What is Tinnitus? How Tinnitus Affects Your Sleep
Tinnitus is a very common complaint among many people. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) estimates that approximately 25 million Americans experience some form of tinnitus. Tinnitus is a perceived ringing noise in the ears that others cannot hear.
It’s common to hear a ringing noise for a few seconds every now and then, but it becomes tinnitus when the ringing is consistent, sustained, and causes distress for the person experiencing it. Because the ringing occurs for a sustained period and isn’t caused by anything physical that the person can control, it can often cause significant difficulties with falling asleep.
What is Tinnitus?
Put simply, tinnitus is a ringing in the ears that can only be heard by the person experiencing it. Tinnitus can be present in one or both ears, depending on the cause, and can vary in severity from person to person. It can come and go or be constant. There is no physical danger in tinnitus itself, but it can be very stressful and annoying for the person who experiences it. Tinnitus that lasts for more than six months is referred to as chronic tinnitus. There is no cure for tinnitus, though some measures can help.
What Causes It?
It can be normal to occasionally experience a transient ringing in the ears that goes away after a few seconds. This transient ringing, if occasional and infrequent, generally would not qualify for a diagnosis of tinnitus. Chronic tinnitus, on the other hand, has a variety of causes.
These can range from the multitude of conditions that cause hearing loss, injury to your ear canal or eardrums, issues with your circulatory system, or chronic exposure to high decibel levels for a sustained period (e.g., working in factories, frequent concert attendance without ear protection, air traffic workers, etc.).
How Does Tinnitus Impact Sleep?
Tinnitus can be very disruptive to sleep, though it is not a sleep disorder in and of itself. Rather, it causes difficulty with sleep due to stress-induced insomnia. In essence, the ringing in the ears can be so annoying that it causes your stress hormones to spike, making it difficult, if not impossible, to properly relax and fall asleep. This can lead to a vicious cycle of stress and dread around bedtime, resulting in even more insomnia.
What Can You Do About It?
There are several things that you can do to sleep better with annoying tinnitus. It’s not a sentence to permanent sleepless nights—you simply need to take a few proactive steps.
To begin, as always, you should ensure that you have an optimal sleeping environment. The Sleep Foundation states the temperature of your sleeping area should be between 65 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit, dark, and as quiet as you can make it. You should choose bedding and a mattress that is both comfortable and properly supportive. Avoiding stimulating substances and incorporating exercise into your daily routine can also be helpful. In addition to all of this, you should establish some degree of consistency in your bedtime routine.
While all this is fantastic for encouraging general healthy sleep habits, it’s not tinnitus-specific. For tinnitus, you may wish to invest in the Tinnitus Sound Therapy System® S-680-02. This doctor-tested sound therapy system helps to distract from the annoying ringing in your ears so that you can relax during the state of stress that tinnitus causes.
Use the Best Sound Masking System for Sleep on the Market
At Sound Oasis, we want you to sleep better, feel better, and live better. Our Deluxe Sleep and Tinnitus Sound Therapy System® S-6000 helps you do just that. Our newest white noise machine for tinnitus offers an enhanced selection of expertly crafted sounds specifically developed for tinnitus relief, along with the ability to customize sounds to suit your preferences.
We’ve reinvented one of our most popular sound machines, making it better than ever with world-leading sound quality, seamless Sleep Enhance technology that gently lulls you to sleep, and Bluetooth® technology to stream the included S-6000 Tinnitus App or play music and sounds from your own playlists. Additionally, we’ve improved the clock and alarm settings, refreshed the machine’s appearance, and made it USB-powered for added convenience. Take a look at our many sleep sound machine options to help you with tinnitus!
Posted in Sleep Problems, Sleep Sound Machine, Sleep Sound Therapy System, Tinnitus, Tinnitus Causes, Tinnitus Sound Therapy Systems, Tinnitus Therapy
Tagged chronic tinnitus, sleep machines, sleep sounds, sound machine, tinnitus therapy, white noise