400 beats per minute tinnitus
December 17, 2022 8:11 AM Subscribe
Hi, I have a clicking sound in my head that is a steady 400 beats per minute (I’m a musician and used a metronome lol) that I can hear only when my one ear is occluded by a pillow.
Other ear is not clicking. I don’t think it’s pulse related because it is very steady - 400 beats every time over several days and 400 is not divisible evenly by my heart rate (60-68). There is nothing in the house that would be making the noise. Any ideas what this could be?
Google says that a soft palate spasm clicks, but I feel like that would be bilateral.
Other ear is not clicking. I don’t think it’s pulse related because it is very steady - 400 beats every time over several days and 400 is not divisible evenly by my heart rate (60-68). There is nothing in the house that would be making the noise. Any ideas what this could be?
Google says that a soft palate spasm clicks, but I feel like that would be bilateral.
Do you always have it? Does it ever vary in volume or tempo?
posted by lookoutbelow at 8:31 AM on December 17, 2022
posted by lookoutbelow at 8:31 AM on December 17, 2022
If you can duplicate your symptom all the time, might be worth physiciany visit. Audiology? ENT?
posted by bitterkitten at 8:54 AM on December 17, 2022
posted by bitterkitten at 8:54 AM on December 17, 2022
I get this sometimes and a doctor shrugged and said it was a muscle spasm and to try taking a B vitamin and some magnesium to see if that helps. Seems like it does?
posted by corey flood at 8:57 AM on December 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by corey flood at 8:57 AM on December 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Does massaging your jaw/temple help?
I sometimes get... Not a clicking, but a vibrating when I'm tense. It can turn into tinnitus after a while.
Big yawns and head/ear massage help to get rid of it
posted by Acari at 9:02 AM on December 17, 2022
I sometimes get... Not a clicking, but a vibrating when I'm tense. It can turn into tinnitus after a while.
Big yawns and head/ear massage help to get rid of it
posted by Acari at 9:02 AM on December 17, 2022
Best answer: The regularity of your clicks is kind of baffling, but here is a page devoted to ear clicking which discusses a number of possibilities including soft palate spasms (FWIW the stills from the video of soft palate spasms make them look unilateral), tensor tympani muscle spasms (click), stapedius muscle spasms (buzz-click), and eustachion tube dysfunction.
It also seems to have an online generator with which you can try to replicate your clicking. Whether that leads to a suggested cause, I don’t know.
posted by jamjam at 9:10 AM on December 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
It also seems to have an online generator with which you can try to replicate your clicking. Whether that leads to a suggested cause, I don’t know.
posted by jamjam at 9:10 AM on December 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks all, and jamjam that simulator was quite helpful although it only goes up to 200 beats per minute. I did not disclose that my wife is an audiologist with deep experience and has not heard of a click that is this fast. Her theory is a spasm of the tensor tympanis or stapaedius muscle but because of the high rate of the click I thought that posting a question would be appropriate. Jamjam, the simulator lets me have her hear an approximation so thanks for that help! I’ll ask my doc, but he will shrug it off no doubt. If he treats me seriously I will post a follow up.
posted by dunkin at 9:29 AM on December 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by dunkin at 9:29 AM on December 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
400 bpm is a little faster than 6 Hz, which is the rate of synchronous firing of a motor unit. In other words, yeah muscle spasm. A neurological exam can help figure out exactly which muscle/nerve combo has gone haywire, and what to do about it. (TT, stapedius, and palate are innervated by different cranial nerves, so they are easy to tell apart -- this is a great scenario for localization for med students!)
posted by basalganglia at 9:59 AM on December 17, 2022 [15 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 9:59 AM on December 17, 2022 [15 favorites]
The shortness of the stapedius muscle (1mm!) would seem to lend itself to the most rapid possible twitch rate.
There was a Metafilter post about hyperacusis some years ago, and I thought a snapped stapedius muscle was the best explanation for the disorder.
If that’s true, a spasming stapedius muscle might be something you don’t want to mess around with.
posted by jamjam at 10:04 AM on December 17, 2022
There was a Metafilter post about hyperacusis some years ago, and I thought a snapped stapedius muscle was the best explanation for the disorder.
