To help relieve the tension in your body, you can use simple relaxation exercises that involve training your body to relax.  You can read about such exercises in books, listen to them on audiotapes, or often best learn how to do them at relaxation exercise classes, which you prefer.

Here are some simple examples of relaxation exercises.

Find a comfortable position, and breathe in slowly and clench your fist.    Feel the tension in you hand and wrist.  Now breathe out, and as you do so relax your hand and feel the difference.  You can extend this to other parts of your body, such as your other hand, each arm, leg and foot, your back and neck, face movements, and jaw clenching.

Once you have learned such breathing and muscle relaxation exercises, you can do them regularly, wherever and whenever you can find the time and space.  It will take a bit of practice, but you should quickly start to feel the benefits, and you will gradually learn how to relax your body without having to do the exercises.   As you learn to relax your body, you will also find it easier to relax your mind.

Some people find that aromatherapy, improved posture, massage, reflexology, craniofacial therapy, yoga, and tai chi have similar relaxing benefits, as can simply resting in a relaxing environment, perhaps with special aromas, dim lights, and soft music.  The key is to find what helps you relax the most and easiest, and then practice it often.

The normal natural history of tinnitus is for it, to gradually recede into the background so that you eventually become hardly aware of it – the habituation process described earlier.

You can speed up this process by increasing the amount of background sound near you, what some audiologist call “sound therapy”.  This reduces the contrast between the level of your tinnitus and the level of background sound.  In turn, this reduces the intrusiveness of your tinnitus and the tension it causes, thus promoting the habituation process and interrupting the vicious cycle described above.  The principles and procedures involved are similar to those used in most forms of sound therapy. 

Additional background sounds can come from:

Sound conditioners – bedside, chair side, or tabletop devices that play natural sounds (such as the sound of gentle waves, the rain, or a stream), or “white” noise (a constant “shhh”- like sound).

A wearable noise generator – a device that looks like and is worn like a hearing aid, but which makes its own “shhh” sound.

Wearing and using a hearing aid, even if you have only slight difficulty in hearing.

Exactly what is the best level of additional sound to use has not yet been established, but a level just below that of your tinnitus would seem sensible – not too loud so you can’t hear your tinnitus, but not very soft either.  That is, in order to be able to habituate to the tinnitus, it needs to be audible.

The key is to avoid quiet, or remove it.  In the quiet, your brain will try to hear any sound more clearly, and that will include the sound of your tinnitus.  You should reinforce your background sound whenever the background is rather quiet, as often and for as long as you can.

If increasing background sound annoys other people around you, use a personal music player and headphones. 

Most importantly, you also need sound therapy in bed, whether asleep or awake.  It is particularly harmful if you lie in the quiet of the night listening to your tinnitus when you cannot get to sleep, or when you wake up during the night.  Fatigue can also increase the tinnitus, as does anxiety.  You could try sleeping with the window open, or have a gentle ticking clock in your room, or use an under pillow speaker or sound pillow attached to the sound source of your choice.  You are less likely to disturb others this way.  The radio can also act as a good sound in drowning out the tinnitus, especially when we have it between stations, where it would be a static noise, just above audible levels.  Constant, uninteresting noise can be easy to ignore, once we know where the noise comes from.

Having active interests and hobbies can enhance the quality of your life.  They can put your tinnitus into a better perspective so you can still enjoy life to the full.  It is never too late to learn or to get involved, so look through those adult education brochures! 

Some people have seen the positive side of their tinnitus and have welcomed the push it gave them to do something new, to rekindle old interests, or to take on the challenge of working for a tinnitus support group.

How is your general health?  Are you getting a good, varied diet, plenty of exercise and rest, and some enjoyable social activity?  If you find that certain foods or drinks, or activities or situations aggravate your tinnitus, you could cut down a little, cut them our, or find alternatives.   With just a few adjustments, you will find that tinnitus will not stop you carrying on with life the way you want to.

Hyperacusis (pronounced hyper-a KOO-sis)

This means a condition of over sensitivity to loud sounds, even moderately loud sounds.  It is in many cases, a person with troublesome tinnitus can mainly caused by a similar brain mechanism.  Like tinnitus, hyperacusis can usually be improved using sound therapy procedures already described, although for hyperacusis the level of added sound is gradually increased, systematically, over a period of weeks or months.  This treatment process is called “desensitisation”. 

Once again, with this condition it is important to avoid “Quiet”.

If you have tinnitus, you should not wear any kind of earplugs that make it more difficult to hear, except when you are in a very loud noise.  They will not help your tinnitus: indeed, they will probably make it seem louder while you wear them.  Generally, it is not a good idea to wear earplugs if you have hyperacusis (unless you are using earplugs temporarily in a noise that is unbearably loud to you) as they can prevent your ears from being accustomed to sounds.  On the other hand, you should always use ear protection when you are exposed to very loud sounds, whether or not you have tinnitus or hyperacusis.

If you have been exposed to a particularly loud sound, for example, a disco or fireworks, or working around loud noise, you may often experience dullness of hearing or tinnitus, or both immediately afterwards.  Provided you do not let yourself get into a state of great anxiety about it, this will usually disappear after a few minutes or hours.  These temporary effects should be taken s a warning, though – there is a risk of permanent damage if you expose your ears repeatedly to such loud sounds.

Further Information and Help

With this insight into tinnitus, you may feel you can now learn to ignore yours.  If you want to know more about tinnitus or wish to make an appointment with one of our audiologists, you can contact us at: