The Effect of Insomnia on Tinnitus

We all know that tinnitus interferes with sleep. And we also know that not getting enough sleep the previous evening will make our tinnitus louder the next day. Researchers at the Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit, Michigan) recently did a correlation study about tinnitus severity and insomnia. Not surprisingly, tinnitus symptoms--as measured by the Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire--were more severe and positively correlated with insomnia.

Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2014 May 9. [Epub ahead of print]
The Effect of Insomnia on Tinnitus.
Miguel GS1, Yaremchuk K, Roth T, Peterson E.
Author information

Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
The objective is to see how chronic tinnitus sufferers who are unmanageable to maximized medical therapy can benefit by decreasing their subjective complaints from a sleep evaluation and treatment. However, the proper identification of these particular patients has not been described well in the literature when attempting to correlate these 2 diagnoses. Thus, tinnitus patients with and without insomnia, based on ICD-9 diagnosis, were evaluated using the Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire and Insomnia Severity Index to determine correlations between insomnia andtinnitus.

METHODS:
Patients with a diagnosis of tinnitus and tinnitus along with insomnia who were treated at our institution from 2009 to 2011 were identified. Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire and Insomnia Severity Index responses were obtained through written and telephone interviews. A Pearson product moment correlation was used to determine the effect of insomnia on tinnitus. Additional analyses identified whether TinnitusReaction Questionnaire scores were associated with a possible benefit from an evaluation for insomnia in tinnitus patients.

RESULTS:
A total of 117 patients met inclusion criteria. A significant correlation was found between the Insomnia Severity Index score and TinnitusReaction Questionnaire severity (r = 0.64; P = .001). Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire severity was shown to be a good predictor of sleep disturbance and good in predicting group association, especially the "emotional" subscore component (sensitivity 96.9% and specificity 55.3% for identifyingtinnitus patients with insomnia). The greater the insomnia disability as exhibited by an elevated Insomnia Severity Index score, the more severe the patient's complaints were regarding the tinnitus.

CONCLUSION:
Results suggest that if the emotional score on the Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire is ≥ 15, the Insomnia Severity Index may be useful to identify patients who may benefit from further treatment and evaluation of insomnia. The robust correlation between the Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire and Insomnia Severity Index objectively showed that patients with insomnia have an increased emotional distress associated with their tinnitus. Both questionnaires can be used together with a high degree of specificity and sensitivity in predicting tinnitus patients with an underlying sleep disturbance. [emphasis added]

Reference: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24816421​

 

Right. And since we know that, for the life of me I cannot see what is to be gained by doing a study on it. Seems to me to be a waste of resources.

Stephen Nagler

 

I guess I'm just lucky as my brain goes to sleep pretty fast. But its the morning blast oft that rocks my world of "T's". Most older folks can only sleep so long with t's or without and I usually get about 6 hours or so. Now if I take some type of drugs its last a little longer but its just that sleep you get that really doesn't do a thing but drive up the anxiety levels.

 

I've also been lucky in that T doesn't bother me when trying to sleep. I just turn on the "waterfall" on my iPhone and I seem to fall asleep pretty quickly and stay asleep until morning. I just hope it stays that way

 

My T is far worse in the day if I sleep bad. Quality of sleep is so important. That's why I take melatonin...

 

I have posted about this repeatedly to newbies on TT. It's a vicious cycle, T interferes with sleep, and lack of sleep exacerbates T ! And if not dealt with, it gets progressively worse. That's when severe anxiety and depression can set in. Re-establishing a proper sleep pattern is essential to learning to live with T! It was/is the key component to my habituation!

I agree Dr. Nagler, we didn't need a clinical study to establish the fact that lack of sleep contributes to the increased emotional distress of people suffering with tinnitus!! (Rather than that, how about directing research resources toward a cure! )