Sleep and Tinnitus – Insomnia and the Sound of Silence
The sound of silence and quickly falling asleep. I remember it quite well. But that was before he got tinnitus playing in a blues-rock band without hearing protection. These days I live with a constant ringing in my ears. I say ears in the plural because I have two different constant high tones. One for each ear. Yes, my old friend tinnitus is here to stay. The worst side effect of my tinnitus is, and always will be, the accompanying sleep problems. It seems that we humans developed a defense mechanism that is now working against me. The last sense to succumb to sleep is our hearing. It is also the first sense that awakens us. Darwinian theory suggests that those humans who weren’t easily awakened by a saber-tooth tiger or grizzly bear nearby (and making noise) soon became a midnight snack for hungry prehistoric predators. Those humans whose hearing functioned as an early warning system survived. Evolution at its most basic level.
Sound surrounds us, warns us and keeps us alive. Unless, of course, that particular sound is user-generated like my tinnitus. My subconscious doesn’t seem to have the ability to differentiate between a tiger growl, a fire alarm, or the ringing in my ears. Ergo, my sleep problem. Tinnitus is an alarm that goes off 24/7. During the day it just becomes background noise. There are moments while awake
that my tinnitus is barely noticeable. But at night, when the TV goes silent, the lights dim, and all background sounds disappear as I start to drift off to sleep, my ringing ears begin to scream: ‘You are in danger! Tiger in the cave! Rise or die!.
So I got up, over and over again, until I got tired. I was tired of being tired. I knew decades ago that the sound of rain, fans, wind, music, waves, crickets, or just about anything else that makes a constant sound drowns out tinnitus. It turns out that the sounds of nature have natural brown, pink and white noise properties that block tinnitus. I also knew that deep meditation and visualization help with generic insomnia. You see, it seems I got a double dose of insomnia since I have a mind that occasionally won’t turn off at night. Is the oven turned off? I closed the door? What’s wrong with my boss pinhead? What happens if the company loses that contract? Will there be layoffs? Is there a tiger in the cave? Thinking, thinking, thinking…
Arrest!
Learning to relax is not as easy as it seems. I eventually discovered the combination of nature sounds and visualization. Visualize a pleasant scenario; a beach vacation, traveling by train, hiking to a cabin, while listening to the sounds of nature really helped me sleep. So will I hear the sound of silence in my life again? One can hope for tinnitus cures, but for tonight I’ll settle for the sound of rain on a tin roof. For me, a tinnitus insomniac, that sound is a one-way ticket to dreamland!