Woke up with very loud humming in my ears. “Reactive tinnitus”?

July 26, 2023 12:05 PM

I have a moderate/severe hearing loss and am a life-longer wearer of hearing aids. About 15 years ago, I developed some severe tinnitus and getting new (better) hearing aids, using a white noise machine at night and some CBT helped. It took about six months to get “better” but it never really went away, but I almost never notice it now. Except this morning! I woke up thinking there was construction or drilling happening on our roof — a really loud rhythmic humming noise in both ears.

I freaked out, it was extremely anxiety-inducing and I was worried (like last time) that it would not stop for a long time.

It did stop after about an hour. I used Dr. Google and think maybe it was “reactive tinnitus” -- a type of tinnitus that gets worse with exposure to mild/moderate levels of sound. We are sleeping with a noisy fan in our bedroom … so maybe?

Has anyone had this type of experience? What did you do if so?

I am worried now it will come back any minute. If it does, I will go back to my audiologist — but that will take a while to book. But until then I am sitting at work hoping my ears don’t start yelling at me again.

posted by Lescha to Health & Fitness (3 answers total)

Best answer: My tinnitus come and goes more or less randomly and has changed over time so probably meets the definition of "reactive tinnitus". Reading this question definitely made it noticeably worse for about 10 seconds. The thing you describe happens to me a few times a year but not for an entire hour. Most tinnitus is caused by a combination of physical (ear pressure triggers mine) and neurological/brain factors so it's very hard to predict what will change it.

Basically your brain is always trying to interpret the electrical signals from your ears and turn them into sound, and if you have hearing loss or other issues (I have some autism-related sensory problems) it will make mistakes and interpret the signals as sounds that don't make sense. My tinnitus usually gets worse after any change in my environment or mental state, so if something changed recently (even if it doesn't seem related) then it could have triggered the change and you have nothing to worry about as you are probably already adjusting to it.

Personally, I would only prioritize an audiologist appointment if there was something wrong on top of the tinnitus, as I've been pretty disappointed by my previous attempts to talk to doctors about it. My tinnitus definitely got better after I stopped trying to fix my tinnitus, because I'm not monitoring it as closely. But, if there is anything else wrong like pain then you probably want to get that looked at soon.
posted by JZig at 12:29 PM on July 26, 2023 [6 favorites]

All my audiologist knowledge is from my now-past 94 year old grandmother, but between that and JZig, I think make the appointment anyway! Audiologists are backlogged so get on their calendars. We're all idiots over here, ya know!
posted by atomicstone at 2:53 PM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you notice a consistent change, I would check in with your audiologist or medical Dr (ideally ent/otologist). They'll have some questions to ask to rule out something medical causing the change. But yes, fluctuations are pretty common with tinnitus. Sometimes there's a reason (stress, caffeine, salt) but sometimes there's nothing we can pinpoint.

Another potential (I think less known) trigger is muscular. Some people have a somatic component to their tinnitus, so they can change their tinnitus by clenching their jaw/moving there neck (and some other things). So something causing muscle tension can be a trigger for those people. One of my patients switched to a ergonomic office chair and had a big reduction. So if you woke up with a crick in you neck, that may have played a role. The good news, if that's the case, you know it will go away once that's sorted.
posted by ghost phoneme at 3:06 PM on July 26, 2023