Inner Ear Twitch!

[IAAK]

Hi everyone. This will probably sound a bit strange, but for the last 6 weeks or so, every evening I have what I can only describe as a twitch inside my right ear. It's not something I can feel, but it's something I can hear! It sounds like rapid gunfire but muffled or far away and it only seems to happen late evening and during the night. It is driving me absolutely crazy as it is non stop, it's not on and off and delays me from getting to sleep, then when I wake up during the night it's difficult to get back to sleep. It only seems to stop once I've been up for 30 minutes in the morning although it took 50 minutes to stop today.

Mentioned it to the doctor and was advised to use nose spray at night. I tried this and don't know if it was just coincidental but it did stop for 3 nights. Not working anymore though.

I have painful osteoarthritis in my neck and this is on the right hand side and it's the right ear that is playing up. Any suggestions? Anyone else had it? It really is relentless when it starts and is now affecting my sleep.

[humanbean]

One possibility...

I have chronic eustachian tube dysfunction and the noises I hear are crackles and pops. I could imagine some people might describe it as rapid gunfire.

patient.info/ears-nose-thro...

See a doctor. There is no guarantee they will help (the condition isn't taken seriously, although it should be) but you shouldn't ignore it.

[MaisieGray]

Does this sound like your experience, if so it may be just a simple spasm of one of the muscles that control the tension of the eardrum, the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles: eu.thespectrum.com/story/li...

[Babette in reply to MaisieGray]

I had something similar but it was constant and lasted for months. It turned out to be a spasm of one of the muscles up the side of my neck.

[IAAK in reply to Babette]

That's interesting. I have painful arthritis (osteo) in the right side of my neck and the problem is in my right ear. What treatment if any did you receive?

[Babette in reply to IAAK]

My GP didn't seem too interested (par for the course!) so I figured things out myself. I realised tended to sleep with my head to one side so arranged my pillows so I couldn't. After a few nights the spasms stopped.