Tinnitus Nightmares

If they exist, I think I just had one. I woke up after sleeping for only about an hour to an hour and a half. I did not take any sleep medication tonight. Anyway, I woke up and I swear I had a spike in my T even over the AC but when I leave the bedroom and go to the bathroom it seems to settle down so I am thinking that it is in part some ringing related to the actual appliance and not me just me. But I am so freaked out by it. Did I dream it? Is it getting worse? I had a pretty stressful day today but have had other days as stressful and did not have a spike. I am barely 4 weeks in so I am new to this and it is freaking me out. I am trying to stay calm. Trying to tell myself that if it is a spike it will calm down. I am lucky in that really almost all of the time I really cannot hear my T over the usual ambient noise of daily life and now here I am in the dark freaking out b/c I swear I can start to hear it over the A/C. That would be a new thing for me and I am so scared that this is just getting worse instead of better. Yet now I only hear the AC. But when I focus hard I can kind of here the glassy eeeeeeee of my T. Or I am delusional.


Is this ever going to improve?

 

Yes it will improve. As you mentioned you being freaked out isn't helping, it's tough in the beginning but try to stay calm and it should help you settle down. If you actively listen for it, it WILL seem louder, try not to focus on it.

 

Well, if you continue to "focus hard" to hear it when you're not hearing it, then no, it's not going to improve. The reason is, the more you pay attention to tinnitus, the more your brain thinks it's important, and will ramp up the volume and the persistence. So please, stop monitoring it when you don't hear it and be grateful that it isn't a hissing or buzzing or ringing maniac in your head and ears all day. Your tinnitus just started in August. If you stop monitoring it, it may well fade away, but not if you keep pulling it back into your focus of awareness.

As for it seeming to be louder in the middle of the night or if you wake up after an hour or two, that's not uncommon at all. Happens to a lot of us.

 

Thanks for the responses. It is so helpful to get the perspective of others who have had to deal with this longer. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me. I was focusing on it in part because I was trying to tease out if it was a dream or what was going on. I took a sleep aid and anti anxiety and went back to sleep pretty quickly. I woke a couple of hours after that b/c my 5 year old was calling me. He came into our bed and I fell back to sleep quickly but I noted that I was already back to base line. I awoke this am and am happily back to baseline. I am indeed working to not focus on the T and focus on anything else I can. I have cleaned corners of the house and drawers I haven't touched in years.
I think the thing that was the hardest for me is that it had never happened before and I was terrified that my condition was worsening.


Thanks again.