Tinnitus at Night: How to Smash this Problem

Even faint tinnitus at night can disturb your sleep. But the ringing in your ears doesn’t have to keep you awake if you have a bedtime routine.

The problem with tinnitus at night.

The quiet environment of your bedroom at night makes your tinnitus more noticeable and seem louder. With nothing else to concentrate on, you focus more and more on the ringing in your ears. This causes insomnia, which leads to an increased perception of your symptoms. This creates a cycle that can keep you awake all night.

There are two ways to deal with tinnitus at night that can help you break this pattern: Creating a routine for sleep and preparing the perfect place to sleep in.

Create a routine for sleeping with your tinnitus.

Getting a good night’s sleep is your best defense for tomorrow’s tinnitus. Rested and relaxed, your stress level will be low. As a result, you will be well prepared to tolerate your symptoms, perhaps even noticing a reduced perception of your symptoms.

Setting a routine for sleeping with tinnitus is easy; following it every night, however, will require no small commitment on your part.

Set a nightly sleep goal.

Selecting this goal will take some experimenting. Eight hours of sleep is an excellent place to start, but every individual will differ. Do not be tempted to skip this part; now, set a specific number of hours before moving on.

Creat and commit to a sleep schedule.

Using the number of hours you set for your sleep goal, work backward from when you must wake up. For example, if you must be up by 6 a.m. and have a sleep goal of eight hours, your bedtime is 10 p.m.

This may be the hardest step to accomplish routinely, but it is critical. You are preparing your brain, and your body for what they will feel is a marathon. Expect to fail, over and over again, until the three of you build a habit together.

Maintain this sleep schedule every night, including vacations, holidays, and weekends. Resist the urge to oversleep, sleep in, or take naps during the day. Strict adherence will significantly assist you in sticking to your sleep schedule.

Limit your alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine intake.

At a minimum, stop consuming alcohol at least three hours before bedtime. Stop drinking all caffeinated beverages at least six hours before retiring for the evening. Avoid smoking, vaping, or using any other nicotine delivery system at least two hours before going to bed.

Go dark and stop eating.

Dim the house lights, shut off your gadgets, and stop eating two hours before bedtime. This gives your body time to produce a sleep hormone known as melatonin naturally. Melatonin plays a vital role in your body’s sleep-wake cycle, specifically telling it when it is time to sleep. Unfortunately, cortisol and light can inhibit your body’s ability to produce melatonin.

Late-night snacking or eating a large meal before bed may indeed make you sleepy, but several hours later, your blood sugar levels will crash. This crash will cause your cortisol levels to rise, diminish your melatonin production, and cause you to wake up.

Eating just before bed can also make it harder to fall asleep for some, causing indigestion, heartburn, or the need to interrupt your sleep with a midnight bathroom trip.

Bright lights from your television, iPad or telephone have the exact opposite effect the dark of night has on your melatonin production. As one study concluded, “These findings indicate that room light exerts a profound suppressive effect on melatonin levels and shortens the body’s internal representation of night duration. Hence, chronically exposing oneself to electrical lighting in the late evening disrupts melatonin signaling and could therefore potentially impact sleep, thermoregulation, blood pressure, and glucose homeostasis.”

Television is doubly bad for your sleep cycle. Just think about it, how many programs are made NOT to be exciting?

Distract and relax yourself.

One hour before bed, use a tinnitus distraction technique to calm yourself down. A fan favorite? Tidying up the house while listening to an audiobook or a free podcast set a volume just slightly above the sound of your tinnitus.

A distraction like this uses physical movement, a slight tinnitus masking effect, and concentration (to keep up with the narrator) to lower your current tinnitus perception. This serves to relax you in several ways. You get to enjoy a good story and take a break from today’s troubles mentally. You know you will awake to clean home and a sense of already having a command of the day. And you avoid letting the ever quietening approach of bedtime draw your attention to your tinnitus in the first place.

Creating the perfect place to sleep with tinnitus at night.

The best place to sleep with tinnitus at night is in a cave. Think like a bear and go for cool, dark, quiet, and safe. And the place is reserved only for sleep and sex.

Not too hot, not too cool—the perfect temperature for your bedroom.

