Isn’t it wonderful when your tinnitus magically goes away overnight?
Unfortunately, it comes back to rattle you all throughout your waking moments.
“Tinnitus is a subjective phenomenon, and we have learned that it can come and go and change in intensity based on many factors,” says Rivka Strom, AuD, CCC-A, Director of Audiology, Advanced Hearing NY Inc.
“Tinnitus can also ‘disappear’ overnight, but it is not truly disappearing,” continues Strom.
“We humans have the amazing ability to induce plastic changes in our brain, and thus we can learn to habituate [get used to and hence not always notice it] to the tinnitus.”
Anxiety Makes Tinnitus Disappear Overnight
Have you ever noticed that when you hit the pillow and can’t fall asleep due to anxiety over next-day’s stressors … your tinnitus seems to fade?
It’s not that fretting and worrying over your life directly subdues the mechanism of your tinnitus.
Rather, your mind is so distracted by stressful thoughts, enactments of how you’ll interact with certain people the next day, plans of action with them, mounting bills, etc., that your awareness of the tinnitus takes a backseat.
Or to put it another way, while you are stressing out in bed, trying to fall asleep, repeatedly shifting positions, you are also reinforcing your habituation to the tinnitus.
Who has time to be sensitive to tinnitus when they’re stressing out over all the tasks next day that they must face?
It goes without saying, though, that struggling with stress-induced insomnia is not a practical way to habituate to tinnitus.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy
“Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT), a popular form of tinnitus treatment, is based on the concept of habituation,” says Strom.
How does TRT work?
Here’s an explanation for tinnitus retraining therapy.
This may help your tinnitus “go away” overnight — whether you’re tossing and turning over the anxiety in your life or peacefully relaxing as you transition to sleep.
