How do you sleep at night?

[catman68]

I find it very difficult, the hissing, whining etc, pills help a bit but some nights awake for ages. Is there a trick to getting off to sleep and staying asleep. I also use sound therapy to help.

Catman68

[rabbits65]

Mine settles when I lay my head on the pillow , I make sure I’m really tired before I go to my bed. My tinnitus is worse when I walk about, if I rest a bit , I relax and that helps a bit , I don’t know , what I do know is tinnitus is a pain in the neck!!!!

[catman68 in reply to rabbits65]

Yeah total pain, ju

[Happyrosie in reply to rabbits65]

Wow you’re lucky that it disappears when you lie down! Mines much louder because I don’t have my hearing aids in.The older you are, the more likely it is that you wake during the night. I think it’s just part of life. Samual Pepys apparently wrote about it, and welcomes the fact. in those days you’d sleep earlier (to save on candles probably!) and would naturally wake. They would use this time to get up, have a snack, maybe do other things that you do in bed, then sleep again. It’s just part of life.

[rabbits65 in reply to Happyrosie]

Hello Happyrosie,It doesn’t go away completely , I still hear it , what actually improves is the pressure in my head. Then as soon as I get up the pressure comes back , I do get up in the night as I’m 68 years of age and it’s a known fact us elderly ladies have bad bladders at night. As I’m writing this now my head is like being in an electric fan oven. I’m aware my tinnitus might be different to other peoples. I wish I could sort out what’s going on in my head as it’s so blocked with electrical pressure . Thanks for your earlier reply. I live near the sea and take my poodles out and find relief in walking outside.

[daverussell]

Find a bedtime routine, preferably going to bed at the same time. I now go to bed at 9pm and listening to something topical on Radio 4 or The World Service usually relaxes me enough. If I'm not asleep before the end of the programme or shortly after its finished, usually 30-45 minutes, I play ambient background noise. I find the Beltone Tinnitus App most useful for relaxing, either white noise and Cicadas - everyone is different of course, and my wife doesn't mind the latter. I vary what I listen to as I get too used to one thing. A fan in the bedroom appears to be quite popular choice, but my wife does like that.

The problem for me is that I wake up early My tinnitus is just at its worse, or I should say I struggle to not focus on it. I'm still working on that. I'm usual awake about 4am, but if I've had enough sleep (for me 6 hours+) I get up and read. In fact, this has been quite a positive as I now read copious amounts more than I used to, so I feel like I get a lot of time to myself.

[Maxi80 in reply to daverussell]

Reading is definitely most welcome. It never fails to make me feel better. Well not better. But not as bad!

[nigelph]

I think the biggest help I get to enable me to sleep is the use of SleepPhones with nature sounds. I also followed the advice give on the BTA website.

[catman68]

Thanks for your replies everyone, I do use sleep phones(headband) use them all night I use the Beltone app (suggestion from Dave). My T does not give me much respite, even during the day it is challenging.

[holly2]

Hello Catman, Well I have had my tinnitus for over 30 years now, the hissing part of it that is. But I have three different noises in my head, the last one developed in April this year. I spent some weeks going around the house looking for an electrical source that was emitting this noise. Thought it was the fridge freezer weeks before that until that broke down in the middle of the heatwave of course. After getting odd different people to come into the house to listen for it, and no-one else heard the noise, I had to come to the conclusion it was in my head!

Mindfulness techniques are quite good for dealing with it, trying to focus on other things than the noises in your head. Even at bedtime, focusing on the breath, counting breaths, sometimes helps me.

As someone else has said above, having a bedtime routine so your body starts to wind down, making sure you are tired, etc. no screens too soon before bedtime, warm drink (and yes it might mean getting up in the night though!), all helps me.

Having had tinnitus such a long time, I have found just accepting the fact has also helped me ignore it. On the whole!

Good luck.

[catman68 in reply to holly2]

Hi holly2

Tinnitus for over 30 years!!!!!!!! Have you ever habituated? If so how long did it take. I have had really severe T for about 3 years and find it hard to accept, I do try to calm down near bed time, I use a sound oasis machine to help, sometimes this does not work

[dlr222]

The internet has music as long as 10 hours, to cover the tinnitus. if you can get a long enough earphone cord to use it in bed,

I could not find my cd player so my husband made me a bed on the floor by the computer to use one night until I could a new cd player the next day. Now I can use a regular music cd or copy a sound from the internet.