My Long-Term Tinnitus Has Increased with Age

Hello Everyone,

I've had high-pitched, bilateral tinnitus since my late teens, and now that I'm in my early sixties, it has become severe enough to sometimes prevent me from falling asleep. It's worse on the left side. I believe this is due to a gradual decline in my hearing in that ear. I use maskers to pull my attention away from the tinnitus, and this helps a lot.

But what brought me to Tinnitus Talk is the low-tone tinnitus that has developed in the last few years. It's like a low hum that's possibly localized on the right side, but it's hard to be sure that it favors one side or the other. At irregular intervals that last a few seconds, the pitch dips abruptly by about an octave then bounces back up. But to me, the most unusual thing about it is that the intensity of the hum seems to be responsive to the amount of light entering my eyes. Moving from bright light into a darkened space (or simply closing my eyes) reduces the intensity of the hum by about half. It's not a gradual change. It's more like a switch turning on and off. Moving back into the light immediately brings the tone all the way back to full intensity. Only one eye needs to receive light -- it doesn't matter which one, and exposure to light doesn't seem to have any effect on the pitch changes.

I went to an audiologist for hearing and mastoid density testing. The tests confirmed my hearing loss, but mastoid density was normal, suggesting that the low tone is not my own heartbeat or blood flow. The ENT who interpreted the test for me didn't know what to make of the light sensitivity. She speculated that it might be related somehow to migraine, which I used to get but haven't had for a long time. The only medications I take are for hypertension and cholesterol and Allegra for allergies.

I've learned that many people's tinnitus is accompanied by light induced symptoms like auras, but so far I've not found any description of the tinnitus tone itself being directly affected by the presence or absence of light (though I am still only in the early stages of exploring this site). I'm curious to know if anyone else has experienced or heard of anything like this.

 

We are dealing with the brain (when it comes to tinnitus), so anything could be possible. The light might be triggering something and the brain might be reacting to it. There is no 100% exact science to this, tinnitus is such an odd condition.