Tinnitus Got Quieter, Now Unbearable at Night

Hello, to keep it short, I have noise induced tinnitus from a gig.

For 5 days it was unbareable, I got no sleep at all, or an hour or two max.

I was given steroids for 9 days which seemed to make it go away, I was having lovely sleep, it didn't bother me much at all for 3 weeks.

In the last week it's starting to get bad again, I only got 3 hours sleep last night and I'm starting to get how I was when I first started, I feel like I can't cope any more. It started off as a 9/10, then went to a 2/3, now it's a 7/8. Is it likely to keep getting worse? I'm really confused why it's back.

I've been to football matches but worn ear plugs. The only thing I can think is being on a mic on my play station, as it got very loud for a second. Also telephones at work can sometimes be very loud, and it's impossible to monitor as differnr lines are different volumes.

Is this likely to just be a spike? How can I bring it down the original level? It's horribke laying in bed hearing it not being able to sleep, and it wakes me up when I do sleep.

It also gets louder for a few seconds, like really really loud but then goes away, this Is becoming more frequent. I'm only 22 and this has ruined my life.

Are daily noises not likely to make it permanently worse? Only for example; if I were to go to more gigs without ear plugs etc.

Thanks.

 

Probably a spike. I had one that lasted about a week or two. Try to mask the T during the night. My favourite is this iOS app - http://rain.simplynoise.com/

 

When I first got tinnitus it was crazy, it would go up and down constantly. I'd even go from silence to absurd loudness. It was bad.

It still oscillates in intensity (some days, hear it constantly and it sucks my attention away from everything). But it's leveled off for the most part now. I'm sure it will stabilize over time for you like it does for many.

 

That's bad news its going up and down like that, very annoying, id say just follow the usual advice, give your ears time to heal or adjust by avoiding overly loud situations etc but obviously you will hear some loud sounds as you live your life, just don't go looking for them

 

Most likely you have a spike. Don't worry yet. Usually spikes will settle down to baseline. Did you feel stressful lately? If you are really anxious now, this can add to the stress and increase the T volume. Try to do anything relaxing, things like leisure walk, jogging, hiking, Jacuzzi or warm bath, even meditation or yoga. Try do some abdominal breathing (google for breathing techniques for relaxation or search youtube) which can really reduce anxiety and tension. If you are now really stress out, you may be functioning under the limbic nerve and you are in fight or flight mode. This usually makes things worse than it is. Doing all the relaxation things will help restore your normal parasympathetic nerve and you will be less anxious and hopefully sleep will improve. As others suggest, it is good to have masking especially at night. Just go to the store and buy you a sound machine or a CD player will help. If you have high pitch T, then the nature sounds of heavy rain, waves, waterfalls, crickets, even shower or faucet sounds will help. If you have PC, try download a free sound generator 'aire freshener'. For mobile masking, I download nature sounds to my ipod with itune. If you have smart phone, there should be free APPs generating sounds.

If maskings still don't help, then consider to use some meds to help with anxiety and/or insomnia. You need to talk to your doctor about this. Only use this as a last resort and you can phase them out later when your condition improves.