems to be quite common with tinnitus. Basically the muscle inside your ear canal over-reacts to sound stimuli. It does seem to commonly resolve with time.

You could also try @Matchbox's suggestions to try and rule out any Eustachian tube issues. I'll add that you could try using a sinus rinse with a hypertonic solution to draw any mucus out of your sinus/Eustachian tubes as well as Flonase nasal spray.

Be careful with the Flonase as it has temporarily spiked my tinnitus before. But others have used it with no problem.

My Osteopath also once did a massage of my Eustachian tubes which helped drain them, so that's another option.

 

Up for two days now. I would really like some advice and someone to talk to on how to calm down.

 

Get the stuff called CALM. It's a Magnesium supplement. Take a generous amount.

Take 2x L-Theanine, whereas usually only 1 is taken in the evening.

Sleepy time tea. Use 2 bags.

Try Source Naturals GABA CALM & Coenzymated vitamin B1.

Lemon Balm.

And a Benadryl right before bed. I'm doing excellent these days. But once or twice last year I had to resort to this.

The CALM Magnesium is tops. You'll shit big time in the morning though. Do not even think about leaving the house before 11am or noon.

Really unlikely that you have all this on hand. So you better get on it.

 

Nice suggestions I do not have those on hand at the moment. I tried a benadryl and a multi vitamin and didn't get to sleep.

I don't get why I can't sense my T when I stand up and walk around but in bed it will be obvious from either ear. I feel like I'm going through a cycle of getting up and back down panicking from the noise. The left ear is a low noise high frequency screech fading in and out while the other ear is loud ringing. For my right ear I can't honestly say whether it's gotten worse or not but I'm having a hard time confronting it now.

It still troubles me what the origin of my left ear problem is. There was one day where opening my mouth created a poping noise in my left ear this month and also where I heard a high pitch noises from a YouTube video but I'm not sure.

My T is strange because I can't figure out the frequency in either ear. I have had brief moments of T when turning my neck and clenching my teeth but it is not consistently there in my neck and I can't say it's the same T or not. And there are times where it feels like high pitched screeching in both ears. I'm having really bad thoughts and can't picture living like this for the rest of my life.

 

I suggest you try sleeping (elevated?) on a couch in a living room.

Usually more ambient noises there to comfort...

 

Still not sleeping tonight. I don't know what's going to happen to me at this point.

It's like not sleeping one night drains me of all my confidence and comfort and my body is stuck in constant fight or flight mode. I had some comfort before but after failing for 45 minutes my anxiety shot up.

I hate to think I'm blowing my chance and possibly making my left ear worse with all this anxiety when there might be a slim possibility of recovery. What's crazy is I'm pretty sure I just had slight annoyance with my left ear at the beginning of the month and was anxious but could still sleep. Life just doesn't seem the same.

 

I am already sleeping elevated. The problem is when I put my ear on the pillow I hear it and panic. I tried my hardest to sleep on my back but it didn't work out.

Update:

Ok for the first time in a long time I turned off all external noise. And what I hear is 3 tones. First one is the loudest, I can not describe it well at all and I actually somehow like this sound, at least a lot more than others. The 2nd is ringing similar to the 1st one which I hear in my right ear. The 3rd, highest pitch and most annoying sound, is the new inconsistent screeching/crackling in the left ear. If it wasn't for that sound I could see myself habituating. It is thankfully my lowest volume sound. I checked and I have no residual inhibition whatever that can mean. Can't sleep but I feel strangely a lot more calm now.

Edit:

As I posted, the air conditioner started up outside. Even though it isn't that loud, it left me with just the horrible 3rd sound.

 

Struggling a lot myself these days. My reactive tinnitus screech has been bothering me a lot last 2 years. Now my baseline is upping the game so my nights are horrible too.

First half year I tried building a neck rest with pillows and clothes so that I laid on my back and both ears free. Then it changed so the best comfort actually was bad ear down on pillow. Strange but somehow the mix of tinnitus and ambiance noise can make the stuff feel more irregular or elevated. Perhaps the pillow strangles the sounds...?

Now, however, I react a lot to elevated intracranial pressure it seems, whenever I’m lying down. Starting when the healthy ear got tinnitus too.

Weekends I sleep on a couch with air conditioning in the other room and some ambiance from outside due to bad insulation. Gives me some relief.

Sorry I’m no help...

 

I was getting better but I still didn't get any sleep. Now I'm anxious again. I really don't know what to do at this point. My body's sleep is broken. I wonder if I can call the emergency room and be forced to sleep. Also the sound in my left ear is very similar to the sound when I clench my teeth.

Can anyone tell me what they think will happen to me?

 

Are there any sounds that help mask it? I've seen some post that they use the sound pillow.

 

There's not really anything to mask the high pitched one on a pillow at the moment. Right now I am horrified at the thought of my body breaking down from not sleeping for 3 days. I just keep shaking for some reason. I'm so helplessly lost and I just want to force my body to sleep. I can gradually feel my brain slowing down. It's awful. I don't know what the hell is about to happen. The Doctors office was also full until Thursday. I feel like I've tried everything and I'm just waiting to die.

 

Going outside to run hard for the second time will talk to the doctor on the phone soon. But I don't think any of this will help me. The hyperacusis is on my left ear and really only slight I did not want to include it in the thread title. I think I got it from trauma turning up the volume on a high frequency YouTube video to hear it but I'm not sure. I can remember thinking my left ear was being wierd but got better.

 

So last night I must have gotten 1-2 hours of microsleep. I wanted to find the pitch of my left ear and used a pitch finder at normal volume but then I noticed 10 seconds in a spike and now my left ear feels more sensitive. The doctor today said my ears are fine and gave me some Seroquel. I really miss my old life.

 

So this night I somehow think I got a decent amount of sleep despite waking up a bunch of times. When I woke up the first time I felt like the left ear sound is gone but now it is back but it sounds more pleasant and tonal. It's starting to sound like an electric light humming but less volume and more high pitched.

 

Today I got a hearing test and my hearing 0-8 kHz was normal. I'm glad because it at least tells me my music listening habits are normal. I also now have no idea what could be causing the tinnitus. Now right before bed I'm getting a new awful tone in my right ear for some reason. It's really awful.

 

I had gotten some good sleep for the first time with Seroquel and only the old right ear sound seemed to remain when I woke up.

After the event of failing to go to sleep for 2 hours, now it seems the high pitched screeching appears in both ears again.

It looks like I'll have to use Seroquel again later after I do my work.

 

I think that your sleep will become at least functional again (five (5) hours). I slept poorly two nights ago but slept almost seven (7) hours last night. I take .5 mg of Clonazepam and 2.5 mg of Zolpidem. These are very small amounts and I have probably developed a tolerance for these drugs after taking them for over a year. I also take 300 mg or 600 mg of Gabapentin which might sound like a lot but is far below levels taken by many people. The anxiety caused by the pandemic is not helping. I have had up to fifteen (15) days in a row of decent sleep but I always have a tough night that makes me anxious about it but it then normalizes for three or four days.

 

I try not to take drugs if I can because I am paranoid of weird side effects like tardive dyskinesia but the temptation of getting guaranteed rest is too much. In my case I got way too much sleep with 25 mg Seroquel (I've taken it two times only). My anxiety doesn't seem that strong when I am conscious but seems to get strong when I'm drifting off to sleep.

Today when I woke up, I noticed I had forgotten to put on my mouth guard (still wondering if this has to do with anything) and the left ear screech is a little louder today. Also can anyone relate to feeling like they are breathing through their ear? It feels like my left ear drum is in my mouth and can sometimes talk into it.