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A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

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Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#41

Post by kstenerud »

lutorm wrote: post #40
kstenerud wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know you have it? I've had a particular high pitched sound in my head that's apparent as soon as the ambient sound in the room goes down to a certain threshold. It's been that way for as long as I can remember, and I'd just assumed it was that way for everyone. Is that not the case? What should absence of sound in a room sound like to a normal observer?

Any sound you hear in the absence of actual sound is by definition tinnitus, as far as I understand. Once would expect an absence of sound to sound like nothing, no?

I don't know. I've never heard anything different from what I hear now in the absence of sound, nor have I thought to question the normalcy of what I hear until now. Without a reference point, I cannot make a comparison.

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#42

Post by lutorm »

asdkl234890 wrote: post #23

Couldn't it just be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus As I get older, I hear some sounds I am certain are like tinnitus. It terrifies me because I love and need quiet. But so far I've been able to move around, create some other sounds, and the fake sound stops. But tinnitus is a disease of old age.

A bit off-topic, but there are indications that tinnitus may be relieved by treatment of myofascial trigger points in the jaw muscles (e.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17956784).

I have mild tinnitus and my self-experiments have been inconclusive - in some instances kneading my masseter and the other, minor, jaw muscles has seemed to give relief, but nothing obvious.

Incidentally, I also sometimes experience another form of "tinnitus" (not sure what to call it) that manifests itself as a swooshing sound when I move my eyeballs quickly. It's most noticeable if I'm tired or under the weather in some form. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced something similiar?

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#43

Post by lotsofmangos »

lutorm wrote: post #14
mbell wrote: post #13

This article heavily confuses sound waves and EM waves in places. Just because they are both described in Hertz doesn't make them equivalent.

It's not very clearly stated, but they say the ELF radio waves may be able to excite nerves and hence be "sensed" by the body.

I'd love to know the process by which they think a 30khz radio wave could induce a current in your nervous system that you would perceive as a low frequency sound. The whole piece seems technically illiterate.

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#44

Post by ogig »

asdkl234890 wrote: post #23

Couldn't it just be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus As I get older, I hear some sounds I am certain are like tinnitus. It terrifies me because I love and need quiet. But so far I've been able to move around, create some other sounds, and the fake sound stops. But tinnitus is a disease of old age.

I lost earing on my left ear 3 years ago, around my 30s. Normal audition was replaced by permanent tinnitus. Talking to other affected people, old and young, i can tell that mine is the strong side of the spectrum.

I don't suffer the severe symptoms decribed in the article. I think that Hum must be doing something else to the bodys of those affected.

My tinnitus, after some weeks of adaptation, became part of normal life. I can sleep, concentrate and so on. I do miss the old silence sometimes. Good music is the new silence.

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#45

Post by ogig »

andrey-p wrote: post #25
asdkl234890 wrote: post #23

Couldn't it just be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus As I get older, I hear some sounds I am certain are like tinnitus. It terrifies me because I love and need quiet. But so far I've been able to move around, create some other sounds, and the fake sound stops. But tinnitus is a disease of old age.

That was my first thought too. I've got permanent tinnitus even though I'm in my mid-twenties (brought on due to headphone abuse when I was a teenager). It sounds more like a high-pitched tweee sound than a hum, but I've heard different people hear different sounds. Sorta OT, but I've actually been able to get some use out of my tinnitus. If there's background noise that's preventing me from falling asleep (but nothi…

I relate to the paradoxical utility of the tinnitus sound. For sleeping and meditation! it's like a never ending chant you can focus back whenever.

I've also tried to use the hum as reference point to get perfect pitch earing, that is been able to tell if a note is a C, a F or whatever. Unfortunatly my tinnitus seems to be composed of several frequencies and out of tune. I can't make any use of it for musical purposes (yet).

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#46

Post by lutorm »

Torgo wrote: post #17
lutorm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the transmitters are extremely powerful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLF_Transmitter_Cutler says it was at some point the world's most powerful radio transmitter at 1.8MW. Actual field strength will of course depend in a complicated way on distance from the site and the propagation, but you'd think that if these sites were the source, there should be a strong concentration of cases around the transmitters.

Presumably you could delocalize it with something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Frequency_Active_Auroral_... I realize that this is entering conspiracy theory territory, but generating VLF from a distance is one of the things this thing does.

Ah, interesting. I hadn't heard about that before.

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#47

Post by sanoli »

kstenerud wrote: post #37
dazc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have suffered tinnitus on and off since my late teens. It became permanent around 4 years ago. I don't think this phenomena is related - if you have tinnitus you know you have it.

How do you know you have it? I've had a particular high pitched sound in my head that's apparent as soon as the ambient sound in the room goes down to a certain threshold. It's been that way for as long as I can remember, and I'd just assumed it was that way for everyone. Is that not the case? What should absence of sound in a room sound like to a normal observer?

well, a "high pitched sound in my head that's apparent as soon as the ambient sound in the room goes down" is pretty much THE informal definition of tinnitus. You may not have it, but I'd bet you do. P.S. I have it, from being young and dumb and into punk rock and having a walkman.

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#48

Post by ogig »

kstenerud wrote: post #41
lutorm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any sound you hear in the absence of actual sound is by definition tinnitus, as far as I understand. Once would expect an absence of sound to sound like nothing, no?

I don't know. I've never heard anything different from what I hear now in the absence of sound, nor have I thought to question the normalcy of what I hear until now. Without a reference point, I cannot make a comparison.

Been strict you can't know for sure. Birth deaf people probably suffer strong tinnitus for their lifes without realizing. Oliver Sacks has nice essays extending on this.

But if tinnitus comes during your lifetime you do have a reference point, and you will most likely notice.

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#49

Post by disputin »

I've experienced this. It's not tinnitus which is high pitched - this is low pitched. I could hear it best in a certain room, but not when I stuck my head out the window. It occurred over a period when the nearby overground tube line was being worked on. So I concluded it's industrial machinery causing low frequency vibrations which reverberate in certain acoustic configurations. And it's very, very annoying.

Re: A Mysterious Sound Is Driving People Insane – Nobody Knows What's Causing It

#50

Post by Xcelerate »

I don't understand why this is such a big problem.

1) Locate someone suffering from the hum.

2) Take expensive pressure and sound equipment to their location.

3) Record all observable frequencies.

4) a) If nothing shows up, it's a personal biological problem. Direct problem toward medical professionals b) If something shows up on the frequency graph, identify the direction the sound is coming from (again using equipment that, you know, has been designed for this kind of thing and has been around for ages).

5) Follow sound, locate source.

6) Voilà, problem solved.

Someone tell me why it's not that simple.

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