If your bedroom is too hot or cold, you are likely to wake up during the night to either kick off the sheets or grab an extra blanket. Aim for a 60-67 degree room temperature.

Get some sun on your face during the day to keep tinnitus at bay.

The sun, especially on your face early in the morning, can help you fall asleep at night. Sounds crazy, but your sleep-wake cycle is like a clock with a wake-up alarm. Morning sunlight warms you up and produces cortisol—all designed to get you up and started on your day.

On the other hand, your bedroom needs to be as dark as possible. Remove anything with a light, even if it’s just a power indicator. If you still use an alarm clock, make its display is dim if not turned off. If any light must be used, make sure it is red.

If possible, install heavy curtains or shades to block out streets lights and passing car headlights. If there is any chance you may be exposed to artificial light while sleeping, consider wearing a sleep mask.

A quiet sleeping space is a two-edged sword. One side guarantees a sound will not awaken you; the other makes your tinnitus more noticeable.

Let’s deal with the worst-case scenario. You do not have any control over other sounds entering your bedroom, and your tinnitus is keeping you from getting to sleep.

My solution is controversial. I suggest you use earplugs and then try the 15 Minute Challenge, specifically, “How to get to sleep quickly.” Yes, at first, your tinnitus will be much louder than usual, but that is the point of the challenge in the first place.

Try it. I’ll bet you fall asleep halfway through it.

Does Your Diet Affect Tinnitus?

Finding out if what you eat or drink is causing or worsening your tinnitus is an often tedious, if responsible, process. So before you begin, understand there’s almost no objective scientific evidence proving a solid connection between tinnitus and diet. That said, you may discover some foods or drinks that trigger or worsen your tinnitus.

Does any diet affect tinnitus?

There is little scientific evidence linking diet to tinnitus. However, a proper diet can reduce your blood pressure, lower your weight, enhance your mood, and improve your sleep quality. The healthier you are, the less impact tinnitus will have upon you.

The five foods that may trigger tinnitus spikes.

Tinnitus spikes are short, powerful changes in your tinnitus that can feel like setbacks in your recovery. Many sufferers believe their spikes are caused by something they recently ate or drank.

Again, it is important to stress that a diet is not a substitute for medical assistance, but a healthy diet could help you manage your tinnitus. This makes it critical to know what you should or should not eat.

While there is only one way to confirm such a relationship (by keeping a tinnitus journal), there are five known suspects.

can what your eat or drink affect tinnitus?

The five to avoid for tinnitus spikes.

Caffeine. Caffeine intake disrupts sleep, and nothing reduces your perception of tinnitus quite like a good night’s sleep. Therefore, limiting caffeinated beverages several hours before bedtime is an excellent habit for tinnitus patients. Whether or not caffeine aggravates tinnitus, though, is hotly disputed. For some, coffee, tea, or soda reportedly reduces their daily tinnitus perception levels. Others associate its consumption with increased stress and the worsening of tinnitus symptoms.

Alcohol. Alcohol also disrupts and is linked to a host of other health issues (like an increase in blood pressure) associated with tinnitus. Given the scant benefits associated with even moderate alcohol consumption, this is one item most tinnitus patients should consider entirely removing from their diet.

Saturated fats. The blood vessels in your auditory system are vulnerable to any reduction in blood flow. Saturated fats can increase your cholesterol, leading to a potential condition known as atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis, the buildup of fat and calcium, can narrow or block these blood vessels—damaging them and causing tinnitus and leading to possible hearing loss.

Salt. Salt can also affect the blood flow to your auditor system by contracting your blood vessels and increasing your blood pressure. Reducing salt consumption, one of the most effortless dietary changes often produces rapid results for many patients.

Sugar. Many tinnitus patients report a temporary increase in tinnitus symptoms following excessive sugar consumption. Continued overindulgence of sugar may interfere with the nerves that permit the brain to interpret the sound and damage the blood vessels supplying the ears.

The five foods that may soothe tinnitus.

First, a caution; there still is no evidence vitamin supplements or a specific diet can cure or even treat your tinnitus. The list below represents more “wisdom of the crowd” than anything else. Many tinnitus patients claim to have reduced tinnitus symptoms from the following list.

