Intermittent Tinnitus Switched On/Off By Sleep

Perhaps there is some linkage between T and REM sleep and the RF formation. When we get a REM sleep, the RF is not active. If we just nap a little more and wake up without REM sleep state, then the RF is activated to seek out for trouble of our vital signs of which tinnitus is unfortunately included as one. This 'awakening response' has been explained by Dr. Nagler a while ago on TT:

“I have always felt it to be due to the role of the reticular formation in tinnitus perception. The reticular formation is a primitive structure in the brain stem. It's a "vital sign monitor." When you wake up, the RF checks to see whether or not you are alive! It looks for heartbeat, respirations, blood pressure, temperature - basic bodily signs. It does not care whether or not these signs are good or bad - just that they are present. And as far as the RF is concerned, tinnitus is part of "expected" body function in an individual suffering from severe intrusive tinnitus. So when you wake, your RF checks to see whether or not tinnitus is present. And if it doesn't immediately find the tinnitus, the RF seeks it with a vengeance - - especially in the post-nap state, when there has been inadequate REM sleep and when, therefore, the RF is on already "high alert" that something might not be quite right. Theoretically - very theoretically - this RF hyperactivity in seeking tinnitus, which in a person with severe intrusive tinnitus it equates with life, results in temporarily markedly augmented tinnitus perception.”

 

Thanks for the explanation.I just wish there was a way to prevent it from happening.The only way I succeededin doing that , is as soon as I wake up, get up, and then I have a good day. I succeeded in doing it for 3 days continuously,on the fourth one I woke up 2 am and i could not possibly get up so early.So the answer might be
to find a way to sleep continually for 6 hours or more.

 

If I have a good long sleep, then when I wake up at any time 3.30, 6.00. or any other time , often my T is low hardly noticeable. If I get up then it stays quiet all day long. If I try to get even an extra 5 minutes sleep, it starts ringing again.Same thing happens if I take a five minute nap in the afternoon.Very peculiar situation.
So this is my solution. As soon as I wake up,I do not spent anymore time in bed.I get up, and then I have a great day. I succeeded in doing it for 3 days continuously,on the fourth day I woke up 2 am and I could not possibly get up so early.
So the answer might be to find a way to sleep continually for 6 hours or more.And that should keep the T away.
I hope this will help some people.

 

I suspect it does not have anything to do with how long you slept or not.At one time I went to bed T free had no sleep at all ,next day I was T free all day to .I suspect that T is switched on or off if you wake up during a certain stage of sleep.There are 4 non REM stages and an REM stage.Which one is the culprit is anybody's guess.

 

I have just thought of an idea. I will start recording every night the time I went to bed,and the time I actually woke up and whether I was T free or not. If there is a pattern for example after 6 hours continual sleep I was T free, I will set up my alarm clock to wake me up after 6 hours everyday.I know it's a shot in the dark but you never know.And it would solve the mystery of why sometimes I wake up T free and some not.

 

So Tony, did you find the magic wand of the right amount of sleep for your T free day? It may be hard to find some predictability from this unpredictable T beast.

 

Very unpredictable I am afraid to say.And the problem with me is that I very rarely sleep for long periods uninterrupted.But if I wake up and T is not there, without delay I get up,unless if it is 2 or 3 am.If I take an extra 5 minutes nap it starts again.I succeeded in doing that 44 out of the last 92 days.

 

I have noticed the connection with sleep but I'm sure I also have the somatic kind related to a neck, trapezium, occipital muscle or nerve issue. So is it sleeping position?

I have issues where I can wake up with it quiet. I think it had little to do with sleep position. I have times when I wake up with it hissing. If I start the day with hissing, it's there all day. So that tempts me to try sleeping in, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I have gone for a nap and it's disappeared, and I've gone for naps and it starts.

Because I also have tight neck and wonder if that is connected, I tend to think about it too much when I wake up at night as I try to get in the right body position. I even bought a new pillow to see if it helps.

I think it's safe to say no one knows what causes the T and no one yet knows how to remove it.

But...since 2013 it was only sporadic. Since last Oct. it's been almost steady with a quiet day ever 2 days or so. I had 3 quiet days in a row last week and have no clue why.

 

I have come to the conclusion that for people like us every time we wake up T switches on or off.The other day I woke up T free,I had a 10 minute nap in the afternoon it came back again.I was angry walked round the room and then said might as well sleep a bit longer.Slept another 10 minutes woke up T off again.
Other days I woke up 5 am T free ,slept again until 7 am T came back on again.We must belong to a special category of crazy tinnitus behaviour.

