Tips to Sleep Better with Tinnitus

Have you ever noticed how problems seem worse in the middle of the night? From worrying about your tax return to that infuriating ringing in your ears, when it’s quiet and dark with nothing to distract you, everything seems so much worse.

While we may not be able to help with your tax return, we do have some helpful suggestions to ease tinnitus and get you that much needed nourishing night of sleep.

Your state of mind

When you have difficulty sleeping you enter a negative state of mind. As bedtime approaches your mind anticipates the frustration of lying awake listening to intrusive noises in your head. When you climb into bed this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: You expect not to sleep due to the annoying whistling from tinnitus.

Try looking at things differently. Think of sleep as a reward for the day just gone, rather than something you need to catch up on before tomorrow. Listen for the tinnitus, recognize it, then set it to one side and practice a relaxation technique such as controlled deep breathing. When you catch your thoughts tripping back to the tinnitus, recognize what happened but then refocus on your breathing.

It is helpful to know that the more you accept something, the less you notice it. Thus is you stop fighting against the tinnitus, you can enter a state of ‘habituation’ where you are so used to the noise that you no longer notice it. To speed this process along, some people find that a tinnitus masker or a sound generator can help.

Try a sound generator

You breathe all the time but are only occasionally consciously aware of it. You can reach a similar state with tinnitus, if you have something to distract you. For this purpose many people find a noise generator helpful.

A noise generator can be as simple as special CD playing in the background or as sophisticated as a pillow with a built in speaker. The idea is to play a pleasant sound at a low volume which gives you something to focus on other than tinnitus. Many people find this extremely effective and help them literally ‘forget’ about the ringing in the ears.

Consider hearing devices

The combination of hearing loss and tinnitus is not a pleasant one. The absence of background sounds means all your ears are fully focused on the sound generated in your head.

The answer in this case is to wear a hearing aid and gradually retrain you to hear environmental noises again. The brain does this by rediscovering a different soundscape: one of laughter and birdsong, rather than the all-encompassing whistling. In addition, the ears are no longer straining to hear and therefore magnifying every noise that comes its way – including the unpleasant ones associated with tinnitus.

In short, take steps to disempower tinnitus and stop it ruling your life. And remember, from relaxation techniques to regaining your hearing, your audiologist can suggest strategies to help.