If you are one of the millions of individuals in the U.S. suffering from a medical condition called tinnitus then you probably know that it tends to get worse when you are attempting to go to sleep. But why would this be? The ringing is a phantom sound due to some medical condition like hearing loss, it’s not an outside sound. Naturally, knowing what it is won’t clarify why you have this buzzing, ringing, or whooshing noise more frequently at night.
The reality is more common sense than you might think. But first, we need to discover a little more about this all-too-common disorder.
What is tinnitus?
For the majority of individuals, tinnitus isn’t an actual sound, but this fact just adds to the confusion. The person with tinnitus can hear the sound but no one else can. Your partner lying next to you in bed can’t hear it although it sounds like a tornado to you.
Tinnitus is a sign that something is not right, not a condition by itself. Substantial hearing loss is normally the root of this disorder. Tinnitus is often the first sign that hearing loss is setting in. Hearing loss is often gradual, so they don’t detect it until that ringing or buzzing begins. This phantom noise is a warning flag to notify you of a change in your hearing.
What causes tinnitus?
Tinnitus is one of medical science’s biggest conundrums and doctors don’t have a clear understanding of why it occurs. It might be a symptom of inner ear damage or a number of other possible medical issues. There are tiny hair cells inside of your ears that vibrate in response to sound. Tinnitus can indicate there’s damage to those hair cells, enough to keep them from sending electrical messages to the brain. These electrical messages are how the brain translates sound into something it can clearly comprehend like a car horn or someone talking.
The current hypothesis regarding tinnitus is about the absence of sound. Your brain will begin to fill in for signals that it’s waiting for because of hearing loss. It gets perplexed by the lack of feedback from the ear and tries to compensate for it.
That would explain some things regarding tinnitus. For one, why it’s a symptom of so many different ailments that impact the ear: mild infections, concussions, and age-related hearing loss. It also tells you something about why the ringing gets louder at night for some individuals.
Why does tinnitus get worse at night?
Unless you are profoundly deaf, your ear receives some sounds during the day whether you know it or not. It will faintly pick up sounds coming from another room or around the corner. But at night, when you’re trying to sleep, it gets very quiet.
Suddenly, all the sound vanishes and the level of confusion in the brain increases in response. It only knows one response when faced with complete silence – generate noise even if it’s not real. Hallucinations, like phantom sounds, are frequently the result of sensory deprivation as the brain tries to create input where none exists.
In other words, it’s too quiet at night so your tinnitus seems worse. Producing sound may be the remedy for those who can’t sleep due to that aggravating ringing in the ear.
Producing noise at night
A fan running is frequently enough to decrease tinnitus symptoms for many individuals. The loudness of the ringing is reduced just by the sound of the motor of the fan.
But you can also get devices that are specifically made to decrease tinnitus sounds. Environmental sounds, like ocean waves or rain, are produced by these “white noise machines”. The soft noise soothes the tinnitus but isn’t disruptive enough to keep you awake like keeping the TV on may do. Alternatively, you could go with an app that plays soothing sounds from your smartphone.
What else can worsen tinnitus symptoms?
Your tinnitus symptoms can be exacerbated by other things besides lack of sound. For instance, if you’re indulging in too much alcohol before bed, that could be a contributing factor. Other things, like high blood pressure and stress can also be a contributing factor. If introducing sound into your nighttime routine doesn’t help or you feel dizzy when the ringing is present, it’s time to find out about treatment options by making an appointment with us right away.
References
https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/hearing-loss-tinnitus-statistics/