 

Last night I went to bed with high T did not sleep at all, high T in the morning, had a 5 minute nap in the afternoon woke up T free .Can someone explain that to me?.Waking up for me is an on off switch for T.How long
I sleep seems to be irrelevant.

 

A possible experiment would be to record number of hours of sleep you had when you woke up T free,and then use an alarm clock to wake you up after you slept this number of hours.Just hope your sleep is uninterrupted.

 

Please read this carefully, it might and should change your T for the better.

Been having T since 2015. It was really bad 2 years ago to the point of not being able to work or sleep. As if a plane engine was inside your head.

I really think the root cause is multiple and perhaps simultaneous factors: loud noises, stress, anxiety, muscles around the ears, diet, blood flow, and so on.

2 years later, it is much better and I can almost control it entirely. I have tried everything you can think of in those 2 years.

Naps do trigger it off for me. Rarely the opposite. Sometimes even resting without sleeping helps a lot. Exercising does the same. I can have slight T before exercising, only to be gone right after exercising. Same applies to eating a meal (it goes off after eating), or taking a warm shower.

So my conclusion is it is related to some kind of brain blood flow, stress level, or inflammation in the brain or hearing canal. MRI scan was good, so nothing “medically” wrong with the ear itself.

If I sleep well for a whole week, exercise, I can have zero T for that week. Opposite is true as well.

Here is the list of things that helped the most:

1. Cranial massage. Get an expert to do it for you, I had a huge difference after 6 sessions. During the cranial massage, I noticed it would trigger it on or completely off, but it always goes off 30 min after the end of the massage. The following days or weeks are much better. My cranial massage includes facial and upper back areas as well.

2. Sleep a lot, as much as you can. Quality of sleep is very important, try to sleep early.

3. Exercise at least twice a week. Burn at least 400 calories a week min.

4. Take warm showers. It relaxes the body and increases blood flow around the ears, at least that’s what I think.

5. Eat your meals on time. Add anti-inflammatory foods (google it). List of vitamins that I take: B12, Zinc, fish oil, Gingko, and sometimes multi-vitamins.

6. Take as many naps as you can. After work helps a lot, or when physically exhausted.

7. Stay calm, avoid panicking, avoid being down or depressed, look ahead and be positive. Think it can be gone instead of the opposite. Think of it as a challenge that has to be dealt with. Panicking is your worst enemy.

8. Put ear plugs around loud noises: train, busses, etc. Noise cancelling headphones work as well.

9. Avoid lots of coffee, sugar, salt. Don’t ask me why.

10. When T is on, do something pleasant to forget about it: work, movies, take a walk, exercise, etc. Don’t let it get to you.

11. Smoking sometimes helps turn off T completely. While I don’t ask you to smoke because it’s obviously unhealthy, I just state what works for me.

Completely avoid:

1. Loud sounds, music, etc

2. Headphones unless they are extremely low on volume. Just enough to hear. No bass!

3. Stress or anxiety

4. Heavy wind (convertible cars, etc)

5. Motorcycles, avoid them completely. You have been warned!

6. High frequency sounds (alarms, air compressors, and so on)

7. Staying up late or working a lot without rest. It WILL make T worse, guaranteed. Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep. 10 would be perfect.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

Something happened this weekend that reminded me of this old post, so I thought I'd follow up. I was awaking from a nap Saturday afternoon. It was that moment of semi-consciousness, not wholly asleep nor wholly awake. For some reason I was more aware than I normally am and was able to notice an odd thing happening in my head. I'm not sure how to describe it....like a short, quick, clipped exhale, except it was a sound/sensation in the head. Perhaps the gatekeeper or mechanism that regulates T, like it was misfiring or attempting to work and couldn't. I was aware of it for a good minute, but as soon as I started to wake more it was gone.

 

I have experienced this sensation too. There is something about consciousness or a lack of it, that does good things for tinnitus perception. Captain Obvious! Of course, unconsciousness is fabulous for tinnitus, because we don't perceive it, but I often wonder if it could be manipulated somehow in our favour.

I don't remember where, perhaps it was even on TT, reading a story about a person who went into a coma, as a consequence of some medical condition, but upon awakening from it, realised that the tinnitus they previously suffered, was permanently gone. What if tinnitus could be manipulated in this way more generally? Who's going to test that? I suspect no one! But I do wonder, if maybe in certain cases, the brain can be switched off, to a certain extent and then rebooted like a computer. But this time without the bug in the system. Just a thought.