If that’s true, a spasming stapedius muscle might be something you don’t want to mess around with.
posted by jamjam at 10:04 AM on December 17, 2022
There are a ton of things you can do to help:
-see and ENT
-get evaluated for TMJ issues
reduce salt and alcohol intake
-meditate
-attempt to relax your shoulders and jaw
-drink more water
-magnesium supplements
posted by evilmonk at 11:06 AM on December 17, 2022
-see and ENT
-get evaluated for TMJ issues
reduce salt and alcohol intake
-meditate
-attempt to relax your shoulders and jaw
-drink more water
-magnesium supplements
posted by evilmonk at 11:06 AM on December 17, 2022
Response by poster: Wow, thanks for the additional answers, all helpful. I’ll talk to my doc and use your input to push for referral to a neuro-otologist or similar.
posted by dunkin at 12:02 PM on December 17, 2022
posted by dunkin at 12:02 PM on December 17, 2022
I had something like this when I was listening to headphones too loud, often playing guitar through them.
posted by credulous at 3:24 PM on December 17, 2022
posted by credulous at 3:24 PM on December 17, 2022
It started when I was a teenager, and wasn't constant or active only when I had an ear on a pillow, rather it came and went at random. It was as you described, a "purring" spasm in one ear. It went away after a couple of years, but maybe I got lucky.
posted by credulous at 7:03 PM on December 17, 2022
posted by credulous at 7:03 PM on December 17, 2022
Many years ago I had pretty severe tinnitus for several years, that was initially triggered by a large firework going off nearby, and focussed in my left ear. The volume of it was louder than a train going past at full speed on station platform.
After 2 years of it not fading, I was referred through a bunch of specialists, had detailed hearing tests, scans, x-rays, etc. The various referrals took about 18 months.
Despite all their tests they couldn't find any signs of physical damage being the ongoing cause, but otherwise my hearing was very thankfully very good (wide range and sensitive to very quiet, etc.)
From what I understand when the little hairs get pushed over from a sudden loud noise or ongoing same noise (ie regular tinnitus) when those hairs die off, you should stop hearing that particular whine.
They concluded that my brain had got caught in some sort of feedback loop 24/7 and carried on hearing that same noise despite the cause no longer being there. The specialists apologised, and tentatively explained that it was now 'all in my mind' and so there was nothing more they could do, apart from prescribe me a white noise hearing-aid type device I could wear, that would mask the tinnitus whine noise through continued use, which I declined.
Fortunately for me, knowing it was no longer physical but that the noise now being entirely mental was exciting, as it meant I could rework those brain pathways to cancel the feedback loop myself, as I'd been studying hypnosis and hypnotherapy around that time.
So after a few weeks of a kind of reverse suggestive hypnosis (using hypnosis to undo the previous sub-conscious self-hypnosis that was hearing something that was no longer there), I'm still tinnitus free years later.
So I wonder if your noise, could be stuck in that same kind of ongoing feedback loop to something that's no longer there physically (but still just as real), but is quiet enough you only hear it through a pillow, especially with you having explored so many other options?
posted by many-things at 1:13 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
After 2 years of it not fading, I was referred through a bunch of specialists, had detailed hearing tests, scans, x-rays, etc. The various referrals took about 18 months.
Despite all their tests they couldn't find any signs of physical damage being the ongoing cause, but otherwise my hearing was very thankfully very good (wide range and sensitive to very quiet, etc.)
From what I understand when the little hairs get pushed over from a sudden loud noise or ongoing same noise (ie regular tinnitus) when those hairs die off, you should stop hearing that particular whine.
They concluded that my brain had got caught in some sort of feedback loop 24/7 and carried on hearing that same noise despite the cause no longer being there. The specialists apologised, and tentatively explained that it was now 'all in my mind' and so there was nothing more they could do, apart from prescribe me a white noise hearing-aid type device I could wear, that would mask the tinnitus whine noise through continued use, which I declined.
Fortunately for me, knowing it was no longer physical but that the noise now being entirely mental was exciting, as it meant I could rework those brain pathways to cancel the feedback loop myself, as I'd been studying hypnosis and hypnotherapy around that time.
So after a few weeks of a kind of reverse suggestive hypnosis (using hypnosis to undo the previous sub-conscious self-hypnosis that was hearing something that was no longer there), I'm still tinnitus free years later.
So I wonder if your noise, could be stuck in that same kind of ongoing feedback loop to something that's no longer there physically (but still just as real), but is quiet enough you only hear it through a pillow, especially with you having explored so many other options?
posted by many-things at 1:13 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you cover your ear with a pillow while upright, do you hear the click, or is it only when lying down on the ear?
posted by raisindebt at 8:29 AM on December 17, 2022