Sound Enrichment Throughout the Home — Using Air Purifiers and White Noise Machines?

Hi folks,

In the not too distant future, I will be moving from an apartment to a house.

The apartment has wall units for heat and A/C. With these units running, the sound level in the rooms is around 40 or 45 dB (A weighted).

The house on the other hand has central air. As a result, the rooms are much quieter, more like 30 dB or even 25 dB. As you can probably imagine, my tinnitus is *much* more noticeable in the house than in the apartment.

In this case, would it be reasonable to try and increase the noise level in the house’s primary rooms. What I had in mind is say an air purifier in the living room, basement, and master bedroom, and maybe a white noise machine in the master bathroom, in order to create some extra noise.

It seems like using white noise throughout the home isn’t normally recommended here. But on the other hand, is it actually productive to try and live in an absolute dead-quiet if I don’t actually have to? It seems like this would just make my life difficult for no good reason. Here I’ll mention that 90% of my issues with tinnitus are in the home, as it usually doesn’t bother me outside. And so if I can get comfortable in my home, I think I’ll be much happier overall.

Any thoughts or experiences from the folks here? Thanks in advance for any comments you have.

 

I think it would be fine just make sure it isn’t to loud. I’ve thought about doing the same thing.

 

I use a LectroFan, with the surf setting usually, the machine's headphone output plugged into a wooden Tivoli table radio for better quality audio than the plastic LectroFan has. With the sound machine, the room is about 50 to 55 dB's, as the sound goes up and down a bit with the surf sound. Love it, has no bad effect on my tinnitus, and I use it even when the tinnitus is not high. I sleep with another LecroFan in the bedroom, not plugged into an external radio speaker, but on a more steady, "fan" sound, not the variable surf sound.

 

I have the same degree of tinnitus too where it's mostly indoors.

This is an interesting topic to bring up for 2 reasons:

1) White noise generators seem to help some with hyperacusis but it is recommended to proceed with caution and guidance.

2) If you don't have loud tinnitus (just the quiet room types like me and the author does), a lot of things might be potentially over masking (fan noise, windows open, air purifier).

I have to use an air purifier indoors for allergy control. It's not extremely loud, but I don't want to risk having that type of white noise be a detriment to my hyperacusis or even make habituation impossible.

Some people have to work in environments with fans on all day. Sometimes, you can't just choose to not have white noise around.

I basically have my air purifier on all the time and have been working from home since COVID-19. Before I go and spend months and thousands of dollars on a TRT treatment to see if white noise is a good idea for my hyperacusis, if I haven't felt any significant spikes in either my tinnitus or hyperacusis, it is safe to say that white noise is probably not too bad for me?

 

I use a HEPA filter combined with Mozart to mask mine sometimes. I have both high and low elements and this seems to catch many - not perfect but better than nothing.