 

Well all that happens during sleep. A lot of things get switched off and back on during and after sleep. Also blood flow and blood pressure are greatly affected. Lots of healing happens while sleeping.

A nap of 15 min can completely stop my T which lasted say 4 hours. Its that "reset" that makes things better, and I dont know how, why, etc.

 

Hello,


Just seen the title of this thread. It really stood out to me. I've had tinnitus for 2 and a half years. My tinnitus changed between 3-4 months.

At the start, my tinnitus would come and go but sleep always made it better. I could wake up in the night and the tinnitus wouldn't be there. After the 3-4 months the noise lessened but became continuous. It's like my tinnitus found a middle ground! It is now always worse when I wake up. The noise isn't nowhere near as loud as it was when it was intermittent. So yeah, sleep used to turn off my tinnitus, now it doesn't. Strange I know

 

Did you try a cranial massage? Could be a nerve or muscle in your face, neck, back of the neck, or upper back causing it.

 

I haven't tried a cranial massage. I was told I have high frequency hearing loss in my right ear 2 years ago which coincided with my tinnitus. Would a cranial massage benefit me even though I have hearing loss. I'd try anything, even after 2 years. I like what you wrote earlier in the post Volkan! I sometimes find it hard to control most of them but stress and anxiety a long with tiredness do make my tinnitus significantly worse. It's never at zero, occasionally it can be mild at best.

 

My hearing test was OK, so your case could be different.

Cranial massage would probably not help your hearing loss, BUT it would help decreasing anxiety and stress immensely, which in turns would help with T. Try it, just make sure the right person does it for you.

If you have permanent T, they have programs to train the brain to cope with it, I have not tried it, but it was recommended to me by several doctors. Since mine goes on and off, they would not recommend it for me after all.

 

I have a suspicion that luck of sleep results in High T.Does anybody have 8 hours of undisturbed sleep every night and also has high T I wonder.

 

I have a suspicion that luck of sleep results in High T.Does anybody have 8 hours of undisturbed sleep every night and also has high T I wonder.

 

Lack of sleep has the biggest influence over my tinnitus (even more than stress). I am supposed to be habituated but it’s times like these that make me still feel down, as when I haven’t been sleeping that well it goes through the roof. I need 8 hours but rarely get it. It’s amazing how the volume goes up, the neurons in my brain go into overdrive (or something like that!).

 

100% correct,i wish someone would show us how to have a long sleep preferably without sleeping pills,Does anybody have an answer?

 

It is not the number of hours you sleep that count it is the hours you sleep without interruptions, even 5 hours of deep sleep will help you more than 8 hours of sleep with several interruptions. I suspect waking up after the long sleep does not start your T,but waking up after light sleep does.This is what is happening with me.

 

Yes, I call that "quality of sleep".

Sleeping early helps the most, as you wont get to the point where you are too tired or your brain is too tired before sleeping.

First, make sure the temperature in your room is not too warm, 19 to 22 degrees is good. Take a warm shower before sleeping, it calms you down. You can have a warm tea without caffeine. Try not to use your PC, phone, tablet, watch TV, etc about 30 min before going bed

 

Good advice thank you,I will try them all

 

Today I woke up with low tinnitus. A nap in the afternoon made tinnitus high again. Second nap made tinnitus low again. I am convinced sleep is a switch for tinnitus.

 

Interesting that there are a significant number of tinnitus sufferers that experience this relationship between tinnitus and sleep. I too have noticed a similar pattern with my tinnitus and have been keeping track of it. My tinnitus is cyclic in nature, about 30 hours loud and 20 hours barely perceptible. Sleep is the trigger for mine and can instantly make quiet tinnitus loud (with just a 5 minute nap) or slowly diminish it to quiet during a night's sleep. There can be slow changes in tinnitus level during the day but sleep will make it happen faster (usually the quiet to loud phase).

There is obviously some neurological explanation for this type of tinnitus but unfortunately no research has been done to provide answers. I've ruled out sleeping position as I can trigger it by sitting up in a chair and napping for 5 minutes.

 

Here is something you could try and it may or may not work for you or others on here. Before going to bed at night, don't eat anything for at least 6 hours, maybe 8 hours if possible. (This would probably be impractical most nights.) Then maybe around 1 to 2 hours before your bed time, put on some blue blocking glasses. The idea behind avoiding food is because your body won't have to divert extra blood to help with digestion and can use it for other things at night and the idea behind the blue blocking glasses is to get you more calm before sleep.

If this helps anyone, let me know.