Some Normal Background Noises (Fan, Water Tap) Make Tinnitus Worse?

Does anyone have experience of this?

For example, we usually sleep with a fan on in summer and I’ve been looking forward to putting it on as I thought it would help mask at night. But the sound of the fan seems to trigger off a louder underlying noise in my ears so I can’t tolerate it at all. Same with a tap - it makes my ears scream. When I turn it off it seems to stop.

Any thoughts? X

 

That's some sort of reactive tinnitus. It's quite typical that it reacts to noises similar to white noise, fans, aircon, etc

 

It’s strange because my tinnitus might be quite quiet but then the noise comes on and suddenly I can hear it loudly over the noise. Really bizarre. Makes me nervous about future sounds that might affect it.

 

I have it too but for all consistent sounds: microwave, fans, AC, white noise, you name it. I can’t even watch TV. Do you know what caused yours?

It’s crazy because my baseline is fairly quiet in a silent room also. External noise makes it worse. Once the noise stops, it goes right back down. Hope it improves for you.

 

Yes, that's exactly reactive tinnitus. It can be quieter and then activates in the presence of certain sounds.

 

Same thing would happen to me when sleeping with a heater on with a fan next to me. I sleep with earplugs, and problem solved.

Give it a try and see if it helps you too.

 

I don’t use earplugs at night, but I think it is a good idea to try and learn to sleep in silence. Let the ears rest from noise.

 

I think the nightly acoustic rest helped me habituate faster than some others. I tried it out of desperation when every passing car was waking me up. There were times that the electric heater with a fan running continuously would cause me to wake up with ear fullness which would then spike the tinnitus again all day.

 

I'm curious, riding in the car seems to make mine worse, as does a fan, as do headphones piping in masking tracks. Went to camp by the river and its was suuuper loud, over top of the river noise even.

Earplugs seem like the last thing I would want. I have to have something else to listen to other than the ringing. It makes sense to protect my ears but it's kind of a Catch-22.

How do you do it?

 

Same here. I used to fall asleep with background noise only to wake up spiking later on. I stopped.

 

I'm not an expert in this, but I've had similar experiences several times. For me, this most often happens when I'm stressed out or when I'm having anxiety. I think your brain/system is in red alert mode and becoming hyper sensitive, specially the hearing, which can cause some weird symptoms. Try not to worry and I'm sure it'll settle down!

 

I had a whistling noise that would react to fans, water, printers etc. It went away after about a year and now it’s on and off like 50:1. I only really experience it now during a spike for a couple of days.

That was the worst kind of tinnitus by far, no way could I last with that.

 

Did this improve gradually or did it just go away one day?

 

I can't pinpoint exactly but pretty sure it just went away one day.

 

@orbiter12 Thanks that’s helpful to know - just read your success story too glad you’re doing better!

 

@mknature it seems to come and go and different sounds affect it. At the moment a shower or running water is really bad, not great for personal hygiene levels! In bed I’ve tried using ear plugs if we have the fan on so that I can sleep. How are you?

 

@Emgee yeah mine is like this. I have no idea what caused it. My tinnitus got worse about 7 months ago but was just a loud ringing noise. Since then I’ve had days of hyperacusis, reactive tinnitus, pulsatile tinnitus - I find it very difficult to identify what causes the change and it makes it very hard to habituate. How are you doing?

 

Unfortunately, mine continues to worsen. I’m not sure as to why. Not doing well at all. How are you doing?

 

@mknature how is your reactivity now?

 

You are 7 months into tinnitus. My experience of many spikes is that it usually takes 12-18 months for me to habituate. You are getting close. Please hang in there. G-d bless.

 

Hi Ken. I live in CT, 45 minute drive to NYC. I've had tinnitus for 6 years. I can't seem to habituate. It just gets louder and louder... or so it seems... any advice you can provide?

 

I'm in the same boat. I did kinda habituate last fall 7 months from onset. But then with meds I hit a breaking point and all these sounds have increased my baseline. A lot of the sounds causing the increases I don't know what they are. But since it keeps increasing I can't habituate to it.

 

Hi @Sam Marksmen.

Your tinnitus might be noise induced and not caused by medication as mentioned on your profile, especially if you are sensitive to certain sounds. When you habituated, did you return to listening to audio through any type of headphones including earbuds, headsets or AirPods even at low volume? If you did or attended venues where loud music was played or worked in a noisy environment, any of these could be responsible for your tinnitus increasing even if you were wearing hearing protection.

Hope you start to feel better soon,
Michael

 

Yea, no headphones, loud music or noises. Thanks! There is a component that is noise induced for me as well.