Posted on 12/11/2024 9:18:50 PM PST by Red Badger
Around 15 percent of the world's population suffers from tinnitus, a condition which causes someone to hear a sound (such as ringing or buzzing) without any external source. It's often associated with hearing loss.
Not only can the condition be annoying for sufferers, it can also have a serious effect on mental health, often causing stress or depression. This is especially the case for patients suffering from tinnitus over months or years.
There's currently no cure for tinnitus. So finding a way to better manage or treat it could help many millions of people worldwide.
And one area of research that may help us better understand tinnitus is sleep. There are many reasons for this.
First, tinnitus is a phantom percept. This is when our brain activity makes us see, hear or smell things that aren't there. Most people only experience phantom perceptions when they're asleep. But for people with tinnitus, they hear phantom sounds while they're awake.
The second reason is because tinnitus alters brain activity, with certain areas of the brain (such as those involved in hearing) potentially being more active than they should be. This may also explain how phantom percepts happen. When we sleep, activity in these same brain areas also changes.
Our recent research review has identified a couple of brain mechanisms that underlie both tinnitus and sleep. Better understanding these mechanisms – and the way the two are connected – could one day help us find ways of managing and treating tinnitus.
Sleep and tinnitus
When we fall asleep, our body experiences multiple stages of sleep. One of the most important stages of sleep is slow-wave sleep (also known as deep sleep), which is thought to be the most restful stage of sleep.
During slow-wave sleep, brain activity moves in distinctive "waves" through the different areas of the brain, activating large areas together (such as those involved with memory and processing sounds) before moving on to others.
It's thought that slow-wave sleep allows the brain's neurons (specialized brain cells which send and receive information) to recover from daily wear and tear, while also helping sleep make us feel rested. It's also thought to be important for our memory.
Not every area of the brain experiences the same amount of slow-wave activity. It's most pronounced in areas we use most while awake, such as those important for motor function and sight.
But sometimes, certain brain areas can be overactive during slow-wave sleep. This is what happens in sleep disorders such as sleep walking.
A similar thing may happen in people with tinnitus. We think that hyperactive brain regions might stay awake in the otherwise sleeping brain. This would explain why many people with tinnitus experience disturbed sleep and night terrors more often than people who don't have tinnitus.
Tinnitus patients also spend more time in light sleep. Simply put, we believe that tinnitus keeps the brain from producing the slow-wave activity needed to have a deep sleep, resulting in light and interrupted sleep.
But even though tinnitus patients have less deep sleep on average than people without tinnitus, the research we looked at in our review suggests that some deep sleep is hardly affected by tinnitus. This may be because the brain activity that happens during the deepest sleep actually suppresses tinnitus.
There are a couple of ways the brain may be able to suppress tinnitus during deep sleep. The first has to do with the brain's neurons. After a long period of wakefulness neurons in the brain are thought to switch into slow-wave activity mode to recover. The more neurons in this mode together, the stronger the drive is for the rest of the brain to join.
We know that the drive for sleep can get strong enough that neurons in the brain will eventually go into slow-wave activity mode. And since this especially applies to brain regions overactive during wakefulness, we think that tinnitus might be suppressed as a result of that.
Slow-wave activity has also been shown to interfere with the communication between brain areas. During deepest sleep, when slow-wave activity is strongest, this may keep hyperactive regions from disturbing other brain areas and from interrupting sleep.
This would explain why people with tinnitus can still enter deep sleep, and why tinnitus may be suppressed during that time.
Sleep is also important for strengthening our memory, by helping to drive changes in connections between neurons in the brain. We believe that changes in brain connectivity during sleep are contributing to what makes tinnitus last for a long time after an initial trigger (such as hearing loss).
Treating tinnitus
We already know that intensity of tinnitus can change throughout a given day. Investigating how tinnitus changes during sleep could give us a direct handle on what the brain does to cause fluctuations in tinnitus intensity.
It also means that we may be able to manipulate sleep to improve the wellbeing of patients – and possibly develop new treatments for tinnitus.
For example, sleep disruptions can be reduced and slow-wave activity can be boosted through sleep restriction paradigms, where patients are told to only go to bed when they're actually tired. Boosting the intensity of sleep could help us better see the effect sleep has on tinnitus.
