Two-Second ”Warped Chirp” in Ear While Listening to Music at Night — Then New High-Pitched Tinnitus

Hi,

I'm curious if anyone can tell if they recognize what happened to my ear about three weeks ago.

I was listening to music while sleeping in order to mask my two old tinnitus sounds – my phone in speaker mode about a feet (30 cm) away from my head – no loud volume, measured as occasionally peaking at 47 dB but mostly staying at 35 db average. I think the volume was even lower – I don't remember exactly at what volume I had it, but it was definitely not more than the above measurements.

This was something I had been doing in a similar way and volume for months without problems, but I did start to feel some ”ear fullness” and heard some ”whooshing” in my left ear. This is why I decided to put some toilet paper in my left ear to dampen things a little. This worked fine for one night, but the next night I woke up after two hours after falling asleep to my ear doing this ”warped chirp” thing for about two seconds and directly after that a high pitched hiss started in my ear. Is this something anyone else has experienced or heard of? I'm wondering exactly what happened when that ”chirp” to place in my ear – was it the hair cells and/or synapses zoning out?

Really scary thing to experience and also at such a low sound volume – even with some paper tucked in the ear. But I guess with fatigued ears a low volume can cause problems as long as the exposure continues long enough.

 

If you had been doing this for months before without any consequences, it could have been a coincidence or something delayed from other noise exposure. Do you have any hyperacusis?

As I see it; as I've developed hyperacusis due to extreme overprotection, I've had new tones pop in from seemingly innocent noise exposure, not to mention bad spikes, both temporary and permanent. My tinnitus has become highly volatile due to it. Could it be that the "signature" of the phone sound (i.e. tinny/lower quality?) could have irritated any existing hyperacusis and in turn caused the tinnitus to change? Just my speculation.

 

Thanks for your input!

I just know that my ears felt ”normal” (with no hyperacusis) until that week where my ears started to feel ”full”. On Sunday night to Monday I did use headphones while playing a computer game for several hours (no loud volume, but still) and then went to bed playing music all night that I normally did. Maybe that's what made my ears start to fell ”full” on Tuesday – not enough rest for the ears. I think I one of the nights during that week I actually used headphones during the night, because I felt there was so many sounds in my head I wanted to mask.

I also did work from home that week and my entire family was around some of the days (two kids) so it was more noise around me than there usually is when I'm in the studio/office.

The more I think about it I really do feel like an idiot not understanding that my ears was saying they needed a break. I could have at least set at timer on the music on the phone so it would stop playing once I've fallen asleep.

So, maybe like you say it's a combo of things that triggered this which previously fine for months.

Still curious if anyone know what it is that happened to me – it was such a concrete ”happening” (that two second warped chirp) for turning on that high pitched tinnitus.

I didn’t really have hyperacusis before or during that week of the onset of my high pitched tinnitus, but I feel I do now since that high pitched tinnitus started in my left ear. Not that I’ve had hyperacusis before, but it’s like I ”feel” the sounds in my ear and not just hear them. I can't listen to music for too long even at low volume. It also sometimes feels like there’s something crawling in my ear, and sometimes it’s aching a little.

 

Now, since it was confirmed in an audiogram a few days after onset (about one and a half months ago now) that I have some hearing loss in high frequencies (I'm guessing the same ones as where I have my high pitched tinnitus) it seems to be ”by the ENT book” to do an MRI of the ear, just in case the hearing loss might have another reason than acoustic trauma.

Questions:

1. Do you think it's OK to do this MRI scan of the ear with my current condition with proper hearing protection? I do think I have a little hyperacusis, but I think it has gotten a better than it was a couple of weeks ago. At the same time I can't really listening to low volume music for long (nor sounds) that are near the frequency of my tinnitus, since it gives a slight piercing feeling in the ear. But I don't know if that's because of hyperacusis or simply that music and sounds near the frequencies of my tinnitus becomes ”too much”.

2. Is there a difference between short, high volume acoustic trauma and long term, low volume acoustic trauma? I guess not, but would be interesting to know if it is my hair cells and/or the synapses that are damaged. The audiogram I did indicate that I have some hearing loss and I can confirm this myself, since cymbals and tambourines in songs I know sounds a little different compared to before the trauma. Still wondering if it's really possible to damages the hear cells with such a low volume I was playing music at – definitely not peaking at more than 50 dBA and since I understand the synapses (nerve fibre?) are more sensitive than hair cells, maybe it's the synapses I've damaged? Difficult to tell, perhaps.

3. What do you think of COVID-19 vaccination and my acoustic trauma (most likely) tinnitus? About to take my first shot. Should be OK, right?

Thanks in advance for any input!