What to Eat

Inflammation-reducing foods like kiwi fruit, pineapple, and ginger –.

Potassium-rich foods that help your nerves function and muscles contract– Apricots, pears, bananas, yogurt, spinach, and sweet potatoes.

Foods with B12 ( a product not naturally produced by your body). B12 is found in animal products like fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and milk. A recent study found that a significant percentage of tinnitus patients shared a similar b12 deficiency.

Zinc. One study focusing on tinnitus caused by exposure to loud noise suggest a possible reduction in difficulties people with tinnitus suffer.

Zinc is naturally found In nuts, dark chocolate, yogurt, chicken, beef, spinach, lamb, and shellfish.

Folate containing foods may prevent further hearing loss, and at least one study’s data found a potential for nutritional therapy. Folates are found in dark green leafy vegetables (turnip greens, spinach), beans, peanuts, Sunflower seeds, Fresh fruits, fruit juices, and whole grains.

Use a food journal to measure your tinnitus diet results.

There is only one way to document the effect any particular food or drink is having on your tinnitus: A Daily Tinnitus Journal. A good tinnitus journal will track your daily tinnitus levels, physical activities, and your diet.

Tracking your diet is a long-term effort. The more specific you are and the more data you collect, the more likely you will obtain helpful information.

How to use a food journal to track diet and tinnitus results.

Begin by eliminating or reducing the five significant tinnitus suspects listed above. Simply reducing some items (like caffeine) to avoid withdrawal symptoms is perfectly acceptable.

After doing so, note your daily tinnitus perception for at least 90 days. Tinnitus levels naturally fluctuate, so you will need an average of over 90 days to notice any potential lessening of symptoms. You may, however, note quicker responses as your sleep improves (caffeine moderation and timing) and weight and blood pressure decrease.

After you have tracked your progress and noted any changes related to the top five suspects, you can test a particular food’s effect. Begin by eliminating it from your diet for at least a few weeks. Note any changes and make your decision.

Paying attention to your diet, logging in everything you consume, and measuring your tinnitus for 90 days is exhausting work. In the end, you may even discover there is no connection between your diet and your tinnitus.

At least not directly. Indirectly, health improvements such as better sleep, lower blood pressure, reduced weight, and an enhanced emotional state—WILL help you manage your symptoms.

First Signs and Stages of Tinnitus

The five stages of tinnitus.

The onset of tinnitus can be swift and brutal, but it often sneaks in and takes a while to recognize. If you haven’t been exposed to a dangerously loud sound, you may find yourself doing some odd things to find out where that darn noise is coming from.

What are the 5 stages of tinnitus?

Denial. Denial is probably too strong a word, especially at the first notice of tinnitus symptoms. Ignorance, a lack of information, is better, especially early on. This stage begins with the sufferer attempting to determine where the sound is coming from.
Anger. You may be angry at yourself (for risky behaviors) or mad at God (for letting this happen to you). Anger, in this context, is a surprisingly helpful emotion. You are defending yourself—you are building a solid argument for why you don’t deserve this condition.
Bargaining. Next, you will bargain with whomever you are angry with. If you feel you brought this on yourself, you will make lifestyle choices to relieve or reverse the disease. If you blame God, you’ll make spiritual bargains. The bargaining stage turns anger into action. Now, at least, you are beginning to fight back.
Depression. At this stage, grief sets in. A sense of hopelessness and deep sadness pervade your thoughts. You cannot imagine living with tinnitus. There does not appear to be any future left for you. It is a vital part of the recovery process, as hard as this stage is. Depression’s most crucial impact is it gives us a bottom to stand on. From here, we can work our way back up.
Acceptance. It is the moment you realize your tinnitus may be permanent, but you can evade the noise for large parts of the day and eliminate the emotional effect it has on you.

Each stage also plays an essential part in providing time for two critical steps toward your eventual recovery:

Your brain has time to begin recognizing and filtering out the false alarm.
You progress through the habituation process.

Tinnitus stages — Photo credit: Shutterstock/rdgraphe

What is the first sign of tinnitus?

