Live data from Hacker News

Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

sciencealert.com

171–180 of 262 posts

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really sorry to hear that. I once read something about the prevalence of depression in people with tinnitus. I was surprised by it, but I didn't really consider how disruptive it must be when you're accustomed to not having it. By contrast, I've had it basically my whole life. I remember laying awake at night, listening to the deafening ringing, thinking about how weird it was that silence isn't silent. It wasn't…

> silence isn't silent Blindness isn’t “no sight” or pitch black, there’s visual snow. If you pay attention, you can always feel your muscles/joints. Sometimes I smell burnt popcorn, but not usually, but maybe that’s because smell is always present. Similarly always taste saliva. Also see sensory deprivation experiments. We don’t seem able to experience “absence of sensation”.

[dead]

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#173
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try this 1. put your thumbs on your ears 2. rotate your hands so your index fingers are on the base of your skull, middle fingers just above 3. now put your index fingers on your middle fingers and "snap" them down on the muscle at the base of your skull some 10-15 times 4. if your tinnitus goes away or reduces, it's caused by muscle tension instead of nerves This blew my mind when I first tried it, but looked into i…

I’m struggling to visualise this, do you have any references with images?

Put your hand like this: https://static1.bigstockphoto.com/9/5/2/large1500/259859530....

But with your thumbs closing your ear orifices.

Now you have to hit the back of the neck with the tip of your middle fingers, and to get a harder hit you "snap" the fingers, putting the finger like "fingers crossed" position, and the pressing the middle finger towards the head. You should hear a big "thump!" inside your head.

It aleviates the tinnitus for a few seconds, but more likely due to the stapedial reflex than anything related to neck muscles.

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That, and you simply hear the sounds in your environment worse and/or selectively depending on how they interact with the tinnitus. It's a massive nuisance.

The worst has to be in movies or TV shows when they play this ring after something happens (car accident / loud bang / etc). It's like it doubles the tinitus amplitude and it's excruciating. Every time I see this in a movie I am both disappointed for the lazy trope as well as immediately think to myself there's no way the sound designer of this movie knows what tinitus even is.

My main gripe is that some of the people that I interact simply won't believe it and can't be arsed to speak up a little so I can actually hear them.

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear this. I similarly woke up one day with bi-lateral tinnitus at about an 8/10 in loudness. Thought I was going to lose my mind. After about 9 days one morning the right ear completely resolved and the left ear was at about a 5/10. Very, very, very long story short, I did a ton of digging and experimenting and realized it was related to a neck injury (a lot of people with whiplash have short-long term tinn…

Now that is interesting, thank you for giving me a new angle to look into. Never thought that there might be a relationship with other things other than just my ears. I know I can make it instantly worse by clenching my jaw, so that should have been a hint already.

TMJ disorders are linked to tinnitus because of the nerves that run near it. In my case, if I force an underbite I can make both of my ears ring but I don't have any TMJ issues.

There are some physical therapists (also dentists) that focus on maxillofacial dysfunction and TMJ disorders, so that's an avenue to go down as well.

The other two common reasons for tinnitus:

* Hearing damage (gunshots, explosions, etc.) and those are not reversible as of yet

* Ototoxic drugs. When I last did research on it it years ago, like hearing damage from gunshots, was also irreversible.

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#176
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like me! I have had sinus issues all my life before 17. I even had a surgery at 16 but I honestly don’t think it helped. Now I have the sinus problem a bit under control, aka I still have occasional infections during allergy and cold season. I use NielMed to wash my sinus and I think it helps a lot. Besides that I really don’t know what it would take to fix it permanently. I constantly can feel the mucus dr…

Have you considered seeing an allergist to test if you have some environmental allergies? If so, they may be able to recommend or prescribe meds to moderate the effects of those allergies. (disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, just someone else with sinus issues)

I did this 15 years ago. I didn’t feel like it helped much at all. But, that doctor was later on got sued for insurance fraud so it got me wondering if I was scammed as well. I’ll discuss this with my primary physician next exam. Thanks for the reminder!

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#177
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can play a pure sine wave tone with a tone generator app, and dial the frequency up until it precisely matches my tinnitus. I originally did this just to determine that frequency. But I noticed a side-effect: if I then turn off the tone generator, my tinnitus would disappear! Unfortunately that effect only lasts for a minute or less, so it is not really practical to get relief this way.

That's called "residual inhibition". Note that I would be careful about using pure tones for too long. Pure tones end up focusing the energy in your cochlea towards a small area of hair cells. Since these cells don't regenerate, it may be wise to avoid overstressing them.

Thanks! I didn't know it was a known phenomenon. Now I know what to google.

My tinnitus is fortunately not super loud; it's only noticeable when it's relatively quiet, or I'm blocking sounds (with ear plugs, or noise cancelling headphones without input, etc.). So it's not like I habitually blast my ears with loud sine waves out of desperation. But I can imagine it may be different for other readers, so that's a good caveat.

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always had problems with sinuses. I've had a few surgeries and while it's better, it's not good either. I literally had a drill up my nose, in my forehead. They still hurt and pop on their own, many times a day. One day my kid brought a nasty flu from the kindergarten. My otolaryngologist recommended the strongest irrigation stream I can find to clean my sinuses. Not only did it not help, but it also pushed some go…

I’ve used Navage and it honestly helps whenever I have a horrible sinus infection and the constant post-nasal drip wrecks havoc, affecting my quality of sleep the most (also recommend salt water gargles for sore throat). I have Tinnitus, which I first noticed when I was sick one time as a kid - probably 5-8 yrs old. Thankfully I have no other adverse experiences to report (related to this).

You also sound like me I have NielMed. I’m wondering if you used that before and how Navage compares to it? Appreciate the recommendation.

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve used Navage and it honestly helps whenever I have a horrible sinus infection and the constant post-nasal drip wrecks havoc, affecting my quality of sleep the most (also recommend salt water gargles for sore throat). I have Tinnitus, which I first noticed when I was sick one time as a kid - probably 5-8 yrs old. Thankfully I have no other adverse experiences to report (related to this).

You also sound like me I have NielMed. I’m wondering if you used that before and how Navage compares to it? Appreciate the recommendation.

I developed sever allergies to something later on in life (still trying to pinpoint exactly what, all I know is I get random flare ups), and NasalFreshMD is the one you want for serious sinus issues. It's bigger than either of those other devices though. The Navage has this proprietary pod thing going on so either you but their pods or you get a defeat device but the NasalFreshMD just has an open port for you to dump whatever brand of salt (including NielMed refills if you like their formulation) and however much water you want into so is much easier to use. It has three speeds to the Navage's one. (Not sponsored, just a happy user.)

Re: Tinnitus Is Connected to Sleep

#180
Yes!! Sometimes it's much worse when either I don't get a full night's sleep or I wake up from a short nap. The latter is almost guaranteed to make it really bad.
Post reply on HN