While we suspect that deep sleep is the most likely to affect tinnitus, there are many other stages of sleep that happen (such as rapid eye movement, or REM sleep) – each with unique patterns of brain activity.
In future research, both the sleep stage and tinnitus activity in the brain could be tracked at the same time by recording brain activity. This may help to find out more about the link between tinnitus and sleep and understand how tinnitus may be alleviated by natural brain activity.
Linus Milinski, Doctoral Researcher in Neuroscience, University of Oxford; Fernando Nodal, Departmental Lecturer, Auditory Neuroscience Group, University of Oxford; Victoria Bajo Lorenzana, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, University of Oxford, and Vladyslav Vyazovskiy, Professor of Sleep Physiology, University of Oxford.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
An earlier version of this article was published in May 2022.
So true...and sometimes, there isn’t even a reason. People just get it.
When I used to work in Nuclear Medicine back in the day, I recall being at the front desk to do some task, and I heard a soft, but audible squealing sound I couldn’t identify.
I have always been someone to whom unexplained sounds can become a fixation until the source is tracked down, and this was no exception. But no matter how hard I tried, I simply could not locate the source, kind of like the same thing that happens with devices that chirp because the batteries are low.
After walking around, I figured it had to be coming from a speaker embedded in the ceiling tile right above where a patient was sitting. There was a little adjustment screw right in the middle of the speaker, and I figured if I adjusted the volume a bit, it might go away.
So I stood on a chair right below the speaker, decreased it a little, but could still hear the sound coming from the speaker. Puzzled, I turned it all the way down, but the whining sound persisted. So I asked the elderly gentleman if he could move over to another seat, and he didn’t answer me.
At that moment, his wife (who had been in an exam room) was walking back into the waiting room and said loudly to him “YOU NEED TO MOVE OVER TO THIS CHAIR!”
Then she put her hand on his ear and said “YOU NEED TO TURN UP YOUR HEARING AID SO YOU CAN HEAR HIM!” Then pulled her hand away and said “Goodness, it is already turned all the way up!”
He was just getting feedback from his hearing aid and didn’t even hear it!
Bkmk
That’s funny you tracked it down to the ceiling speaker but that really wasn’t it.
You wrote: “devices that chirp because the batteries are low.” If I EVER find the genius that invented that I’m going to lock him in a room for the rest of his days with random 10 ms chirping devices that he will never find. I put a smoke alarm in my central wiring close. I always forget it’s there and it takes me forever to track that damn thing down. Then there’s the heat rise alarm battery in the garage detector — you hear the faint chirp because it’s behind the solid core garage door and the fire-rated thick drywall. GGGRRRRR!!!
I’ve had a constant very high-pitched whine in both ears (right slightly louder) at least since high school but worsening in my twenties. I attribute it to a combination of loud music, chain saws, shooting, and drill rigs (though I did the roll-of-caps-and-sledgehammer thing myself when I was a kid). I got a lot more serious about hearing protection when I started to notice a little hearing loss at about age 25. Still have bare ears when I hunt quail, though, because I need to listen for them. Most days I’ll get only a few shots anyway.
I don’t notice my tinnitus most of the time unless I think about it or when it’s really quiet (like out in the desert). I do think it makes understanding speech more difficult, especially trying to hear people talk when there’s also sound from other sources. I can still hear quite faint sounds if things are silent otherwise. Could be worse.
The finger-tapping technique works a little, but only for a short time. I might try hearing aids someday. Bought a set of Game Ears a while ago but I haven’t tried them yet.
Same here…can blot itout most of the time (except when we are writing about it 😝)
For decades, I’ve had a very hard time conversing in crowds. It’s difficult picking up one person’s talking with the background hubbub. It makes parties a lot less enjoyable.
I hear you, no pun intended. Sorry about your hearing.
Once I got a cigarette filter stuck in my ear. The medic had to pull it out with tweezers.
Couple years before he passed, my father went to an ENT & pulled out a bunch of wax. Said he hadn’t had that clear of hearing in years.
My electrophysiologist is at the Cleveland Clinic. They prefer IR to Cryo. But, I don’t meet the standards for either one because my EF is 55 and I am not symptomatic for the afib and it has been 5 years. The clinical studies put ablation success way way down with those criteria.