The first sign of tinnitus is a ringing, roaring, hissing, clicking, buzzing, humming, music in one or both ears. The sound may be so faint it is heard only at night or loud enough to block out external sounds.

Why should you always see a doctor about tinnitus.

Tinnitus is often a symptom and not necessarily a disease itself. At the onset of tinnitus, immediately seek medical attention. A doctor may be able to help identify and treat the condition.

You should also consult with a doctor if your tinnitus is causing mood changes or affecting the quality of your life.

Which tinnitus symptoms require immediate medical attention?

Tinnitus in one ear. There are two reasons why you should see your doctor if you can only hear your tinnitus in one ear.

There may be a serious underlying cause (such as a tumor).
Tinnitus in one ear is often a reversible condition if adequately treated.

Pulsatile tinnitus. If your tinnitus sounds like a rhythmic pulsing noise in sync with your heartbeat, you may have a severe medical condition.

Personality changes. If your tinnitus affects your ability to walk or speak or causes dramatic changes in your behavior or mood, you should see your doctor right away.

Sudden onset. If your tinnitus appeared immediately after an accident, injury, or illness, your doctor might order tests to determine the reason.

Can tinnitus develop suddenly?

In certain situations tinnitus symptoms can develop quite suddenly.

Exposure to an extremely loud sound, like an explosion or a gunshot, can cause an immediate ringing in your ears.

You may also develop tinnitus after attending a rock concert or working in a ship’s engine room for a short time. Immediately upon leaving such locations, you may hear a high-pitched whine in your ears for several hours to a couple of days.

Sudden tinnitus symptoms can be scary. If you work or play in environments that expose you to sounds loud enough to cause sudden, short-term tinnitus, you need to start using hearing protection. If you don’t protect your hearing, your acute tinnitus may become chronic.

Tinnitus can develop slowly, beginning as a soft whine or buzzing you hear only at bedtime. Over time, the sound increases, reaching a point where you become concerned and start investigating your condition.

Slowly developing tinnitus can lead you to engage in some strange behaviors. Most of these activities relate to finding what you believe to be an external source. For example, you tap lightbulbs, unscrew and shake them and then replace them. Battery chargers get moved into another room. You use thermal scanners to see if the electrical wires inside your walls are getting hot.

Eventually, you realize the truth, that you have tinnitus. From here, you will search for a cure (seeking medical assistance is your first, best step) and if that fails, look for a way to reduce your symptoms.

Your recovery will take a little time through the natural process of tinnitus habituation. But for nearly 97% of tinnitus sufferers, every day, happy life is the eventual outcome.

Is Tinnitus Masking Really Effective?

Tinnitus masking is one of the first home remedies most people utilize when they experience ringing in their ears. Some audiologists may even prescribe it as part of your treatment. But is masking genuinely effective?

What is tinnitus masking?

Tinnitus masking uses an external sound to block out or partly cover the tinnitus sound. Unlike listening to an audiobook or music, masking typically uses specific white noises and tones.

How is tinnitus masking done?

Tinnitus masking is done in two steps: Matching and masking.

Step One: Matching. If done in a clinical setting, you’ll sit in a soundproof booth. Here you will compare your tinnitus to various sounds played in one ear by an audiologist. The goal is to match both the pitch and your perception (loudness) of your tinnitus.

Step Two: Masking. After matching, the audiologist will introduce white noise in the form of a humming or flowing sound into your ear. When the tinnitus has been blocked or drowned out, your tinnitus is effectively masked.

Insurance does not usually cover tinnitus masking, so many sufferers opt for a modified, home version of the matching step. Home matching is done by using a free online tool or simply playing various sounds on an app.

Once you have identified your masking sound, you simply play the sound in your ears whenever you need to.

How much do tinnitus masking devices cost?

A tinnitus masking app with various sounds and advanced features costs $5.99.

A tabletop masking device like the Bose Sound Oasis cost about $60.

In-ear white noise devices like the Bose Sleepbuds II, sell for $250.

Pillows equipped with white noise masking devices are available pillows themselves or as inserts.

White noise tinnitus masking is also a feature on some hearing aids.

Does masking tinnitus work?

