I’m really struggling with my tinnitus. I’ve had it for nearly 2 years and have had minimal improvement. I still have fairly bad insomnia getting only 4 hours sleep most nights and still have hyperacusis/ sound sensitivity. I’m at a loss what to do. I’m on reduced hours at work as I’m too tired to get through the day. I’m exhausted and cry every day. Nothing seems to help me feel better or help with my sleep. I’m trying to stay positive but my life has been completely ruined by this. The GP can’t prescribe anything to help cause sleeping pills have already made my tinnitus and hyperacusis worse and I struggle with masking noises as this spikes my tinnitus for days on end. All the advice I hear online is that you’ll eventually adjust but I’ve been doing everything I can to help myself habituate and nothing seems to be working. I’m just after some advice or to hear from people in similar situation and how they are managing to cope.
struggling with tinnitus: I’m really struggling... - Tinnitus UK
struggling with tinnitus
Hi,
That sounds bad - whenever I read about people here I always pay special attention and see if they comment about sleep - how they're sleeping, for how long and how well. Sleep really is soooo important it can't be underestimated in terms of it's contribution to your overall wellbeing.
As Shakespeare has it; "Blessed sleep - that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, sore labour's bath, balm of hurt minds."
He wasn't wrong. Getting healthy natural (or as natural as you can mange) sleep is fundemantal to you coping with the day time woes of T, etc.
I was lucky early on in my T journey in that I was advised to try Phenergan (Promethezine). It's an over the counter anti-histimine for hay-fever and other allegies, etc. It also is a mild sedative too and that's where my off-piste use of it comes in to play.
Most nights I'm okay to go to sleep but if the T is being a right royal PITA then I take half a Phenergan and that will put me out gently and easily. It's not a sleeper as such but it is described as a Sleep-Aid and it does work. I awake the next morning not feeling that I was coshed the night before like traditional prescription sleepers and so far, I've got nothing negative to say about it. I would add that neither my GP or the two Consultants who have been working on my case over the last few months have any reservations about me taking it. My GP is only sorry that he is unable to prescribe it but it's readily available over the counter anyway and is cheap enough.
Use it when you feel you need it. I was taking it nightly initially but now, as I say, it's a now and again thing.
Please talk to your GP about it and get their thoughts and do your own research in to it. I might be getting benefit from it but everybody is different and you may not. That's why it's imperative that you take your time to research it and make an informed decision (with a health practioner) on whether it might be worth a go.
Sleep is so important. You can't really start to put anything else right until you feel you're getting good quality decent rest. Believe when you do - everything else will start to fall in to place and be more manageble.
Good Luck,
Love and peace,
Jimbob
Give Ginkgo a chance. No, I'm not promising anything but occasional alleviation and no, you don't take it daily. If it does work for you then daily won't be part of it. Click on my username to see how I do it for me.
Hi i feel for you I have been in exactly the same place as you.
Hearing aids have helped so much , ENT prescribed them for me.
I still have very bad T especially nights and when waking, I never thought I would get to where I am now.
So in the day I hardly notice T its there but not screaming its head off !! when I sit and watch TV I put HA in my right ear only. Calms it down.
When I wake I immediately reach for my HA to calm the scetching down.
I will pop HA in at night if I cannot sleep, but last night I managed without it. This is a huge step forward for me.
Its not all plane sailing I still have tears when it gets to much. Wish it would go away I yearn for silence.
So if you are able to see ENT maybe they could suggest you give HA a try.
Just my experience I hope you find comfort and that your T may ease .
VP
I hate reading about people struggling with tinnitus like you. It's very difficult to know what to advise. Different things may work for different people to help them cope with T.
Regarding sleep, have you tried relaxation exercises in bed (you can get guided audio downloads for this) and then simple mental tasks (such as counting backwards) to help distract your brain away from the T?
