Tinnitus and the bedroom air conditioner

[PAylor]

Hi all,

 

I have had tinnitus (ringing in my ears) for many years. I was on a medication for three months that made it worse. It's now two months post treatment and it hasn't gotten any better.

 

We have been very lucky not to need the air conditioner on this trip until yesterday. I found that the noise is really bad on my ears. Fortunately it cooled off enough last night that I was able to open the windows. I know I can't count on that.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance!

[SuiteSuccess]

Shooters ear plugs (active electronic noise canceling). Expensive but filter loud noises very well while allowing normal conversation.

[budeneighe]

Me too. I have found the 3M sponge ear plugs to be about the best solution for noise control both in the bed and elsewhere. The degree of compaction before insertion and the depth of insertion give good control over the degree of attenuation to whatever bothers you. As a light sleeper, I have found that it is more about cutting back on the more percussive sounds than having total silence.

 

I buy these by the $15 - 80-unit contractor's packs at Home Depot and a pair usually works for a few days to a week. If they get damp or wet, it makes it much harder to put them in and in how well they block the sound so just grab another pair. At this price, a pack will last months and months.

 

Here they are at HomeDepot.com:

 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-Tekk-Protection-Multi-Color-Disposable-Earplugs-80-Pack-92800-80025T/202691611

 

 

I will say that even sleeping all night in total silence I still wake up with about the same amount of tinnitus. It can be exaggerated by a lack of certain things in one's diet, too. Snoring will also make it much worse, even if you don't think you hear your own.

 

Peace to you.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

I too have tinnitus, mainly in my left ear. A few years back, a doctor I no longer use, prescribed a beta blocker for a small, intermittent heart flutter. Wrong idea. Tinnitus got worse, changed docs and was relieved of the Bystolic. Took a while to get the tinnitus down, but still have it and it's not getting any better. I think what I have now is permanent and will only get worse in time.

 

Ear plugs make it worse for me, unless the noise outside is worse than the tinnitus volume. I wear ear protection now all the time on the farm, but in the house, cant do it. But music helps for my situation. I can leave the radio on at a low volume and it sort of blends the rest of the noises at night living next to a busy road, so the ringing stays somewhat low in comparison.

 

I feel for ya. Tinnitus sucks and I have heard of a few ending up institutionalized because of it. But that's only in severe cases. I cant imagine what that must be like.

[WendyW]

I have tinnitus too, and using the "Sleep Pillow" white sound app on my iPad seems to override the ringing, or it has become a sleep trigger -- I'm not sure which. It definitely helps me sleep.

[skp51443]

We prefer to use the main air conditioner and a small quiet fan to circulate the cool air, much less noise in the bedroom that way.

[Dennis M]

I too have tinnitus, no way to determine if it is mild, average, or severe. It is much like trying to judge another's pain, but it is a constant buzzing/ringing (long live rock & roll!) I have however, managed to deal with it very effectively through positive mental feedback. In effect I just made up my mind that I would ignore it and not allow it to bother me.

 

I read an article in the New Yorker magazine many years ago about controlling pain through positive mental feedback and it touched on tinnitus as well. The person who told about controlling tinnitus said he "... just determined that I was not going to allow this distraction to control my life!"

 

So I did the same. It took a while and obviously the sound is still there all of the time, but it is rare that I am consciously aware of it - sure am aware of it right now! Basically I just told myself "It is there, it is not going away, it isn't hurting me in any way, so I will just ignore it."

 

Here is an article describing the method. More scholarly articles can be found as well. As I said, it has worked for me, hopefully it will work for others.

[Bobq21]

Hi, I find that a distracting noise such as mood music of you choice seems to help with me, it takes my mind off the

Tinnitus.
BobQ

[Not A Clue]

I too have tinnitus, no way to determine if it is mild, average, or severe. It is much like trying to judge another's pain, but it is a constant buzzing/ringing (long live rock & roll!) I have however, managed to deal with it very effectively through positive mental feedback. In effect I just made up my mind that I would ignore it and not allow it to bother me.