In a clinical study conducted in 2017, over 60% of the tinnitus patients who underwent one month of tinnitus masking considered the treatment fully or partially useful.

These patients noticed a significant reduction in their tinnitus severity, frequency, discomfort, and duration. They also felt that tinnitus masking had relieved their overall pain with tinnitus.

The most significant benefit was reported by those who were young, had recently developed tinnitus, and suffered only moderate discomfort (limited severity, duration, and frequency).

As a result of this study, the following recommendations were made regarding tinnitus masking procedures:

Tinnitus masking should be performed in a quiet environment.
Sessions should be uninterrupted and last for at least 45 minutes.
The masking should be done using earphones or headphones.
When only one ear is affected by tinnitus, only the affected ear should be exposed to the masking sound.

Is safe to mask tinnitus with white noise?

In a 2018 paper titled “Unintended Consequences of White Noise Therapy for Tinnitus—Otolaryngology’s Cobra Effect: A Review,” some concerns were raised.

The paper’s authors concluded: “Noise exposure therapies offer a seductive short-term solution for relief but, in the long term, undermine the functional and structural integrity of the central auditory system and the brain more generally. Sound therapies using unstructured, random (“white”) noise should be avoided as a treatment for tinnitus. Alternative therapeutics that drive positive, adaptive plastic changes are discussed.”

Such a conclusion is shocking. White noise has been used since the ’70s and has helped reduce many of the emotional effects of tinnitus. Yet, fifty years later, we now learn that white noise may be as harmful to us as exposure to loud sounds.

While the paper has its detractors, and relies on three studies conducted upon rats, it might be safer to trade masking for distraction and other coping skills. At least for the time being.

Here’s How to Get Better From Tinnitus

Figuring out how you’ll ever get better from tinnitus is a scary thought. The good news, however, is there is hope. Your path toward recovery is well marked and easy to follow. But, at its end, stand the tens of millions who successfully traveled it before you.

How to get better from tinnitus.

Talk to your doctor. There may be a medical reason for your tinnitus that can be addressed and fixed. If not, a doctor can provide other treatments to help you treat and relieve your symptoms.

Accept the truth about recovery. 97% of all tinnitus patients recover and lead healthy, active lives. Many of them also benefit from the lifestyle changes made along the way.

Learn several vital coping skills. There are many simple techniques you can use to reduce the volume of your tinnitus and give yourself a break from it. Having some control of your tinnitus for even an hour will strip your tinnitus of its emotional impact on you.

Know what lies ahead of you. In time, you will begin to notice your tinnitus less and less. Your reaction to it will soften. You will no longer dwell on your tinnitus nor spend the day consumed with negative thoughts about it.

Expect success, and make the most of it. You are already undergoing the process of tinnitus habituation. Habituation is a built-in feature your brain will use to silence the false alarm in your ears eventually. While waiting for that, use some coping techniques to accomplish goals you thought were once impossible.

The path to getting better from tinnitus begins with your doctor.

Let’s begin by realizing you may not even need to go down this path. Many medical conditions cause tinnitus. A doctor may help you discover your specific cause, provide treatment for it, and create an instant exit for you to take. So begin by seeking professional medical help for your tinnitus.

The next critical step is to free yourself of any guilt. Fifty million Americans suffer from tinnitus. Each of them developed tinnitus for one or more of nearly 200 causes. Unfortunately, some of them did nothing more than live long enough.

Yes, you may have attended too many concerts or exposed yourself to harmful noise at work. But living an active, enjoyable life is not a crime. You are a human being; you can’t sit locked in a safe environment. Real-life comes with hazards. A few bruises and even some scars mark a life lived to its fullest. Your tinnitus? Consider it a consequence of life, not a punishment.

Finally, your tinnitus is more a mirage than a reality. The moment you take a few steps toward it, it shimmers and fades. Like most of us, your fear and dread will dissipate with time. If you become overwhelmed, seek immediate medical help. There are medicines to help ease your emotional reaction. A doctor can get you through a rough patch and help you step back on your path to recovery. Sometimes, asking for help all by itself is even part of your path forward.

How to bet better from tinnitus — The path ahead has been successfully travels by millions.

