I have not had a good week with my Tinnitus, during the day I am coping but bedtime is a nightmare(excuse the pun).
This was the first thing we discussed, he has already told me to resist the temptation to wear my hearing aids in bed and to try and teach my brain a regular sleep pattern.
I am dreading the cold dark winter months waking up about 5am and rolling about in bed for 2 hours every morning with all sorts of things flashing through my mind and Tinnitus at its worst
We decided to give this a try. As I have an electric chair handed down from my mam, instead of rolling about in bed, to get up, put the chair in a reclining position, make myself a warm drink and with a couple of blankets, settle down to some gentle music.
I am so lucky that my Audiologist is brilliant, I have the feeling he really cares about my situation, I was with him about 40 mins and any outside help he will help me with, but more important I have another appointment in November, I went in feeling a bit down and came out with a spring in my step,
I have included a image of my hearing graph.
Mike
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purenostalgia
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Well purenostalgia- if you think waking up at 5 a.m. is not good, wait until you are a bit older and you’ll find that sleeping a whole five hours uninterrupted is absolute bliss.Normally I wake after about three and a half hours, get up and have a drink of water and a pee. Back to bed and if I’m still awake after an hour I get up, sit in my comfy armchair and read a book.
An hour later I find I’m getting sleepy so return to bed, where I normally have my electric blanket on. It’s nice and warm and I usually drop off then.
I’m am very fortunate, though, that T doesn’t now impact on my life very much. I’ve habituated. It certainly doesn’t affect my sleep.
Lol Rosie I am almost 80, I suppose it is because I have always been a good sleeper, maybe I have been spoilt, so sorry to hear of your sleep problems, I now go to bed with an audio book on my phone placed under the pillow.
I didn’t realise - you’re just over my age! I’ve always felt it a fact of life that, after age sixty, sleep becomes more difficult (and creeps up on you when you don’t want it). So while early morning waking and so on is bothersome I feel it’s just part of life’s rich pattern.
I’m the same as you , if I get three hours at a time I’m lucky !!!! My back trouble wakes me up , my bladder wakes me up, my head/tinnitus joins in too , but it’s my back that’s the biggest pain . No pleasure being 69 !!!
''Normally I wake after about three and a half hours, get up and have a drink of water and a pee. Back to bed and if I’m still awake after an hour I get up, sit in my comfy armchair and read a book.''
That sounds a good idea and going to give it a try.
Aww Mike. Sounds like you 've got a really nice audiologist. It's a great idea to change location and listen to relaxing music early mornings. Hopefully that will help you thru autumn / winter. Btw you've got better hearing than me! 🙂
Definitely know the louder at night experience.I use the white noise option in my hearing aids in the hour or two before bed and sometimes that means I can fall to sleep ok.
If I can't get off to sleep or of I wake up in the night or early, I use some sleep headphones.
I found a comfortable head band which looks like an eye mash.
I then play sounds from the ReSound Relief app. I then can sleep or doze reasonable well.
It may be worth a try. Headphones were under £20 and the app is free.
Hi PN.I really must get my brain scanned, and remove all the horror movies. When you said "Electric chair" for a moment I was clearly off topic. (There, thats made a few laugh, hopefully. But what a good result. The trouble is we are all intelligent ppl, and we all fear the worst of the unknown. "Fear is the Key", as an old film favourite of mine. I am most fortunate nowadays, I do wake up after 5 hours, but lie there relaxed, and doze. Thinking of what is coming up in my plans.
Hi PnjI have had my T for 22years and it’s crept up volume to now being chronic my terminology. I have ear
phones which I find turns the volume down when I put them in.
My graph for my left T ear is down to 80 my right ear is 40 no T. I take mine out at bedtime put left back when I wake it helps. I turn over to my right side it helps. I also have noise/ clock which plays 12 sounds I set on crashing waves it can be altered to play for 30-60 or 90 mins.
I was shocked to read you've suffered for 22 years . 5 so far for me, and 5 far to long.
I have T in my left ear and when i lay on my left side, seems far better however i have always slept on my right, and when i try that now all hell breaks loose in that i get a dreadful droning sound in right ear, as though the sounds actually in the room. In the day and night, my T is in left ear high frequency 24/7.
Really great to have found this forum as having T can make you feel very alone imo.
Hi Mike, I can totally empathise as I just couldn't sleep for months when I first had T. I can now say I can sleep well and in fact I am managing my T so well I am back to sleeping with ear plugs so the only sound I can hear is my T (I am at point in my management journey that my T no longer invokes a flight/flight emotional reaction, I habituate and can live well 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
• 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 as I said I can now sleep with my new sound of silence. The BTA has 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 way. Take care
You have my sympathy, you really do. I have always found sleeping the past 10 years difficult due to divorce, 3 redundancies that followed; past 5 years made far worse by tinnitus.
For the first 3 years of suffering with T it was high frequency 24/7 and then in came the bass droning sound as though i can hear a diesel truck constantly running in my back yard. As i found out, there is no truck
Wearing the Hearing aids during the day does seem to help, but as anyone with loud Tinnitus will know, it is hard to say if your tinnitus is louder or quieter as it depends on the situation and location.
My Mam used to say, "I have a thick head this morning" my head feels the same sometimes.
I do seem to have developed a sleep pattern, waking up about 5am.
Take Care Suz
Mike
It is so hard, purenostalgia. A nightmare as you say. I see you have 'ski slope hearing loss' My graph is a similar shape and I just recently heard that term from an audiologist. She said it was better hearing with low tones and progressively worse as tones get higher. You the same? Also got the dreaded 'T '
Wishing you all the best and good sleep routines. Just realised your post was a few weeks ago so hope you got some relief.
Strangely, I seem to have a better sleep every second or third night...🌙
I have developed a bearable sleep pattern going to bed after midnight and waking up about 5am, the problem now is to solve what to do for the next 2 hours, at the moment I lie in bed with all sorts of things going through my mind, sadly including my Tinnitus.
Take Care
Mike
Yes it becomes such a rotten cycle. You too. Take care. 🎈
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