Tinnitus a Lot Worse in the Morning, Never Used to Be!

My tinnitus has changed in recent times.. In the early days, going to sleep was the only way I could reduce this high pitched whine. It was absolutely guaranteed, it was a ‘get out jail card’ . If my tinnitus got bad, and the more fatigued and tired I felt, the worse my T got, going to sleep ALWAYS made it better. It may have taken a little time to get to sleep but once I did, it was worth the wait!

Unfortunately, in the last 6 months or so, my tinnitus has been a lot worse in the morning. I don’t know why this is.. One reason could be is that my partner thinks I may have sleep apnea and the quality of my sleep has deteriorated as a result (my snoring has become very loud and I also snort and gasp for air, or so it seems). This is the time when I struggle with my tinnitus the most, the mornings can be truely awful.

Anyone else have really bad tinnitus in the morning or is it always a lot better than before you went to sleep? And also, have any of you experienced sleep apnea and as a result a worsening of tinnitus (if you were able to put your finger on it that is), especially in the morning?

Many thanks for any replys!

 

Mornings are by far the worst for me....awakening tinnitus. I have some sleep apnea too and should wear my appliance more. It has bands to pull your lower jaw ahead to open your airway. I like it better than CPAP. I lost the new bands for mine. They come in different strengths. I just have to call and they will send them free. It looks like above picture. Suppose to work for TMJ disorder too which I have on left side. Nothing guaranteed of course. The only things guaranteed in life are death, taxes, and permanent tinnitus lol (hope not)

 

KFW | Sleep Apnea Minnesota Craniofacial...

KFW | Sleep Apnea Minnesota Craniofacial...

 

Many thanks for the response and the helpful advice. I see you have gone for the internal device that fits inside the mouth, this option does appear to be the more appealing one out of the two. I can imagine the CPAP mask is rather annoying, especially when you are tossing and turning at night and it is not staying in place. It also looks a lot more extreme, that doesn’t bother me if it works though. Either way I need to get myself to the doctor (I keep getting nagged), as I can’t carry on like this. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy, I leave it too long. Sleep apnea is potentially a big problem in itself but with the added problem of worsening tinnitus on top (especially in the morning), it will drive me to despair! Many thanks again.

 

Mine is worst upon waking. Like you it didn't used to be. Once my brain' wakes up properly it goes crazy. Bad in evening and going to bed but definitely worst on waking. Been like that for past year.

 

Mine also is at its worst in the morning. It's absolutely terrible. The more awake I get it gets better through out the day. It sucks because I can't ever wake up in a good mood.

 

Whenever I sleep on my left side, I wake up in almost perfect silence. Whenever I sleep on the right it's extremely loud waking up. It's just something I've noticed. I'm still testing to see if this is correlated but this is my main suspicion. A hypothesis.

 

I'm exactly the same as you. Waking up to hell. I haven't figured out a way to cope yet.

 

The thing I can’t get my head around is.. I think i’ve had good sleep. I was in bed by 10 and up at 7 (okay i woke up twice, I can remember, which is less than normal) but my T is still bad. I could maybe understand it, if i’d had less than 6 or even 7 hrs, but I haven’t. The neurons in my brain are miss-firing more than ever.. And all this, just because my hearing is missing a frequency!!!

 

I can share this much with you.....I wake up and my ears are screaming CRAZY and I do say "Man this is horrible". Getting out of bed and starting your day and doing some type of activity kinda makes me feel better. My noise levels don't drop all that much. Waking up is not fun, but it is ..what it is.

Hope you feel better. Trust me, even I have hard days and I force myself to smile and love my life...at times.

 

Thanks fishbone,

You are an inspiration on here, I enjoy reading your posts and like what you stand for. It’s a shame more people can’t follow your lead. I myself am guilty of talking negatively sometimes. I know I shouldn’t, as positivity is the key. Sometimes I just find it a little easier said than done.

 

How long does it take till it starts to calm down after you wake up? For me it's somewhere around 4 hours.

 

Well, everyday is different but usually 1-4 hours or much longer and depending if a med helps like a muscle relaxer, gabapentin etc. I have a stiff neck and loud static hissing as I type this. I'm getting my C2-C4 nerves ablated and will see if that helps. I climbed a grain bin yesterday, 50-60 feet or so and when I came down my noise seemed practically gone. Whether it was muscles being worked, more blood being pumped to my ears, distraction, I don't know. But a big relief. I have had airplane ETD problems like @Philippe79 too. Sometimes my left ear would be plugged for days and finally I got fluid in my left ear from a flight and haven't flown since (2008) The shorter flights were the problem ones going up and down too fast for my E-tube(s) to adjust. I am going to a new TMJ Dr. later this month but the probability of a sloppy left TMJ joint causing my noise seems low. It could be caused by neck muscles like someone said. Very frustrating for us headringers is a massive understatement. I could try a AD again but I hate their side effects. All the ENT's/Audiologists say HF hearing loss caused noise. My noise all started with a high pitched noise in my left ear that I thought was caused by the airplane barotrauma. Can't go back in time regardless of what caused it but I continue to be proactive to at least try to manage the noise.

 

I sympathise with you @just1morething . What we think, unfortunately counts for nothing.. And unfortunately with T, you very rarely get the answers you’re looking for. It’s even harder to accept when, what you think may have caused it, turns out to be something completely different! There were so many factors that made me think barotrauma caused my tinnitus but apparently a high pitched ringing, isn’t associated with tinnitus caused by flying. So the question is.. can barotrauma cause permanent hearing loss? That’s the 64 million dollar question. Obviously not, according to the experts. Anyway, I’ve kind off moved on from that - life is too short. I could just see some similarity’s between your circumstances and mine, in regards to the barotrauma.

 

Every time I wake up in the morning, or after a nap, the realisation that I have loud Tinnitus hits me once again.
Like everybody else on here, I detest it.
But there is no way we can undo the damage done by acoustic trauma, ototoxic drugs, or the ageing process, is there?
So we just have to find ways to cope, and try to accept the unacceptable.
Some non-suffererse say “oh, how horrible - I can just imagine...”
Nobody can imagine what this is like.
All I can think of is searching for the best way forward from here.
The noise will always be there I know.
I need to find a mind set so that it bothers me less.

 

Well on the bright side we're still on this side of the grass. I may try the gabapentin/clonazepam once again if I can get it prescribed. I have WNG's but reluctant about TRT methods.

 

We all have to make damn sure some wise a** doesn't dig a hole in the ground as we're walking forward and we fall in it.