You and your tinnitus are not special.

Nearly 97% of tinnitus patients suffer no disability from it. Tinnitus, after some time, no longer causes them stress, anxiety, sleep loss, or adverse emotional reactions.

Why do so many people recover? Because recovery from tinnitus is involuntary. Your brain can determine which sensory input needs a reaction (the heat from a stove) and which doesn’t (the feeling of your socks on your feet). Once it determines a signal is a false alarm, it starts to shut down your central nervous system’s reaction to it.

Oh, and the brain is a master of cutting off useless info. It even made you blind almost the day you were born.

Take a peek at the tip of your nose. Did you know your nose has been visible every minute, of every day, since you were born? So, why don’t you see it all the time? The truth is you do see it; you just don’t notice it. That’s because your brain has determined that particular signal is both worthless and potentially harmful.

Tinnitus, like your nose, will still be there in the future, but for 97% of us, we never seem to notice it. And we certainly do not have an emotional reaction to it.

Face the facts. Neither you nor your tinnitus is that special. Your tinnitus is doomed to fade to obscurity. You, well, you are average. There isn’t anything that special about you, either. At best, all you have the power to do is slow down the recovery process.

Getting better from tinnitus — Tinnitus habituation awaits you.

Tinnitus coping techniques that really work

While you travel down the path of full recovery from your tinnitus, it will help to have a few places to stop and rest for awhile. These techniques do not require you to use any special equipment, and there is no religious or spiritual element to them.

The 15 Minute Challenge can help you get better from tinnitus.

The first technique I recommend is something I call the 15 Minute Challenge. You can read my book on Amazon for free if you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber. For now, let’s use the quick-start method.

Find a quiet, comfortable spot to sit and relax.
Set a timer for 15 minutes.
Close your eyes, tense and relax your major muscle groups, and then,
Focus your attention solely upon the sound your tinnitus is making.

Step four will be difficult. As you concentrate on exploring and listening to the ringing in your ears, your mind will drift off-topic. Stray thoughts will captivate your attention. When you realize you are mentally drifting, refocus your attention back on the sound of your tinnitus. Try to seize it. Imagine a volume control on it; now raise and lower the volume.

For many, the 15 minutes pass quickly—many who try to end up falling asleep. What you may not have realized is that during every mental lapse in concentration, your tinnitus faded or went utterly silent. When you regained your focus, the sound returned, but it was impossible to keep hearing it for more than a few seconds at a time.

You’ve now learned one way to control your tinnitus. These breaks may be short, but they often become just long enough to send you into a deep, relaxing sleep.

Try the 15 Minute Challenge at least twice a day(at bedtime and upon awakening). Aside from quickly getting to sleep, they will speed up your progress down the path of recovery.

Using distractions to relieve your tinnitus symptoms.

Shorter breaks from the constant irritation of tinnitus are also available to you during the day. To get an hour or two of relief at a time, you will be using a combination of divided attention and distraction.

We will use a DUI checkpoint to describe divided attention. The officer will ask you for your license and registration during the stop. The officer then hits you with two or three questions as you reach for the glove box. For example, “Where are you coming from? Do you know why I stopped you?”

If you have consumed too much alcohol, your brain can’t complete the two tasks (Physical movement and mentally forming an answer). So what you are going to do is play the same trick on your brain, except right in the middle of your DUI stop, you’re going to set off a fireworks display.

Here’s just one example of creating a break using divided attention and distraction.

Pick any simple household chore (the less thought required, the better) and do it while listening to an audiobook. Okay, you have your divided attention requirement fulfilled. Here comes the distraction part. Set the volume of your audiobook just barely above the sound of your tinnitus.

What happens? You spend some mental effort physically moving (such as gathering, folding, stacking, and storing laundry), some on following the story on the audiobook, and even more, straining just to hear the voice of the narrator.

Let me tell you from personal experience; this destroys tinnitus for hours at a time. You can clean the house, mow the lawn, shovel the driveway—there’s no limit to how much you can get done and all while enjoying a break from your tinnitus.

How to get better from tinnitus — Tinnitus dies in a mind too busy to pay heed to it.

