Nocturnal Intense Tinnitus Woke Me from Sleep

[Luman]

I've woken up twice this week after sleeping for a few hours, with a highly intense, loud tinnitus, which seemed 10X worse than when I'm awake, and felt pain in my brain as well, which fortunately did not last very long. The first time was very scary, but it subsided and I managed to use a mindfulness relaxation technique to go back to sleep, but I didn't sleep very well. The second time, I told myself that it was fake, only a dream, then did the mindfulness exercise, and I went back to sleep a bit faster and slept OK.

It seems like a fine line between "awake" tinnitus, but far more hellish than I've experienced while awake, and a dream. Has anything like this happened to anybody else here?

 

[Bill Bauer]

If I were you, I would try taking a lot of valerian root pills (or drink tea made from dried valerian root [that you can buy]) to relax me, before sleep. Hopefully this will prevent tinnitus from revving up during the night...

 

[fishbone]

If you take anything, read about the dosages and how much you can take. Valerian can lose its effectiveness if taken regularly.

 

[Luman]

Thanks. I have something with valarian root, called Deep Sleep. I have not used much, could not tell if it worked in the past, but may try it again.
I've been taking 1 mg of melatonin, have upped it to two a night since the first loud nocturnal T incident.

 

[linearb]

Isn't this the most annoying thing?

My experience was that it stopped happening once I reduced my overall anxiety levels, but obsessing about it just made it worse.

 

[Luman]

Isn't this the most annoying thing?

My experience was that it stopped happening once I reduced my overall anxiety levels, but obsessing about it just made it worse.

Sorry it happened to you. At least I know that I am not the only person to experience it.

 

[pathworker2017]

just don't believe the scare stories associated with Sp. basically what is happening is your body has got slightly out of sync and you wake up at the wrong time.

The reason why sleep paralysis evokes so many weird and often quite frightening experiences is that you don't have a clue whats going on, your limbic system( fight of flight mechanism) kicks in. you try to get away from the perceived source of danger, can't move. and so the spiral continues. once you understand what is actually going on it is less scary.

Tinnitus works on a similar principle, I think actually they are both linked which is probably why T is more a problem at night for many people. one of the common features of sleep paralysis is high pitched sound, This is because all unnecessary external stimuli are blocked, so, you brain decides to make this awful racket because the auditory system is getting no stimulation and your conscious( analytical) part of the brain is active.

Some time in the future you get this horrid noise in the night as you try to nod off to sleep. the brain makes the connection between the sound you are hearing, the environment and your sleep paralysis experiences and reactions and voila. one good night sleep (or two or three or however many) gets obliterated.