Poll: After Getting Tinnitus, How Long Did It Take You to Start Sleeping Normally Again?

Hi guys,

I've had loud tinnitus for 2 months now and have really been struggling to sleep. I take .25 or .5 mg of Clonazepam before bed and I'm kind of afraid to be taking the full dose of 1 mg before bed every night but I've become so sleep deprived that I will begin to take the full dose. I don't have a problem with falling asleep as much as with staying asleep.

How long did it take you to start sleeping normally again? (What about without medication?)

Thank you in advance for your responses.

 

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I really recommend Mirtazapine. It's a sedative, and also an appetite stimulant in case anxiety is affecting your ability to eat as well. Overall, it has helped me to function better, and I would say I sleep normally.

There will always be a risk of oxotoxicity with all antidepressants (any drugs in fact), but the risk is minimal with this one, and as lack of sleep seems to be a major factor in Tinnitus perception I think it might prove beneficial. Obviously, speak to your doctor to be sure.

Also, two months is really early into the Tinnitus journey. It's natural to struggle with it at first but it will settle.

 

I've had loud tinnitus for 3 months and I still struggle with sleep. I take 50 mg Trazodone and a muscle relaxant at night. I usually sleep around 5.5 hours/night with the occasional sleepless night or a night where I sleep 7.5 hours. Recently I've noticed I do get more sleepy which is a change because before I was always alert. I do fall asleep within 10 minutes usually but sometimes I wake up an hour later and then fall back asleep, or sometimes after 4 hours and fall back asleep. Initially, I felt sleep deprived but now not as often, the body gets used to less sleep. I am still afraid to take naps because the few times I have taken naps I wake up with loud tinnitus. So I only sleep at night after taking the pills.

 

Because hearing test don't go above human voice range, we don't know which medicines are ototoxic and which ones aren't.

 

One word on Mirtazapine:
It is a very good sleeping pill, even at small doses. It makes vivid dreams.
But many users will get overweight problems from Mirtazapine.
In case of being overweight Mirtazapine isn't a good recommendation.

 

It causes the body to crave sugar and carbs. That’s how people get overweight while on this medication. Mirtazapine/Remeron is regarded as safe even for tinnitus patients: https://www.tinnitusformula.com/library/ototoxicity-medications-that-cause-tinnitus/

 

I used melatonin for a few nights to help resynchronize things after a few bad nights, and getting into a lousy cycle of insomnia from the T. I then learned to use earplugs at night, and helps the sleep quite a bit as no waking up from every passing car. Those foam earplugs when properly inserted are so comfortable at this point, and I stock a few brands to have a choice.

 

@Digital Doc Putting in earplugs in my ears would make my T unbearable since it is all I will be able to hear. Does that not bother you??

 

It increases the volume of T, but then it goes down in a few minutes. It also isolates from other noises bothering me while I sleep. At this point, when I wake up my T is the quietest before I take my earplugs out. The T does return during the day, although at a quieter level most days at this point, certainly compared to a few months ago.

At this point, when I am having a bad T day, which still happens sometimes, I really look forward to going to bed, and putting my earplugs in as I know it calms them down in 5 to 10 minutes.

You can try different types of earplugs as some reduce the T more than others. I find that the foam ones work the best for me, but my biggest problem is that I can sleep through the alarm in the morning, and don't want to miss work. For those days, I wear the musician plugs that I can still hear my alarm with.

I hope my experience helps others like you to deal with this annoying and potentially disabling problem.

 

@Digital Doc do you have fluctuating tinnitus? Is it high pitch?

 

Sleeping got back to normal about 6 months in and I am now 7 months in with severe tinnitus. I took 50mg Propavan (a type of Propiomazine when i google the name in english) which was great for me as I slept the whole night and doctors/friends with experience of it told me that it is not addictive (which was true for me as well). After 4-5 months (with some exceptions) I could go down on 25mg and after 6 months I didn't need any sleeping pill at all. So even though I am still struggling - that aspect is better now, it think it comes naturally (knock on wood, don't want to jinx anything!).

 

Not fluctuating, and more lower pitched is my T.

 

I'm also taking 50 mg. of trazadone. My sleep patterns are identical to yours. I also take a blood pressure med in conjunction with the trazadone. I fall asleep quickly, but staying asleep is a struggle. By the end of the work week my lack of sleep really catches up with me. Some nights are better than others.

 

I'm three months in with tinnitus, and am just now coming off the sleeping tablets. I went though hell the first six weeks with insomnia (both onset and maintenance), anxiety and was told by my physician that I had the signs of clinical depression.

