Is It Bad for My Ears if They Hear Sounds 24/7?

hi guys, i have somatic tinnitus, 8 weeks ago i had a prolapsed disc in my cervical spine and because of that veeeery stiff muscles in my whole neck. my doctor said this is the reason for my tinnitus which i got only 6 weeks ago, never had something like that before and my ENT says everything is fine. its a very soft high pitched sound which changes with body posture (worse when lying down) and i can make the sound stronger when i turn my neck or press my neck muscles.so the doctor says its because the tense muscles narrow some blood vessels leading to the auditory system in the brain. the same day tinnitus began i also felt pressure in the ear , which is also a symptom of my problem says the doctor. he thinks it will go away with time-lets hope so!
so my question now is: i listen to rain sounds all night long in the last 6 weeks -ALL night,not just to fall asleep with rain but my ears hear the sound even while i sleep for 9 hours.
its not loud obviously, just enaugh to cover my tinnitus sound. and then when i wake up i listen to other nature sound almost all day long-so actually,my ears never hear complete silence, from 24 hours they hear nature sounds for about 21 hours a day
does this harm my ears , i know its a silly question but im serious-doesnt even a tinnitus ear need a break sometimes, i mean NOT hearing ANYTHING AT ALL?

 

by the way,do you know that story: some folks say if you have tinnitus for longer than 3 months your brain keeps on generating that sound even if the actual cause of the problem is gone already and you should not have tinnitus anymore cause the underlying problem has been fixed... my doctor started to laugh very loud when i told him this, he said that is possible with pain sometimes, but never ever with tinnitus ,he never heard of that in 44 years as a doctor.cause IF that would be true, i - in my case- would hear the nature sounds even without playing them anymore, right? ha ha.i really dont believe that.otherwise it would be impossible that people stop having tinnitus even after years...

 

first of all. if you listen to sounds on reasonable levels it does no harm. its like with eyes: you can see all the time and it doesnt harm what, what does is sun, lenses, screens. loud noises damage ears. listen to music under 80 db and youll be fine also, yeah after some time tinnitus changes from acute to chronic which means changes in the brain (neurological activity) but that doesnt mean that it cant be treated. I know people who had it for 20 years due to meniere's and got cure after 20 years. Tinnitus it not a dangerous condition and it doesnt necessarily have to be progressive so i dont think it really matters when you treat it(because i doesnt always get worse in time). so in short, if the problem is only your neck it could be treated I think if its doesnt go away, better methods are to come)) NB! this is just my personal opinion which is VERY SUBJECTIVE. if your doc is a smart man, listen to him

 

yeah stina, that was a great example with the eyes . although you have to admit that the eyes get a break every day for 8 hours while you sleep! that is the thing that im worried about, that my ears always hear anything , day AND night ( and do not get a break like my eyes during the night!) even if the nature sounds are not loud of course, but it is still no silence!

 

yes but eyes wouldnt be damaged if you didnt sleep Not sleeping is very unhealthy in other means and can affect eyes in the means of making them dry and red but thats not because "you look too much" (and i should know because I have dry eyes). its the same with touching: we sit on smth, lie on the bed and its not dangerous for the skin. The body is simply designed that way so that our senses are alert 24/7. keep it on moderate levels. of course you can ask your doctor and he will give you good advice

 

Stina, was your friends meniere's cured or did just the tunnitus go away. Would you elaborate a bit more. My ENT said my ECOG (inner ear pressure test) tests show a reading of 12 in my good left and 40 in my right T ear. He believes meniere's is the cause of my T because of the big difference between inner ear pressures. Although technically an ECOG reading of 50 or more is the number ama goes by to to diagnose clinical meniere's.

 

Hello First of all, the people cured were not my friends. They were a couple of Norweigians who had battled with it for decades. Then in Estonia here is a doctor (dr. Valentina Mostepanova) who gave them some sort of massage for 10 days and then later pills, im pretty sure they were serc and/or cinnarizine. The procedures went on for around 10 months and she actually improved their hearing and got rid of tinnitus. That happened in around 2000, at the time when doctors in Estonia were aware of the condition but didnt really do anything about it (now we have a stationary clinic as well, where patients are admitted and helpe to habituate). I myself dont have Menieres, but I visited dr Mostepanova anyway and also got the massage + Xanax. As it turns out im allergic I couldnt really take that so later she switched me to Stugeron. That created a sort of humming in my head, as if there was a pipe under my pillow (only hears when lying down). So I stopped taking that. Obviously my problem is not bloodvessels is what i concluded However if you do have Menieres then I think maybe serc or stugeron (cinnarizine) would work. Ask your doctor Probably he has more modern ways to deal with it anyway.

 

Hi Stina, thanks for the information. I thought they were your friends when you said, I know people who had it for 20 years. I looked up (cinnarizine, I can not take this medicine because of complications it could cause me.