Theories Behind Fluctuating Tinnitus

My fluctuating tinnitus is driving me mad. It’s been bad today. Have no idea why. Few good days but lately it’s been a lot of bad. I don’t recall ever having it last this long or being in both ears. It seems to be progressively really getting worse. Varies between being a buzz/cicada sound and a high-pitched ring. If I focus on doing something it fades into the background. But I can’t watch TV, I can’t sleep. I can’t relax anymore. I have to constantly have my brain engaged in something else. And it’s beyond maddening. I’m thoroughly exhausted.

My ENT thinks it’s primarily related to TMJ issues, but probably multi factorial. But ironically, today my jaw didn’t hurt as bad and my tinnitus was so loud. It went away last year for several months and returned in March of this year. I’ve had it on and off but this is been going on for the last moth or so consistent and it’s driving me nuts.

Are there any theories as to why tinnitus fluctuates and changes the sound? If you think about the brain connection, one would argue that your brain is trying to fill in the sound frequency it’s not getting. So is it one frequency at 2 o’clock this afternoon that it’s not getting versus a different frequency at 8 o’clock this morning it wasn’t getting that created a different sound?

I sleep with plenty of noise at night, but it’s so high-pitched it’s not maskable so it keeps me up. And of course it progressively gets louder throughout the day. My ENT would argue that it’s because I’m using my jaw more throughout the day to talk and eat. And it’s terrible at night and when I wake up in the middle of the night because I’m clenching all night. But that doesn’t explain why it changes tones, or during the day fluctuates within an hour.

I am at a loss. Tried steroids. They didn’t help so I don’t think this is a sensorineural hearing issue.

I’m back to mourning the loss of the life I used to have. Which I’ve had to do several times of the last few years. I miss being able to relax. I am fearing this is becoming permanent. What a future to look forward to.

 

I think it's diet. Sodium potassium and sugar in particular. Maybe some other nutrients. The level of these in your blood can vary quite a lot. Also I think blood pressure and body temp and pulse rate also have some effect. As well as hydration levels. That's my theory at least.

Try cutting out all sugar, minimize sodium (<1000 a day, I think I eat like <500 if I had to guess), eat two bananas for breakfast for the potassium and then drink a glass of hot water (expands blood vessels improving circulation) and see if it calms down your tinnitus a bit if you want to try a safe experiment.

 

Hi @Forever hopeful,
I'm sorry you are having a rough time - I am also in the middle of what I am hoping is a spike... although it is dragging on now - the fact that I was doing so much better with this only just recently makes it all that much worse!

I totally get the whole not being able to relax thing - its totally exhausting.

I don't think there is anything we can really do except wait it out - at one time I did try supplements etc but figured the fact that they reminded me I was suffering from this everytime I took them outweighed any marginal if any improvements they could offer.
The last time my tinnitus got better/or at least didn't bother me as much I had a weekend without too many commitments and was just able to do what I wanted - I am going to give this another go this coming weekend - fingers crossed where we both currently are is only temporary!

 

Mine changes by the second. The loudness had to do with cortisol. Most people feel better in the morning and it gets louder throughout the day.

This is such a complex condition. I read about a guy who got a stroke and his tinnitus vanished after 43 years. Go figure. His ears didn’t heal from the stroke but his brain shut up.

 

@Forever hopeful, sorry that you’re struggling at the moment. <3

I wish I could offer you some advice, but I really have no idea what causes fluctuations in tinnitus - but I do understand how damn annoying it is. My tinnitus is constantly fluctuating throughout the day. It flicks between steady beeps, chirps, static, even a little tune. Does my head in.

I would definitely say sleep has an impact, as well as a poor diet. On the other hand, exercise seems to really help, and lots of water.

Unfortunately, my tinnitus is loud today because it’s that time of the month.

Can I ask, are your fluctuations better in the morning or the evening? Or the same throughout the day?

Sending Love. xx

 

Diet exercise and acceptance. Control what you can control…

 

Hi @Forever hopeful,

I'm so sorry you're going through this. You're narrative and copious amount of kind-hearted posts haven given me strength in the past.

No one really knows the answer sadly, some things mentioned above have merit in the literature including diet and stress.

If there's any consolidation and echoing @brian, I know of two individuals who had a new tone resolve after years I don't think there's really an upper bound on when a spike becomes "permanent" nothing with this condition seems to be set in stone.

I hope you find peace and respite soon.

One thing to check is if your tinnitus isn't absorbing sound, I had this for a bit. Try to go one day in pure silence as possible and see if the hour tonal changes you mention still hold. If so I have a temporary cure for this kind of so-called musical tinnitus.

 

Generally speaking, it’s quieter in the am. I still wake up with it but it is less annoying in the morning. Last few weeks it has been a gamble as to how far I get through the day before it becomes really noticeable. Sometimes it is by 10 am other days its the afternoon.

It is more of a buzzing in the am. Then it becomes higher pitched and more of a whine as the day progresses. It reminds me of what I would get when my head was filled up when I had a cold and my ears and head were all stuffed up. It’s like that kind of whine. It has always been predominantly in my right ear but I now have it in my left but generally quieter. It disappears when I talk ironically but not when others talk. Only the shower or full running water from a faucet masks it. But water sounds on a sound machine or my phone don’t.

What is really annoying is when I go out and I use my earplugs to protect my ears the whine is like 50 times more noticeable and it really distracts me from what I’m trying to do like socialize. I used to love the theater but think that is out of the question now as all I will hear is the whine.

