Tinnitus That Grows in Volume Throughout the Day — Anybody Else?

My tinnitus has developed this weird pattern where literally the longer I am awake, the louder it gets. It starts the day low and by night will be very severe. This is not me just being in a quiet room at night - it literally grows in volume throughout the day and by night time is screaming.

No idea why it would do this physiologically but figured I'd ask to see if anyone else had the same.

 

Hey GBB, a similar thing happens to me. The intensity level increases more like a step function rather than linearly. I have three intensity levels: a 3/10 until the mid afternoon, a "transitional" 4/10 and then a constant 5/10 that lasts until I go to sleep. It has been like that since the onset, but recently I seem to have longer "3/10" windows. I hope it is a good sign.

 

Nice - glad the windows are lengthening for you. It’s definitely a strange thing - I’ve tried to control for noise exposure, sleep, diet etc... nothing halts the clockwork increase. I figure it must be something to do with my brain but no idea what...

 

I can’t say this happens to me so sadly I can’t add anything to this one. Just a thought, have you tried taking a short nap, say 3-4pm, and seeing if this restarts your level again? I find this happens to adjust my tinnitus, so I’m fairly certain my brain activity/sleep affects how mine is. Even if I sleep too much my tinnitus is worse for the day.

 

I have! It just increases through the nap - I wake up and it's like it ran in the background, increasing regardless.

 

This generally happens to me. My tinnitus is always the faintest right after waking up. I've heard some speculation that it has to do with Glutamate.

 

I have no idea. I thought it had something to do with cortisol levels, but I have no medical background and mine is pure speculation.

 

I think this is pretty common. When my tinnitus first started it would be totally silent when I woke up and stayed that way as long as I didn’t move much or raise my head up. Eventually it became constant but it’s still quieter in the morning than the evening.

 

I've got tinnitus and the volume of that seems pretty consistent throughout the day. I just developed another ear problem though, I think it is middle ear myoclonus (MEM). I think it's the stapedius muscle in my middle ear going into spasm and it beats against my ear drum. I can feel it vibrate and it sounds like morse code beating away in my ear. It's terrible.

When I wake up, that will be very faint and the frequency of the beat is slow with maybe 20 beats a minute. After lunch it gets even better, less frequent and not as loud. If I exercise in the afternoon it will go away completely. Then everyday around 6:00 PM it comes back slowly so that by around 8:00 PM its back with a vengeance. It's louder and the frequency is up around 100 to 200 bumps a minute. It doesn't follow my heartbeat, so it's not that. It is there until I fall asleep.

So for me the time of day really affects my MEM but not my tinnitus. I've only been having this for about 2 weeks, but the daily routine of symptoms seems to follow that same pattern.

 

My tinnitus follows the same pattern as well with it quietest in the morning, and the increasing throughout the day. My guess is that this pattern was due to a combination of irritation from noise, and some stress.

The pattern is quite consistent. I figured out that warring earplugs at night, even though it made the tinnitus appear louder, was a key, as it made the tinnitus lower in the morning quite consistently. Over months my tinnitus finally relented and went down. I continue to sleep with earplugs which has made my tinnitus problem far more tolerable to me.

 

My tinnitus is definitely louder upon waking up from sleeping. I'm also noticing that as I get more spikes throughout the day, my body aches tremendously. Also stomach pain seems to follow the same pattern. My PC's response to my concerns was a prescription for Lexapro, which 1 pill gave me a terrific migraine. I immediately stopped taking it. Can my tinnitus situation be the cause of my other ailments?

 

This is what I think too.

I also sleep with earplugs (I have to decide between hearing a louder tinnitus and/or my father snoring) but I haven't noticed any correlation with the morning loudness. For me, it seems that the "5/10" period is somehow postponed if I stay in a quiet environment as much as I can.

 

Yes, I view the earplugs at night as acoustic rest. It started not to really decrease my tinnitus - a really great extra benefit- but rather as I was constantly getting woken up by every little noise and then not sleeping for most of the night, which made the whole thing worse. It really has been a key component of my improvement, and want to share it with others that may benefit (perhaps).

 

Thanks - I sleep in almost perfect silence so I believe I take care of my ears at night. If I wear earplugs I don't think I'll be able to sleep as my tinnitus is extremely loud at night. If I get to the point this is doable, I'll definitely try it. Glad to hear you have improved!

 

This is really common. Sleep is also a huge disrupter for many. It’s normal to take a nap and then wake up with screamingly loud tinnitus afterwards, for example.

 

Same pattern here as well. Sleeping with the earplugs definitely helps. Have you noticed any difference?

 

I don't sleep with earplugs as I don't need to. I know some on here do, but it's not for me. I'd only consider it if I was sleeping in a warzone or something, or anywhere else that's too loud.

Going to bed with earplugs in a quiet room is nonsensical to me. I can understand those who use them because their partner snores really loudly, though. Other than that, I see no reason to use them.

 

I notice now with my pulsing ear problem, if I lie my head on the pillow with my left side down on the pillow, it makes the throbbing sound lower in volume. I haven't tried ear plugs. I don't find wearing them comfortable. If the trick with the pillow didn't work then maybe I would try ear plugs.

 

I too experience my quietest period is upon waking up in the morning. It's still there, but just not nearly as loud. Sometimes I say in bed for awhile just to have more of that less noisy time. My tinnitus is a bit more complicated because I have three main sounds going off in my head. On my right side (my deaf side) I have the main source of distress, a loud hissing static noise with some chirping sounds mixed in. This tinnitus is entirely reactive to any sounds entering my good ear (left side). Then I have a milder tinnitus that is a ringing noise. The ringing tinnitus (more on the left/center of brain) is not that noticeable except in the morning when the hissing/static noise is has abated to the point that I can now notice the ringing. BUT, as soon as I get up and begin making normal noises (running water, etc.) the hissing static tinnitus fires up and stays with me the rest of the day. What fun we have.

 

Mine kind of does that. It has another trick where I'll wake up from, say, a dream, and I will actually here it go from fairly quiet to pretty loud, right while I'm listening to it, within seconds! That's happened at least three times. Habituating to the former, still not sure to what even make of the latter.

Hope you get some relief soon!

 

@JohnFox

I find myself staying in bed in the morning longer just to have some more quiet time as well. Best time of the day for me!

 

It used to, but mine baselined and is pretty much the same all day now, unless I spike.

 

How long did that change take for you?

 

Yes I did. Everytime I take a nap, no matter how short/long it is, my tinnitus goes back to the "morning level" (almost).

 

Mine peaks through the day as I am working, reaching maximum loudness around 6-7pm. Lately, it has been hitting the 7-8, maybe 9 level by then, and is a very high pitched whiny hissing. Usually it calms down a bit after I eat dinner. By bedtime it is manageable, as I usually don't have a problem falling to sleep with my drugs (3mg Diazepam, 25mg Trazodone). Tapering off the Diazepam now, so hopefully sleep continues to be OK.

I think my benzo tapering is making my tinnitus substantially worse.

 

Hello, my tinnitus also start from zero in the morning (when I am able to sleep adequately) and increases during the day. It is a hissing sound with physical sense of vibration in the ear.

I think the tinnitus increases because cortical excitability naturally increases during the day and is reset by sleep. In fact, when I sleep really poorly, the tinnitus is not reset and continues increasing crazily during the following day. Trileptal decreases my tinnitus but I cannot increase my dose because of the side effects. Also, my benzo tapering is worsening my tinnitus.