The path ahead is not straight, but its final destination can be seen for miles.

The road to recovery will have some ups and downs. However, the downs are often fleeting. Here are two you are likely to encounter:

Natural moments of doubt. It’s perfectly normal to have periodic intervals of uncertainty and even suspicion about your progress. You will feel a bit depressed when they strike. One way to deal with doubt about far you have come is to look back on your statistics. If you have measured and logged your tinnitus perception and habituation, you’ll recognize one or two days bad days for what they are—temporary. Here’s how to measure your tinnitus.
Spikes. Spikes are noticeable increases in the intensity of your tinnitus that can last from minutes to several weeks. They suck, but they will go away. Once they are gone, you might notice your routine tinnitus has become less noticeable. Here’s how to handle spikes.

The ups are usually mild improvements that compliment each other and gain strength over time.

Natural, daily periods of tinnitus silence. Your day job may require more concentration and attention to detail than your tinnitus can handle. Some routine tasks will also provide you with often unnoticed relief.
Sleep. Learning how to sleep with tinnitus is one of the first things you should accomplish. A good night’s rest flattens your emotional response to the ringing in your ears. With your batteries fully charged, you feel empowered to take on whatever the day holds in store.

It not hard to recover from tinnitus.

It’s nearly impossible to reach the last stop on your path to recovery: Habituation.

Tinnitus habituation is the natural process wherein the brain gradually reduces how loud you perceive your tinnitus, how often you notice it, how long you dwell on it and dampens any negative emotional responses.

Without any conscious assistance from you, the process takes an average of six to eighteen months.

That said, you can take steps to shorten the time needed by using the steps outlined above.

And while you cannot undo the progress made by habituation, you can delay it. Don’t do that! Here are a few ways to keep your momentum moving forward.

Identify the moments when your tinnitus is at its worst. Chances are, you’ll find your tinnitus most irritating when you are mentally and physically idle. Watching tv and surfing the internet or social media are two good examples of a tinnitus playground. Stay away from them.
Don’t sit in your stink. When your tinnitus is roaring, get up and get moving. Utilize the divided attention and distraction techniques above—and create more of your own. Never feed tinnitus its favorite foods—time, attention, and fear.
Stay out of tinnitus forums. A tinnitus forum is like a castle. Inside are desperate, confused people who have not found any relief from their tinnitus yet. Miracle pill hawkers have conned them. YouTubers and clickbait websites have scammed them. They hide in their online castle, waiting for new people to show up and scale the walls with a ladder. These people will drop a dead, rotting cow on you. Leave them alone. There’s a stinky moat around them for a reason.

Better yourself while you get better from tinnitus.

The first two reactions to discovering you have tinnitus are: Trying to find a cure and then finding a way to reduce your symptoms. During this first phase of tinnitus, we often seek to make lifestyle changes that will do one or both.

We stop listening to loud music, focus on eating healthier, give up drugs and drinking, and start exercising. As a result, tinnitus often makes people healthier. So the question is, why stop there?

Why not continue to use tinnitus to achieve some personal goals? Let’s face it, the misery of tinnitus is best driven off with both physical activity and mental concentration. But, hey, your tv is dead to you anyway, why not use the extra hours to create a new future for you and your family?

The best way to turn the useless ringing in your ears into a 24 hour a day life coach is to turn your goals into distractions. You can try this by taking one major goal, formatting it into the SMART goal system, and reserving a block of time each day to work on it.

I can tell you from my experience tinnitus quickly fades when you work on a goal and set deadlines to achieve each of its steps. Then, even while writing that novel you’ve dreamed about—you won’t notice your tinnitus.

You will get better from tinnitus, and you may even learn to love it.

Stop thinking about tinnitus as if it were only a disorder.

Fire refines gold. Heat and pressure turn pure carbon into diamonds.

Likewise, tinnitus can turn you into the successful person you knew you were meant to be.

Use your tinnitus before it gets better.

What is a Tinnitus Spike?

If you notice an abrupt change in the volume or sound of your tinnitus, you may be experiencing something called a tinnitus spike.

Understanding, preventing, and treating tinnitus spikes.