Initially I tried magnesium and GABA supplements to sleep, and then added Promethazine. Those didn't really help and then I started with 10mg of Zolpidem for a week, then went down to 5 mg for another two weeks. In the meantime I started some breathing exercises and meditation (and long walks and cold showers!) which seem to have brought my stress and anxiety levels under control.

I stopped the Zolpidem and am now sleeping without for the past 3-4 days. The sleep is not great, it's light and fragmented but I am getting to sleep, and I don't have that doped out feeling the next day. You can fight your way through this, just keep on trying.

My advice would be to invest some time in yoga breathing exercises (especially Ujjayi and Brahmari breathing) and guided meditation. These have saved me.

 

Did 50 mg Trazodone for the first time last night. Slept 6 hours deeply, woke up to loud ring, but then fell back for another 2. Groggy morning but my tinnitus actually has been much quieter today. I think it's helped calm my nerves.

 

I always hated silence, so never had trouble sleeping because of tinnitus.
I sleep with the TV on. Tinnitus never changed my habits, it is kinda mild tho

 

I just started taking a very low dose of Temazepam last night and it knocked me out until 4am. It took me a little while to get back to sleep and I had a very vivid dream, but it also left me a little groggy this morning. Normally I just take Melatonin, but my T was high and thought I'd give Temazepam a try. Anyone else have any experience with this medication?

 

At first I used white noise to stay asleep: this worked pretty well, but it also caused my T to rage around during the day. Eventually I chose to just get used to having my T around while falling asleep. Any kind of drugs are a no-go for me unless absolutely necessary, I don't want to introduce dependencies in my pattern (also a good reason not to use white noise).

In a few weeks I could fall asleep without problems, but I did wake up often in between and was unable to sleep for the next few hours afterwards. Some time ago I found out that I sleep for 8 hours straight if I go to bed a few hours later. That is my current schedule, and I'm working on slowly getting the hours back to normal. Works quite well so far.

 

I don't think I will ever sleep normal again.

That doesn't mean that I don't sleep. I do. But the whole experience of sleep is now different. I loved silence.

 

I started sleeping right through the night again most nights after 2-3 months. I don't use masking as it makes my tinnitus worse. Mine has changed from a solid high pitch pure tone to a general brain hiss now so that's not so bad

 

I really think the answer depends on the intrusiveness and intensity of your tinnitus.

Having gone through the various “forms” of tinnitus over the last decade I can tell you that the situation is not equal...What is equal is the importance of sleeping...this will your first step to recovery.

In my previous form(s) of tinnitus I never had to resort to any form of sleeping pills. It took a few weeks to adjust but I found that having some sort of background noise to distract me was very helpful to drift off.

I have never had to resort to sleeping pills before having, what I would now describe as, Very Intrusive Tinnitus. Today I live with an altogether different beast and have to take 10mg of Zolpidem and 4mg of Melatonin to give myself a chance of sleeping over 4 hours... On top of that I have multiple noise generators (phone, iPad, Alexa,..) emitting waterfalls, forest, crickets all over my bedroom... including in my bed...

Bottom line, I suggest that you find a manner adapted to your present condition that enables you to sleep.

Wishing you a very good night sleep,
Stay strong

PS: Having scrolled up this thread I saw that someone suggested sleeping with earplugs...t his would be impossible for me as, my already very loud tinnitus, would be blasting away... I don’t believe anyone with intrusive tinnitus can sleep with earplugs..

 

Well if you put everything into perspective a few of us haven't had a decent sleep in years and it's not because of tinnitus alone. Like myself and maybe others the Nam hasn't helped.

 

6. weeks in, still sleeping poorly. 3-4 hours a night in pieces. First two weeks I slept 1-1,5 hours. Trying melatonin, valerian, magnesium, occasionally Frontin (Xanax). Doesn't seem to help.

 

Almost 2 months into a massive spike from my previous baseline which was minimal.

I haven't had a single night with more than maybe 4 or 5 hours of actual sleep. Like many here have mentioned, I can usually fall asleep with a mix of substances, in my case Doxylamine, Melatonin, THC, Clonazepam, alcohol, Mirtazapine, etc (not all at once of course...) and masking sounds such as crickets and rain but I've been waking up anywhere between 2 and 4 in the morning and can't get back to sleep no matter what.

 

It took me 2 months, medication, getting thru COVID-19, figuring out what white noise worked for me, and acclimating to a CPAP machine to get my sleep in order with my tinnitus screaming in my ear.