But, since you are interested, please note that very recent use of Caridac MRI to map the problem areas has made both cryo and IR more effective.
Those horns represent a challenging piece of sheet metal work.
Copper irons and galvanized steel.
Lotta layout work with a sharp scribe, squares and curves, tin snips, hammers and dollies, etc.
Looks like that’s NAS Alameda, on San Francisco Bay. Bet it was breezy and chilly there.
I thought it was cool to sit on the stage in front of the speakers in drink and drown college beer halls for about a decade. I’d go outside and couldn’t hear a horn honk or a police siren for several minutes. Pretty sure that was what did my hearing in.
I’m going through that process right now. My right ear gets “clogged” constantly, so I have to hold my nose and pop my ears to relieve the uncomfortable pressure. I finally went to the Doc to see if there was anything I could do about it. The first thing they did was shove a bladder in Eustachian tube and blew it up in the hopes the tube would stay open. No help. Then we went with ear tubes. That got rid of the pressure, but the “clogged” feeling was still there. So, they did an MRI (CATSCAN?) and found a Cholesteatoma which is a skin growth in the middle section of the ear, behind the eardrum. Doc said it had to come out because it would eventually grow so big it would hit a facial nerve and make my face droopy. Lots of older folks get that look and this is what may have caused it. Anyway, they went in behind my ear, literally cut my ear away from my skull and folded it over to expose all the bones underneath. I had that surgery about nine months ago and my ear is still numb. The “clogged” feeling never went away and I still have to pop my ear to relieve the pressure because we removed the ear tube. I go back in January for another MRI (CATSCAN?) to see if the junk is still gone. My tinnitus is very loud and constant. I don’t recommend this surgery for anyone.
Smoking?....You were doing it wrong.............🙄
At least half of the guys in Nam smoked.
For real, but they didn’t stick cigs in their ear!................
I said the filter, not the whole cig.
I had cryo done about 10 years ago. At the time it was thought to be slightly better IR. By the time I had it done, I could hardly move without being winded. Then I had the sugery. I left the next day. a week later I was back in the gym doing my regular exercises. I thought I’d experienced a miracle.
I think my case was caused by extended use of tylenol to relieve lower back pain. Now when a doctor asks if I want an nsid. ..I say no thank you.
I know, your post just reminded me of a funny thing that happened in Boot Camp at Parris Island.
It was the last week before graduation and we were going through Final Inspection, out on the grinder (parade field).
All dressed up in our monkey suits, brass polished, shoes spit shined and standing at attention as the Company Commander (Capt.) and Battalion Commander (Lt Col) went from recruit to recruit to view their uniform and ask silly questions like “What is the 4th General Order?”.
They came up to a black recruit at attention next to me, and were going thru the spiel when the LtCol suddenly said, “WTF is that?” pointing to the kid’s ears.
It was 1973 and the hippy culture was still around. This black kid had both his ears pierced and had stuck pieces of broomstraw thru the holes to keep them from closing up while in bootcamp!
The officers had never seen such a thing. The recruit told them what it was for, but they were incredulous. They told him to remove the straws and keep them out while in uniform.
But they couldn’t gig him for the discrepancy because there was no rule that covered pierced ears! There probably is now...........
That is maddening. My wife had taken an older smoke alarm and put it in our garage, and...we began hearing the chirp.
I could not find it, even after a half hour of freezing...waiting for the chirp, turning in the direction you think it came from, freezing again, cupping both ears for directionality.
Eventually I gave up but we did find it-it had fallen behind our washing machine!
I am wholly with you on this!
LOL...”I could not find it, even after a half hour of freezing...waiting for the chirp, turning in the direction you think it came from, freezing again, cupping both ears for directionality.”
Yep, that’s me. The waiting. The cupping both ears. The turning your head and waiting some more.
That “chirp” is the most diabolical invention in all of mankind!
That’s funny you found it behind your washing machine! I hope you celebrated with a tall cold one after that discovery.
There is a special MRI that you can get
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/10/11/2997#:~:text=A%203D%20CISS%20sequence%20can,)%20vascular%20loops%20%5B36%5D.
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