Nightly Tinnitus Attacks/Spikes — The Reason?

Hi folks.

I am getting crazy piercing tinnitus attacks during the night which is up to 5 x time louder than my usual level. I always wake up shocked and scared with the intensity of the sounds and physical sensations in the head/ear connected to the tinnitus.

The weirdest sensation is a humming, vibrating sound as of a generator or refrigerator. It has my brain/head buzzing/vibrating every 3rd second. Its like having electrical stimuli in the head which makes sleep impossible.

Whats the reason for this? I am spending the days in a silent environment, so its not that my ears are responding to bad exposure to sound during the day.

When I wake up in the morning my bad ear is "aching" and feels tired from enduring the storm of the night. Once upon the time my ear would feel rested after 8-12 hours of sleep and not exhausted like this!

I´m taking Mirtazapin for sleep, but I feel with these attacks getting worse and worse its not enough.

Thanks in advance.

Regards
L

 

Hello Lesky have you been to your Doctor to rule out any current problems in your ears, nose or throat? If there is a current undiagnosed infection this could be what it causing you problems at the moment.

 

Molan: Thanks for the reply.

Should I not feel any symptoms of infection to have it? I mean I do not feel like I am sick or have a cold or anything else. Could I still have an infection without experiencing any of the usual symptoms of a cold?

 

Infections can come in sorts of shapes and forms. Their symptoms may not always be obvious or in some cases cannot even be felt for a quite a while.

Since there has been a change to your Tinnitus at night time it must have been triggered by something. It could also be something in your diet perhaps. If it were me I would go to the Doctor just to rule out any obvious infection.

 

Lesky-
Do you think it's the Mirtazapin? How long have you been taking it?

I take it and I really like it. It gives me good dreams. But could it be affecting you differently?

 

Hi Karl.

I have been taking Mirtazapin since 2009 and have never experienced any change to my tinnitus on it previously. It does not have tinnitus as a side effect as I am sure you know.

Without going into specifics: In october 2011 I overexposed myself to sound and as a result got worse tinnitus, hyperacusis and also chronic ear pain.

Even since then - the last 16 months I have been getting gradually worse = more sound sensitivity, more chronic ear pain and lately my tinnitus has also begun flaring up on a regular basis. I think these nightly attacks is related to my ongoing aggrevation of ear problems.

I can´t know for sure, but my feeling is that Mirtazapin has nothing to do with it. I say that because when my ears were "better", I never had any issues that could possible be related to Mirtazapin.

I just figured I would ask if others has similar experiences at night. Furthermore I have no explanation to why my general condition is getting worse, thus not being able to say for sure whats causing these nightly spikes. I just hope they won´t leave a more lasting impression on the days than it has thus far.

Amazingly some of the sounds I hear these nights I have not heard in my head since back in 1997-1999 when I first got tinnitus.

 

Lesky -
Tinnitus is a constantly puzzling. A neurologist may be able to help.

 

Ok who takes what for sleep or headaches that does not spike thier tinnitus please help I get headaches and take tylenol and does not help has anybody tried adivl and no spikes.