A tinnitus spike is a sudden, dramatic, and unpredictable change in your usual tinnitus volume, tone, or frequency. Spike may be physically painful, emotionally devastating, or both. Tinnitus spikes, however, are temporary, lasting between 1-3 days.

What does a tinnitus spike feel like?

Imagine that you have had your tinnitus for a few months. After such a long time, your brain decides that the sound is nothing more than a false alarm. It has already slightly reduced your perception of the noise. Almost without realizing it, your awareness of the ringing in your ears has decreased. And, your emotional reaction to it has lessened.

Then, without warning, the sound turns into a blaring, screeching sound that threatens to pierce your eardrums. You clap your hands over your ears and grimace in pain and surprise. You assume the worse; this is a permanent change. And this change? This is too loud. This is not bearable.

The horror of a spike is twofold. First, the increase in volume is potentially life-altering, and you’ve already learned there was no cure for your condition. You have nowhere to turn to, and now you feel you have no one else to blame but yourself.

You believe you must have brought this change on by being careless with your music volume, consuming too much alcohol, or otherwise engaging in some unhealthy activity. Desperate for any “new” cure or help, you spend hours googling the word “tinnitus.” Eventually, you end up in a tinnitus forum. Here, you read countless soul-crushing stories. You scroll through the history of individual users who plead for solutions, beg for mercy, and finally never log back on. Here, in the forums, hope dies.

But it is called a tinnitus spike for a reason.

How long does a tinnitus spike last?

Every tinnitus spike will dissipate and eventually disappear. Even the meanest, loudest flare-ups will soon start to lose their edge and fade away.

How long does a spike last? Many spikes are short. The shortest ones are gone with a few minutes or a couple of hours. A much lower percentage may last several weeks.

Your average tinnitus spike? Plan on spending 1 to 3 days dealing with it.

Spikes typically follow a pattern.

A swift, brutal onset.
Period of maximum intensity.
A noticeable fading and reduction in volume.
Complete cessation.

Tinnitus Habituation:How to cope with the ringing in your ears.

Tinnitus spikes do not last forever.

What causes a tinnitus flare-ups?

When a tinnitus spike hits, there’s an incredible temptation to track down its cause. But, of course, there is nothing wrong with this approach; just don’t end your search by blaming yourself.

Unfortunately (like tinnitus itself), there are almost innumerable potential causes for a tinnitus flare-up. Therefore, success in your endeavor will require much mindfulness and no small amount of journaling and logging.

I recommend you begin your search by examining these four potential triggers.

Poor sleep quality or sleep deprivation.
Exposure to a particular sound or a loud noise.
A recent increase in anxiety regarding work or personal issues.
Your diet.

Along with not blaming yourself, it is essential to understand there appears to be some aspect of randomness associated with tinnitus spikes.

Random may not be the perfect word here–there may indeed be a cause–but it may take up too much time and energy for you to ever narrow it down to one thing.

At the end of a long and fruitless search, it’s okay to think of it as nothing more than time and chance. So feel free at that point to move on.

How do calm a tinnitus spike?

First, it’s always important to remember your doctor can help you with your tinnitus. If tinnitus is having a negative effect on your life, or is severely affecting your mood, get immediate medical attention.

Next, develop a few ways to cope with the temporary increase in tinnitus intensity.

Try some distraction techniques, like doing household chores while listening to an audiobook at a volume just above noise of the tinnitus.
Follow along with a beginner’s yoga class on Youtube. Maintaining an uncomfortable position while trying to follow the instructor can work miracles on your perception of the noise.
Spend 15 minutes listening to the sound of your tinnitus. More on that in my book, The 15 Minute Challenge.

And, finally, simply wait it out. Waiting out a tinnitus spike may be difficult, but I have a surprise for you. Spikes are good for your eventual recovery from tinnitus.

After a tinnitus spike you will both return to your normal tinnitus levels and be pleased to realize that your emotional response has softened to it.

You progress with tinnitus habituation often takes large leaps ahead during a tinnitus spike. These leaps come from the fact that even during short spikes, you habituate to the increased intensity. When your tinnitus returns to normal, that normal will feel much easier to live with.

Welcome to Life With Tinnitus

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