 

I read an article in the New Yorker magazine many years ago about controlling pain through positive mental feedback and it touched on tinnitus as well. The person who told about controlling tinnitus said he "... just determined that I was not going to allow this distraction to control my life!"

 

So I did the same. It took a while and obviously the sound is still there all of the time, but it is rare that I am consciously aware of it - sure am aware of it right now! Basically I just told myself "It is there, it is not going away, it isn't hurting me in any way, so I will just ignore it."

 

Here is an article describing the method. More scholarly articles can be found as well. As I said, it has worked for me, hopefully it will work for others.

So far this has worked for me.

[N TX Dave]

I have had it for 15-20 years and went to an ear specialist who said there is nothing to do about it and all he could say was learn to live with it. He said people had their ear drums pierced and it did not help. I have a theory that the higher my blood pressure is the louder the ringing is so I try to keep my BP down. I also have learned to not hear it much of the time unless the grand kids start screaming or around loud music. I had not heard it today until I started reading this and now they are really ringing. Mine was not caused by music but firing guns before and during my service in the army, working in loud workplaces and on loud cars back in the 60's and 70's before anyone started wearing ear protection. I have heard rumors of some medicine for it but my Dr knows nothing about it. Good luck to everyone with learning how to live with it.

[RV_]

My tinnitus is very loud and crept up on me slowly over the years. I'm Air Force retired, 27 years, with three career fields, four years as a Medic/Surg tech, three years as a Medical Lab Tech during a five year break in service for college. Then I found a better way to draw blood with no aids risk - the M-16! I spent 20 years of my career as SAMTU (Small Arms Marksmanship Training Unit) and same job but changed name CATM (Combat Arms Training Maintenance.) I was a Red Hat, for the non military reading, I trained all Air Force personnel how to shoot their hand, shoulder, and heavier tripod and bipod mounted machine guns and other weapons, and fixed them when they broke. So each day we spent a half day in class teaching, then went out to the range to shoot. For our heavier weapons (M-2 .50 cal, Mk19 40mm automatic grenade launcher, assorted shoulder fired rockets) we'd spend a day in class and a second day on the ranges. So I was exposed daily to the gunfire of from 20-100 people firing everything from 9mm handguns to the M-2 Barrett .50 cal sniper rifles.

 

On weekends I DJ'd with my own mobile Bose sound systems and 600 watt per channel RMS Amps, playing clubs and special events, private parties, weddings, organization holiday events you name it. I loved getting paid to party, drink beer (I hire an assistant to load, unload, and designated drive). I considered neither work, so essentially I got paid to make loud noises, blow things up, and party hard, play with guns, shoot them, gunsmith them. And a good retirement surviving it. No apologies for loving it.

 

Needless to say my tinnitus is loud, my high end hearing is pretty bad, and as I get older it gets worse. I never read the book but knew it is irreversible so I just ignore it, or smile as it reminds me of a day helping EOD with a big SMUD, or shooting the MK19 shooting 300 40mm grenades per minute out to 2000 meters.

 

So ignore it with a great attitude works. As said I'm hearing it now just because I'm thinking about it. I can hear stereo, have enough frequency left to still really enjoy my now digitized extensive CD collection. I'm on a tablet typing this now, and at the same time it is playing music stored on it through Bluetooth to my Bose sound system from across the room.

 

If going in I knew I was going to have so much fun, but pay for it with tinnitus, I'd have asked what the hell are we waiting for?

[budeneighe]

How loud tinnitus seems to be is often about context of the moment and not a specific level of audio. This is because the hearing mechanism has both physically mechanical attenuation and neurological. The muscle that protects the hearing mechanism clamps down on it to physically keep it from moving too far as the volume goes up. If the Tinnitus is neurologically based, turning up the volume may seem to make it less noticeable. Unfortunately, tinnitus is one of the precursors to various kinds of hearing loss and particular in the case of loud sounds. It may be telling one that they are being exposed to sounds that are too loud. The worse the damage gets the worse the tinnitus.

