Hi, newly diagnosed and looking for any ideas to help with sleep. Tried TV/Radio on (not very effective) and Spotify sound track (not the greatest) so what works best for people?
I really am not coping with the condition so welcome the thoughts of other sufferers, thanks
I can see by your name you have a sense of humour Lol.
That is a good start, I have accepted going to bed will never be the same again, my Audiologist suggested teaching my brain a strict sleep pattern, first going to bed at the same time every night (preferably midnight)
I put my phone under the pillow and find a talk radio station (not music) although my Tinnitus is still very loud It usually takes less than 15mins to drop off to sleep.
I am now getting about 4/5 hours sleep.
The other thing I am wondering is, in winter I like my bedroom cold, but now summer is here I find my bedroom more comfortable and cosy. does this help.
Take Care.
Mike
Hi!
For sleep I'll share the routine that works for me and hope it helps. Firstly silence at night time is a no-no, the tinnitus gets too strong and causes me anxiety which isnt helping me sleep. So almost all the time I go to sleep with sounds via airpods or kokoon night buds. I'm a side sleeper so the idea with airpods is that they fall out when I'm asleep or ill pull them out and find them in the morning. The kokoon night buds though are comfortable for side sleeping straight away and when I remove them during the night they switch off (and they can switch off when detecting sleep but that seems a little hit and miss for me). So that's the device part, next is the choice of sounds. Personally whilst I do like white noise, brown noise etc I does aggravate my tinnitus and it's not that interesting. I listen to rain, waves and also some sleep hypnosis/guided meditation stuff on Spotify, Lauren Ostrowski is my current go to. Listening to the same thing every night has resulted in very quick and restful sleep in minutes, it's like the brain knows what's about to happen. A less tech solution in the past has been radio 3 or 4, but if you choose some music radio and it gets a little tense that's probably not going to help!
Kind regards
John
Hi, sorry to hear you are struggling, 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.
• Exercise was also important as this allowed me to be physically tired
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 behavioural 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
Hi Chumpiechops Welcome to the forum. Your name made me smile. You've got lots of good advice here already. I like natural sounds - in particular water. It's trial & error until you find a sound that suits you. Please know that sleep does get easier in time. You won't always feel the way you do now.
I was unable to get any rest when my anxiety was at its worst. It wakes me up every 15 minutes, just as I'm about to nod off.
Test out various positions. When I'm on my side, it helps.
I use guided sleep meditations from Calm - my favourite is Deep Sleep by Tamara Levitt. You can also set your preferred background noise -waves, rain, waterfall - there’s loads & set it to carry on after the meditation has finished. Don’t let the word ‘meditation’ put you off - it’s just someone with a soothing voice talking you through some deep breathing which lowers your heart rate & calms your nervous system to lower anxiety. They talk through a technique to stop your thoughts racing. You have to persist with it, now as soon as I hear her voice I start feeling sleepy! I use a soft headband (about £8 off eBay) with in built speakers so I don’t disturb my husband. If the meditations don’t work they also have sleep stories which are also good when you find one that you like - I prefer headspace for those
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