Tinnitus in two ears. How can I sleep?

[DiegoDiegales]

After an exposure to a loud noice, I developed also tinnitus in my good ear. Before I could sleep laying my head on the pillow covering my good ear but now if I cover either of my ears gets louder and cant sleep? I sleep face up but I can not sleep much this way. How can people manage? Any advise?

[doglover1973]

This is a tricky one DD. Lots of people have T in both ears and are still able to sleep. I wonder if the problem is the newness of the sound rather than the sound itself . New sounds can be very unsettling. All I can suggest is you follow the BTA advice on sleep. I know from previous posts you've tried various meds. Sorry I can't be more helpful. All the best.

[surreycccfan]

Hi, sorry to hear you are struggling, here are some of the things I did which helped me get back to a normal sleep pattern with my T

• I used a sound generator app (I used ReSound Relief but plenty of others out there). I mixed sounds that (1) I found pleasant and (2) mapped well to my T. Audiologists tell us to map the volume of the sound to just below the volume of your T. As time went on and I felt more 'positive' towards my T I slowly reduced volume until I no longer needed the sound generator

• I tried to use positive reinforcement in relation to the sound from the generator app. The sound I had chosen was beach, waves, and rain, when I would go to sleep, I would listen to the sound and think of lovely holidays I have had walking on the beach. As T creates such a negative emotional reaction, these types of thoughts allowed me to calm down and think about something other than my T

• When I was lying in bed if I felt stressed and my mind was focused on my T I would follow a mindfulness body scan. I found this very calming and did take my mind off my T (something similar to this tinnitus.org.uk/relaxation-...

• I used BTA support group to help me learn more about T and techniques to move towards living well with T. As I learnt more and managed to reduce the negative emotional reaction to my T I would even say 'hello' to my T when I first settled down to sleep. The reason I did this is I found when I was stressed by my T it was always at the forefront of my mind so I found that if I said hello to it then (1) I had acknowledged it and my mind could move on to something else (2) by saying hello I was reducing my fight/flight reaction to it and this helped me to 'normalise' it for me.

• I tried to follow a good sleep hygiene pattern (maintain a regular sleep routine, avoid daytime naps, don't watch TV or use the computer in bed, no caffeine after 18:00 and as I am a clock watcher I put the alarm clock out of sight so I wasn’t constantly looking at it.

It took me quite a while to get into a better sleep pattern but using the above I eventually regained a good sleep pattern. The BTA have some excellent resources on sleep tinnitus.org.uk/tinnitus-an... and has good links to products such as sound pillows, headbands, etc. In the above link the vicious cycle graphic really highlights how the fight/flight reaction to our T inhibits our sleep. I found by practicing other distraction and behavioral techniques in the day I slowly shifted how I thought about my T (I saw it as less of a threat which took its power away) and in combination with the things I did at night I slowly got back to normal sleep patterns.

I hope the above may help in some small wall. Take care

[Jig-saw]

I have a wired sleep band, downloaded rainstorm sounds

for sleep/tinnitus which I love, sometimes I have it on very

low, sometimes a bit louder, never louder than the tinnitus

though, usually I read a kindle book too, if I'm not reading I

just pull the band down over my eyes and relax.

[SimToTheWorld]

Diego I was like you. I used mirtarzapine to break the cycle for two weeks. Mirtarzapine does help you sleep. I now sleep a lot better and feel less anxious. I stopped as mirtarzapine makes one feel very hungry and I don't like to stay on medication for too long.

[DiegoDiegales in reply to SimToTheWorld]

did you stay on mirtazapine just for 2 weeks? how many mg? I was on Mirtizapine just for a week but made my good ear worse with tinnitus. Did Mirtazapine make ur tinnitus worse at the beginning?

[SimToTheWorld]

That's bad that mirtazapine made your tinnitus bad. If I were you I would avoid it then. In my case it reduced my perception of tinnitus straight away. I was on half a 15mg tablet. I only took for two weeks as I didn't like the zombie like feeling during the day. It also made me very hungry. So I stopped. But it helped me to break the bad cycle of sleep deprivation.