Have you experimented with different distraction/masking noises? I once listened to white noise on headphones and it spiked my T like never before. I find natural sounds work best for me. For relaxation in bed, I like waves on the shore and a distant thunder storm. However, I have found that certain quick, sharp sounds will reduce my T, albeit on a temporary basis - these include birdsong, the spitting noise from a campfire and even the ticking of a clock. It sounds risky, but you should experiment with different sounds to see what works for you.
Crickets sound helps me
You’ve got lots of good suggestions there. I bought a tiny little white noise machine - think it does pink and brown noise too as well as lots of other sounds - it cost £15 from Amazon and I charge it like my phone.
I found a sound I could live with, put it beside my pillow turned down pretty low and I’ve found that very good. I also don’t watch TV, use my computer or phone or other electronic gadgets before I go to bed and sleep in a totally blacked out room.
There is a lot about ‘sleep hygiene’ if you Google. I just worked my way through it all then I decided I’d try a sound machine, think it might be designed for babies but it works for me. The tinnitus is still there but I get to sleep, I doubt if it will ever go away though I’ve just learned to live with it.
Hi P2023
For some folks, getting support with their hyperacusis is one option which helps them to manage their tinnitus in a different way. One problem which feels less oppressive and tough to live with can make some of the other issues we have feel like they, too, are less exhausting to live with.
That's in the mid-term, though, because your sleep is currently the big issue which is potentially making everything else seem much more traumatic and insoluble.
There is some fine advice from members in this thread and I think it's worth considering it all - the solution to the difficulties that you're having with sleep might be a combination of things rather than one approach.
If you're able to pin-point it, are you having trouble getting off to sleep initially or does waking up into a quiet bedroom make you acutely aware of tinnitus, which makes going back to sleep more challenging? Are you anticipating that sleep is now likely to be interrupted and experiencing some anxiety about that prospect?
Best wishes
Pat
Hi Pat
Sorry I’d been so tired I didn’t spot this reply with some questions. I can fall asleep easily I just wake up after only a few hours sleep every night. Waking up in a quiet room I can hear the tinnitus but I’m not bothered by it particularly or hone in on it. Also I play soothing sounds through my phone all night to distract from the tinnitus. Luckily I still have no anxiety around sleeping with the tinnitus which is why I’m at such a loss as to why I can’t sleep for longer than a few hours. I’d always. been a really good sleeper so my default is to anticipate a good nights sleep, when I wake up in the early hours I don’t panic or get frustrated cause I assume I’ll fall back to sleep again (as this had been the status quo for more than 40 years). I’m not sure what’s causing me to wake up. The only other thing is that I now never feel drowsy or sleepy. It’s more like the tinnitus is keeping my brain active rather than the sound of it waking me up
Thanks so much for your suggestions everyone i really appreciate it. I think it might be a case of trying more things and seeing if anything helps. I already listen to soothing sounds at night and have taken a sleep hygiene course. I can fall asleep quickly but wake up in the night unable to sleep again. I have no hearing loss but my tinnitus seems disproportionately loud regardless. I can ignore the noise at night but it’s as though it’s keeping my brain awake even though I’m not consciously focusing on it. Just so floored by the lack of sleep. I can hear the tinnitus all the time and the sleep loss makes distracting myself in the daytime so much harder. I notice that if I sleep slightly better then my sound sensitivity improves too. I think all this would be so much easier to deal with if I could sleep better
Tinnitus probably made you develop depression. In this sense you might need antidepressives. I've researched it a lot when i got tinnitus and the best one i found for this situation is mirtazapine. Really helped me to sleep and even calmed my tinnitus for about 1 month.
Thank you. I think I am probably depressed from the sleep loss and general situation. Sadly mirtazapine is what made my tinnitus so bad in the first place. I only had one dose and it’s led 2 years of ruined sleep and constant noise. I’m hoping my mood will improve once I’ve gotten a handle on the sleep. It’s just frustrating not being able to find something that helps!
Hello, I have good results using Nytol tablets, regularly adds two hours to my sleep cycle which greatly improves the whole next day.
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