I try not to eat too much salt or sugar (I am trying to get rid of all the darn Halloween candy) but I can’t exercise because I have bilateral inter metatarsal bursitis and need surgery, which I can’t have until next year. I do not have high BP. But I do notice that exerting myself makes it worse. For example, I just went out and brought my plants in because we are supposed to have a frost tonight and I definitely noticed it worsened as I was moving around and bending over picking up the plants and moving them inside. Bending over definitely makes it worse.

So frustrated, especially given that it has been intermittent in the past.

 

You have a temporary cure for musical tinnitus? Please share!

 

It is not unusual that the tinnitus sounds change often. Some people have simple tonal noise (I consider them very lucky), and a lot of people have non tonal and frequently changing sounds (I am one of them). Think that what you are hearing are a group of your neurons. Their synchronization, timing and patterns can change quite often and thus why we hear different sounds. Tinnitus is just orphan auditory neurons firing in different modes.

 

Sorry Buzzy! I shouldn't have been so ambiguous. Anyway its a copout answer but my tinnitus used to be super reactive and absorbing to high pitched noises. The musical tinnitus has since evaporated I can only credit time but it was awful for a while it would copy bird noises, vacuum sounds etc. Anyway, one day I'm going for a walk and I thought my tinnitus changed to a pleasant tone of wind chimes, what had actually happened was that while walking I passed by some chimes and it replaced the dreaded bird noises. Went home, hopped on amazon and bought wind chimes. On days when my baseline tinnitus was terrible, I'd go sit next to the pleasant wind chimes and work and slowly they would replace by terrible whine.

Apologies if this isnt the cure you had in mind but it worked really well for me! I have distortions from the water in the shower, I'd listen to the chimes before going in and they would mask the terrible squeaks in the shower and it would feel like such relief I had showering back for a good 3 months until the musical tinnitus went away.

Find pitch that is getting absorbed (don't go tone generating just in day to day life if it absorbs a sound you don't find as annoying) ----> get a pleasant version ----> rinse repeat until science fixes us.

 

Wow... this is eerily similar to my current experience. I am sorry that you are experiencing this, but know that you are not alone. I'm right there with you and it honestly feels a bit like being in the Twilight Zone. I don't understand why my tinnitus ramps up during the day. Is it reacting to: noise/food/stress/something I don't even know about? I never really know what to expect with it and that is disconcerting.

One thing that I can unfortunately count on is that by the evening it will be screaming. Yet most mornings, although it is the very first thing that I hear upon waking, I can get a few hours of relief after a warm shower and a cup of coffee. I feel like a soldier everyday preparing to do battle in the afternoon and evening.

Hang in there and stay strong! Put one foot in front of the next, this can't last forever!

 

This morning I got to only 8:45 before it became really noticeable. It is the first thing I hear when I wake up in the morning. It’s certainly what I hear when I wake up in the middle of the night. But once I get up and start getting the kids ready for school and have breakfast and such, I don’t hear it at all. And then when I sit down to go to work I hear it very pronounced. I’m going to do a little experiment this weekend and see how loud it is over the weekend when I’m not working. When I’m working, while I’m not sitting in a completely quiet room, I’m not talking and I’m not engaging unless I’m on a conference call. If I’m on a conference call I don’t hear it.

The other thing that I notice is that if I sit and really listen to it it’s sort of comes in waves. A constant waves will be louder and they’re tight little quieter and louder and quieter and louder and quieter.

It’s so frustrating. My hearing is still within the normal range the last time they checked it which was July.

I totally agree that it feels like you’re just powering through the day. And from my perspective that’s existence not living. I’m supposed to be taking my little one to Disney World in January and I’m just praying that I don’t crack up before then.

Thanks for sharing. Sorry you are suffering as well.

By the way, I read your success story. You were doing really well. You alluded to the fact that you had some sort of setback but didn’t want to discuss in that thread as it was indeed a success thread.

If you don’t mind me asking, can you share what happened? Did you have an acoustic assault or something?

 

Thanks so much! This makes sense because I can sometimes change the music to static by listening to something static-y. This musical tinnitus is crap. I'm glad yours went away. I had a bout with it this same time last year and am wondering if a change in weather somehow triggers it. Who knows?

@Forever hopeful, I am sorry for hijacking your thread a bit, but you are not alone with your fluctuating crazy sounds. This is probably just a spike and will calm down, but it might take a while.

 

My hearing test came back normal (at least up to about 10-12 kHz) but I don’t really trust audiograms. As a musician, I’m pretty good at distinguishing and separating sounds. My guess is that my ears are probably not as good as my ability to test well in auditory situations due to the amount of transcribing and ear training that I’ve done throughout my life.

Thanks... and I am truly sorry that you are suffering too... this is truly a merciless condition that we all have found ourselves in. But hang in there, you are much stronger than you think and you WILL make it through this.

In fact I had two separate acoustic injuries this past summer. I wrote about it at length in reply to someone’s question I’m my success thread If you want to read it, scroll down the page and look for the short novel that I contributed in the subject

 

I also have daily fluctuating tinnitus. One day it's 1/10, the next it's 9/10, then cycles again. It's like the tinnitus is resting on my low day, then wakes up and goes crazy on the bad day.

If it's cycling, maybe there is a cycle within our body that's affecting it like hormonal or the NO ONOO cycle.