As I write this I have no tinnitus, total silence and I mean total silence. Yet I know without doubt that either tomorrow or the next day I will wake up with my old friend the detuned radio doing its thing. I guess I should consider myself lucky although I think it makes habituation harder in someway.
Anyway why does this happen? Hardly anyone discusses it. Nothing online, no scientific studies. Surely the likes of me should be studied to see whats going on in my brain when T magically switches on and off.
There is absolutely no identifiable reason believe me. I extensively tried to figure it out over the years with diaries etc. It's random. Although, as I discussed before alcohol can make it go as can a good nights sleep (both turn it on and off).
Anyone else with intermittent tinnitus? What's it all about?
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Rob_M_G
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I didn't have T when I woke this morning. Have it now, which suggests in intermittents blood flow is a factor. I will lose T later on when I get down to doing manual things (or at least I'm hoping I will). There's not a surface, wall or floor which has not had attention lately. Not sure if the exercise does it or just that I'm otherwise engaged and forget I have T for the duration. Or a bit of both.
I'm new to T. Only months with it. I haven't scratched the surface really when it comes to appreciating its full extent. It didn't occur you could have it in sleep, yet here you are. I thought we were spared that.
Well, you've got what I have on waking then. More often than not its there, and I reach for the bedside headphones to listen to the (miserable) news instead. I'd say you are better off than me too. I can't seem to go a day without it around to an irritating degree.
This is a very common phenomenon and, afaik, it is as unpredictable and no better understood than everything else about T.
I have suffered from T for more than 20 years. For the first 15 of those it was day on / day off, like clockwork.
For the past 6 / 7 years, as my hearing has deteriorated and the T has grown louder, that pattern has disappeared, and my T is on 24/7 and very loud ..... except when it decides not to be. In my case switching of (to total silence), can be a result of :
(a) Concentrating very hard on some task. Suddenly I find it is off, and is likely to remain so until I sleep that night - switching on again minutes after I fall asleep, and probably waking me as it does so. If, however, I concentrate very hard on some task with an eye on my T to check if it will stop, it never, ever, does so.
(b) Very rarely I wake in the night to find it gone. I think that the silence actually wakes me. This will last until I fall asleep again - or rarely into and through the next day.
Intermittence at onset is particularly cruel, because many people find that it has gone, celebrate a bit, then back it comes. The musician and all-round nice guy Rick Beato described this recently on his youtube channel.
Maybe one day a researcher will find some value in all this - the location and working of the "off button". Until then you and I, and no doubt countless others, sit here trying to find it for ourselves - trying to find a strategy to make it happen.
Hi, I am new to T too (3months). Silence foe 4 hours then a little hissing but quiet for the rest of the day if I wake in the night nothing, even some mornings wake and silence then out of nowhere it starts.
I am grateful for the pockets of peace but keep busy when it gets loud. Classic fm is constantly on and comforting. I don't feed or fear it just let it be till it passes.
When it was still day on / day off I found that having a lie-in after waking on a day that should be "off" could trigger it back on for that day - or at least part of it. World's best incentive to get up.
Just to add to what PerlCoder posted above, I think it most likely that our perception of tinnitus is what switches on and off, rather than the tinnitus sounds themselves going anywhere in particular.
Our awareness of tinnitus being intermittent isn't unusual or something to be concerned about - it's a very common description of how tinnitus is for many people.
In terms of nobody talking about tinnitus behaving in this way, your mileage may vary from mine - looking at the PubMed clinical research database alone, there is a significant body of literature citing intermittent tinnitus as an issue for people who self-describe as suffering from tinnitus. As but one example:
When, a month or so after my T began, I described its day on / day off pattern to the ENT I consulted, his answer was that this was a pity, as it would make it harder for me to habituate.
I don't know how loud yours is - it may be louder than mine - but reading of people's experiences since my own began it does seem to me that quieter and constant is better than loud / variable / intermittent from a habituation point of view.
I notice T if I’m stressed or unwell or after a noisy period like an aeroplane flight. Or when I’m on this site! Or when the sound changes like I get a whistle on top of the usual badly tuned radio. It’s loud enough to hear in a car travelling at 60 on a motorway. But in the normal way I don’t notice it. Habituated! 😊😊😊
I'm a bit envious - if I'm honest. What I wouldn't give for a quiet day! I suppose the downside is you're waiting on tenterhooks for it to come back. What turns the perception of T on and off? I think if anyone found the answer to your question it would unlock the mystery of T .
Every time I have a quiet day, I remind myself of that. They are few these days - two in the past three weeks - but the point is still taken.
When it was day on / day off the tenterhooks were not really there - the same pattern for years and the days on bad, but not terrible. These days you would be right, as nigh approaches there is the certainty of a bad night, and days of spike (the price of a few hours silence) ahead.
Your tinnitus experience is exactly like mine. I've had 2 quiet days in the last couple of weeks then it's come back louder the next day. I have accepted this even though I always hope this time it will be different. I've found alcohol can make a difference like you though other times it's just random.
Do you have hearing loss? I don't. I wonder if my T is somatic. Teeth, jaw, bones, muscle maybe why its intermittent and why alcohol helps. Then I think I should stop trying to figure it out.
No I don't have hearing loss. Maybe it is somatic, interesting theory. It doesn't really bother me so much nowadays as it did. I just think there is an answer out there, I'm always hopeful.
Interesting comments. I don't hear my tinnitus as intermittent. Sometimes I might not be aware of it as soon but as I think about it I can hear it. What I'd give to be able to think about it and for it not to be there.
Mine doesn't switch on and off but tends to alternate between screamy and hissy, usually from one day to the next. The hissy days are generally quieter and more tolerable. The switch-over usually happens over-night but not always. I suspect that this is the same phenomenon as you are experiencing, except your tinnitus is indiscernable on your quiet days. I interpret it as the brain adjusting its volume control on internal 'electrical noise'. I don't think these cycles have anything to do with perception - although my tinnitus can fade into the background when I am preoccupied, I have no control over the cycles.
I'd also say that there is a longer cycle superimposed on this variation during which I have a few days of louder tinnitus followed by a few days of quieter tinnitus. Screamy tinnitus on the louder days is probably the worst but the hissy tinnitus on loud days can be uncomfortable too. However, I am thankful for the cycles as I prefer them to a constant loud shrieking. It makes me wonder whether there is anything in the body that varies over a matter of days that could be causing this cyclic behaviour.
Interesting Glenn just made a video about fluctuating and Intermittent tinnitus. I relate to so many of the case studies he mentioned. youtube.com/watch?v=1scaZOJ...
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