 

Vitamin and Mineral deficiencies cause it as well as genetic predispositions for some people but all symptoms are the same and equally irritating.

 

Hearing protectors and ear plugs can reduce the actual sound into the ear and as the hearing mechanism slowly adjusts to less volume the constant level of neurological background noise seems to get louder. In some cases, long periods of attenuated sound contacting the ear drums may allow for some very slow recovery but we are not talking minutes or hours but more like a lifestyle change. By the time one can perceive a lessening, though, they will no longer have a current baseline of tinnitus to use as a reference base.

 

There are a lot of studies of tinnitus treatments like:

http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/detalhe_artigo.asp?id=487

and

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01273883

 

Dental problems, particularly those that affect the nerves of the jaw and neck (like TMJ issues caused by teeth and jaw joints wearing out) can be a common source of the problem. So can snoring, sleep apnea and systemic inflammations such as from fibromyalgia. Any ongoing condition that causes muscles in the body to be constantly energized can affect auditory neurology.

 

All cells, even nerves, have duty cycles and when those are exceeded the cells cannot eliminate all of the waste products of their functioning. This backup starts to impair function, make it more intermittent and less refined until it will only function in briefexaggerated bursts. until it recovers, whatever information it carries will be erratic .

 

If my legs get tired I stop and and possibly sit down to let them rest. Same with my eyes. But if my hearing gets pooped I don't have earlids to let the mechanism rest. sound just keeps bombarding the mechanism keeping it exhausted.

 

We automatically ignore non-threatening things we hear once we have learned that they present no threat or importance. We are unaware of the amount of constant noise we can't avoid hearing 24/7. We just "think it out" of our awareness but the hearing mechanism is still taking on the full constant impact.

 

This is why hearing protectors that actually attenuate all of the sounds reaching the eardrum are important. However, notice that whild wearing really good ones that you can hear your own breathing after a while. That is still sound that is still getting to the hearing mechanism and can't be blocked. If you snore, you hear it very up close and personal and very loud! Stopping the snoring might reduce the wake up tinnitus.

 

[RV_]

Actually, I wore both earplugs fitted for me, AND earmuffs on the ranges my whole career with almost no exceptions, and those I wore at least one or the other.

 

As well, and this might be in your links which I have not had a chance to read yet Budd, no hearing protection can stop damaging vibrations conducted by facial and jaw bones.

 

Excerpt:

 

"But that's not the only way our body can process sound. Sound waves can also be transmitted through the bones in your head. When the bones vibrate, the sound reaches the cochlea, just as it would by going through the middle ear and eardrum, and results in the same sort of nerve impulses being transmitted to your brain. This method of sound transmission is called bone conduction [source: Walker and Stanley].

 

The great 18th- and early-19th-century composer Ludwig Van Beethoven, who suffered hearing loss apparently caused by thickening of the structures in his middle ear, may have been one of the first people to develop a bone-conducting device help him hear music. He attached a rod to his piano and then connected it to his head, so that it transmitted the vibration of his playing directly to his cochlea [source: Mai]. Bone-conducting headphones are built around this same concept."

 

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/audio-music/bone-conducting-headphones1.htm

 

That's why even wearing ear protection which helps, we get hearing damage from career long exposure to jet engines, loud high performance racing engines, and even head sets with music if we jam too loud over time.

[GlennWest]

Actually the a/c helps drown out some of the ringing for me. I find noise is my comfort. The quiet is not comfortable

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

The term "Silence is deafening" comes to mind. As long as I have noise around me it's tolerable, when all is silent the ringing drowns out the other voices in my head.... maybe that's a good thing!!

[budeneighe]

I think my point may be missed. The noises being used to drown out the ringing may be the long term cause due to the constant bombardment of the neural pathways.

 

The ringing is not a mechanical thing. It is neurological and whether in the actual connecting pathways via the cochlea or in the brain, the ringing can be a sign of cellular exhaustion. There is no guarantee that it is being caused by only 1 of those listed possible causes. It could be from a combination of 2 or more things, like a magnesium deficiency which leads to ringing which leads to one constantly raising the level of the sounds to drown it out, which further exhausts the already tired neural pathways.

