What is this vibrating sensation in my ear, and how do I make it stop?!

August 5, 2015 1:42 PM

For the past few days, I've had this weird fluttering/vibrating sensation in my right ear off and on. You know when your eyelid gets twitchy? It feels like that, but way down in my ear, like my eardrum is twitching, and it's driving me crazy.

It doesn't hurt, and it doesn't feel like anything is stuck in my ear (believe me, I have considered all the awful possibilities like a moth in there, or a colony of brain-eating spiders). My hearing is fine in that ear -- no changes there at all. But the fluttery/vibrating feeling is keeping me awake and driving me out of my mind.

Has anyone else had this happen? Does it merit a trip to Urgent Care?

posted by sarcasticah to Health & Fitness (21 answers total)

Best answer: UGH IT'S THE FUCKING WORST. It's a muscle spasm in your tympani tensor. It can be brought on by stress or grinding your teeth or fluid imbalance in your ears. A muscle relaxant can sometimes help.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:48 PM on August 5, 2015 [9 favorites]

i mean yeah there are other things it could be: meniere's disease, vestibular migraine, fucking demons who even knows. but if you end up getting a ton of testing done and it turns out to be nothing that shows up on any kind of test or that any doctor can see or fix then yeah. it's a fucking tiny hellish muscle spasm.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:50 PM on August 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Hmmmm. I do have some muscle relaxants. I'll give that a try.
posted by sarcasticah at 1:51 PM on August 5, 2015

Best answer: If you don't have a muscle relaxant but DO have access to a B-Complex vitamin and Potassium supplement, you can try those (either one may help, both is better).

Potassium is about the only way I can stop the eyelid twitch.

If you had something in there, it would be excruciating. So at least comfort yourself in the knowledge that it's not a moth, but might be brain-eating spiders because they would probably know how to cover their tracks.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:52 PM on August 5, 2015 [7 favorites]

Oh, and a decongestant may help too if you're having pressure problems in your sinuses.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:53 PM on August 5, 2015

It could be a small perforation. There doesn't need to be either substantial change in hearing or pain.
posted by Emma May Smith at 1:55 PM on August 5, 2015

sorry, meant to add - with my "other things it could maybe be" you would be having various other symptoms like vertigo and hearing loss and inner ear pressure changes and whatnot. i'm just listing all the things that my doctors were like "lol i dunno let's try this".
posted by poffin boffin at 1:56 PM on August 5, 2015

have you tried yawning or trying to yawn? that flexes the inner-ear muscle that might be twitching. it might snap it out of whatever it's doing.
posted by zeek321 at 1:59 PM on August 5, 2015

I was having something like that regularly and it eventually stopped happening much. Then a few months later I happened to be getting a hearing test and mentioned it to the audiologist, who said that there was nothing she could see wrong with my ears and that sometimes it was just "excess energy."

Anecdotally, it coincided with me using the hot tub (in which I dunk my head under water a little/def get water in my ears) more often.
posted by needs more cowbell at 2:02 PM on August 5, 2015

Response by poster: Oh, I have tried yawning. Lots of yawning. Doesn't help. I wonder if it's related to migraines? The weather lately has been the kind that usually triggers migraines for me like crazy. And now I shall stop thread-sitting.
posted by sarcasticah at 2:07 PM on August 5, 2015

Best answer: IANAD/YD (or at least not that kind of doctor), but I've had this, too -- for the first time in my mid 30s. Freaked. Me. Out. Because, you know, I could also kind of hear it? Like a teeny tiny woodpecker in my inner ear?

But yeah, nthing the above: my doctor said it was just a muscle spasm. Lasted a couple of days. De-stressing, eating some bananas, and getting a full weekend of much-needed sleep seemed to do the trick.
posted by pinkacademic at 2:19 PM on August 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I wonder if it's related to migraines?

Mine is definitely associated with things that also trigger my migraines, like PMS and humidity/high pressure weather and stress from not sleeping, which unfortunately creates a terrible cycle. You can try a lot of things that can maybe potentially help you sleep while it's happening but honestly the best thing is just a xanax or ambien or whatever will knock you the hell out.
posted by poffin boffin at 3:12 PM on August 5, 2015

oh and if it persists, you can end up being more sensitive to sounds, particularly loud or high-pitched noises, in that ear, which then also feeds back into the migraine loop. ugh.
posted by poffin boffin at 3:16 PM on August 5, 2015

I've had this happen momentarily, but not for long periods of time. I would try a decongestant before trying muscle relaxants but that's just me. (Not a fan of stuff that knocks me for a loop.) Decongestant (the real pseudoephedrine stuff) often helps with my migraines too.
posted by purple_bird at 3:38 PM on August 5, 2015

It might be a hair. Have you tried using an earwax removal kit? That would wash hair out, too.
posted by Carol Anne at 3:43 PM on August 5, 2015

This happens to me in one ear with certain noises in the environment, such as my white noise machine. My eardrum just flutters and flutters, it feels like. Annoying but not dangerous, I think. Is it happening to you in a certain room, say, or under certain conditions?
posted by thebrokedown at 4:23 PM on August 5, 2015

Response by poster: Nope, it's pretty constant no matter where I am.
posted by sarcasticah at 6:19 PM on August 5, 2015

Definitely check the earwax. It's amazing how much it affects (from sounds and vibrations to general wellbeing) and yet it's so easy to remove.
posted by monospace at 6:33 PM on August 5, 2015

I've had it, too. It's a fluttering feeling, and, since I suffer with allergies and sinus pain, I think it's related to that. My doctor looked at my ears a couple of times, but she saw no wax or blockages.

I also have earaches now as part of my hay-fever symptoms, and ear pain if I don't take sudafed before I fly. Overuse of the the Neti-pot is a killer. My ears will really hurt like hell if I do it too much. I have asked the doctor about this correlation, but she has no wisdom.
posted by feste at 10:33 AM on August 6, 2015

Response by poster: Muscle relaxant helps. Gonna get an ear wax removal kit tomorrow.
posted by sarcasticah at 3:00 PM on August 6, 2015

Response by poster: A month later, it seems to have subsided. ::knocks on wood:: So, marking this resolved. Thanks, everyone!
posted by sarcasticah at 12:23 PM on September 5, 2015