Sleep (or Lack Thereof) Connected to Tinnitus Loudness — Help Me Understand This

There is no doubt there is a direct correlation between my tinnitus and my sleep.

When I get a good night's sleep (usually aided by medication), my tinnitus reduces to the background. It's wonderful. I would venture to say my tinnitus is then "mild" not bothersome. I could live the rest of my life this way just fine. It makes everything about my day better. In fact, it feels like my current spike is cured.

The problem of course is, most days I don't sleep well. Some nights, 3 to 4 hours. Some days 5 (even then it's terrible, broken sleep). But absent a pill, I'm not getting 7 or 8 on my own. For some reason my tinnitus spikes between the hours of 2 and 3 am and later goes back down in late am hours. I refuse to take a sleeping aid more than once a week for fear of dependence.

Sitting here now, I took an OTC sleep aid and I can barely here my tinnitus. It's there of course, but its different than yesterday. So the obvious answer is to get more sleep which is easier said than done. I plan to see a therapist about that soon.

However, what's the explanation? Is my tinnitus really quieter? Do I just feel better so it bothers me less? Just trying to understand this strange correlation. If I can get myself back into a good sleep zone, I really believe I will escape the perceived spike. Maybe the spike has been caused directly by my lack of sleep?

As an aside, I've seen the posts, but can anyone recommend a safe antidepressant for me to ask my therapist to try to take the edge off at night?

 

Hey there. I suffer nearly from the same. I’m awakened each night with a spike, lately the spikes have been worse but they dissipate fairly fast at night. In 7 months I’ve only slept all the way through maybe 3-4 times.

My theory is the brain is amplifying the sound waking us up.

 

These night spikes are a new phenomenon for me. I definitely think the spike is waking me up. I just can't figure out why now 20 plus years into this suddenly my tinnitus is spiking at night. Mine usually recedes as well but it'd very difficult to get back to sleep. Can take a couple of hours and by then it's too late.

 

It's funny because the spike does dissipate and if I do get back to sleep, the tinnitus is quieter. It's that first awaking after falling asleep that is the problem. Usually 2 hours or so into sleep. Something definitely going on.

 

It just affirms the insane and unpredictable nature that is tinnitus.

I think it is really quieter. If I get a sleepless night, I will sure have a worse, or more "spiked", day than usual. It also seems sleep is essential for me, and many, to reset daily spikes.

I have a similar spiked time frame, but mine is usually from 8 pm (great when going to sleep lol), but in the morning it's usually back to baseline. I've also had a handful of "night spikes", but those were some severe delayed spikes that set in after a daytime of noise exposure.

Yeah mate, same, I usually wake up at least two times a night nowadays. Not necessarily due to a "night spike" but it seems I just wake up. Luckily I can fall asleep again rather quickly. I think the days of "sleeping through the entire night" are over for good, at least for me.

Yeah, because it's a brain problem, probably with a lot of pathways involved spanning the brain, there's a lot of variables that go into the intrusiveness. I mean, I can get some severe spikes from being frightened, or when I cry, so the limbic system is probably involved too. I think it's pretty safe to assume that hearing loss isn't the only variable in the intrusiveness of tinnitus, it also seems to have a mind of its own.

Just my 2 cents,
Stacken

 

As a 46-year-old male, sleeping through the night is never happening anyway. Gotta use the restroom at least once and it ain't getting better over time. The good news is the spike doesn't scare me anymore since I know it's temporary but it doesn't make falling back to sleep easier. I'm still very interested in the connection between sleep and tinnitus because it does not really make a lot of sense to me. So far it's the one thing that I can definitely connect my tinnitus levels to. Everything else is a crapshoot. Food, alcohol etc. Stress maybe but that's about it.

 

The only thing certain is the uncertainty lol.

 

Hello @Clerkp,

Look at these papers:

Sleep and Immune Function

Sleep associated regulation of T helper 1/T helper 2 cytokine balance in humans

First half of night sleep is pro-inflammatory while second half is anti-inflammatory.

Probably this is the reason why if I wake up early in the middle of the night my tinnitus is the worst ever, while if I can sleep all night (rarely unfortunately) my tinnitus is zero in the first minutes after I wake up.

Which OTC sleep aid do you use?

 

Great, so I'm only getting the pro inflammatory effect. Lovely. The same ingredient as Tylenol PM but without the Tylenol.