[Dance Chick]

I have tinnitus, and other noises like a fan, a/c, TV, etc. called white noise, actually help mine subside a bit. There are a lot of times I don't realize my ringing is there. Then, there other times that it is quite prevalent, like right now because I'm thinking about it. I also have hearing loss associated with it, which is beginning to be a big pita. I taught tap & jazz dance for over 30 years. I have no doubt the loud music and loud feet contributed to my tinnitus. If I'm in a situation where a very loud noise happens or someone claps their hands near my ears, it actually hurts. I wish I'd known then what I know now and would've taken some precautions.

[N TX Dave]

If I'm in a situation where a very loud noise happens or someone claps their hands near my ears, it actually hurts. I wish I'd known then what I know now and would've taken some precautions.

My family just can not understand that fact when my grand kids are screaming and yelling or beating something loud when I complain, they say he is only a year old what do you expect, well it hurts my ears. I can't go to live concerts anymore even if it is a garage band at an RV park because it hurts while I am there and for hours after my hearing is shot all I hear is ringing and hissing. When I wear headsets for music or TV if it is even at a normal/low level it hurts after awhile and I have to remove them.

But generally I can shut it out and not hear it even though I know it is still there.

[USMCRet]

I have no doubt my musical tastes and fondness for decibels resulted in this condition I carry around today. It sucks, but boy was it fun getting it. And I still go to concerts. By the way, it's much easier to get great seats at classic rock concerts today than it was the first time around.

[Tumbleweed]

I have tinnitus also. I was never really exposed to loud noise.

 

A couple years ago I had surgery where I lost my right inner ear. As a result I am totally deaf in my right ear. I told my new doctor that I had no inner ear, he still tried to look inside. He said you aren't kidding as it has been closed up. I expected that my tinnitus would be gone because my right inner ear is gone, as well as the hearing nerve in the right ear. Strange but I still have tinnitus in my right ear. The volume is just as loud as before the surgery.

 

It is funny that I don't ususally notice it. However, reading this thread I notice it now.

[Bill/Marg]

Billy has it. Used to do a lot of hunting and shooting guns without ear plugs. Loss of hearing in one ear. Strange though, he still hears the crickets, also now a motor running like air conditioning. (He said he still hears his crickets.) We sleep each night to the sound of thunder and rain. So much so that we never know if it is storming. It helps him sleep. We have been planning on getting a CD with desert winds. Now I am so used to the thunder and rain noise, I would not know what to do without it. I guess this drowns out the crickets, or maybe adds to the spring-like noise of tree frogs and other evening outside noises. Like to listen to the wolves too, on CD. Guess what works for one might not work for the other. He keeps his CD player right beside his side of the bed.

[WendyW]

I once fell asleep at a Rolling Stones concert in S.F. (Nov. 1972) because the noise was so loud.

[Deezl Smoke]

I once fell asleep at a Rolling Stones concert in S.F. (Nov. 1972) because the noise was so loud.

I dont blame ya. I'm not a stones fan either.........................

[budeneighe]

Sorry about that. As I said, tinnitus is a condition of the nerves in the auditory pathway into the brain. Just like amputees still feel phantom sensations in their missing limbs, missing parts of the auditory system still are thought to be there, in the brain. Think of tinnitus like snow on the TV when it was tuned to a missing channel (in the days before digital tvs). Turn the volume up and it sounded just like it looked and nothing at all was there.

[Deezl Smoke]

We are having a bit of a heat wave. (hot for this area, but not hot comparatively to some). So I run a fan at night near the bedroom door. Have slept great that past couple nights, which I believe is because of the fan.

 

Something else I had forgotten about is whether you sleep on your side or not. If on the side, like i do, I had a memory foam pillow for a while and it would really amplify the tinnitus. I junked it and got a fiber filled pillow and it works much better. Just how it works for my situation. Figured I'd relay it in case it helps anyone else.