Lenire Tinnitus Treatment

[Timcognito]

I think this summer, I will get a true hearing aid for my R ear, probably a Widex model, in place of the OTC Audien one I've been using. My tinnitus has not got worse per se, but I do notice it more through the day, not just at night, and it would be nice to have a model that can produce some masking noise at a low level.. Fortunately, since I will only need one aid, cost should be under $1100 or so.

I had seen these masking sites before but not used as my tinnitus comes and goes. Googled it and here's what it summarized.

 

[Joe Smith]

ReSound on my iPhone is what I've been using at night. Just checked out Starkey Relax (that's what it's called in Appleland) and I do like its interface. Very easy to match the appropriate volume and pitch level to mask one's tinnitus tone. Will use tonight and see how it goes.

 

[dtaylo1066]

I think this summer, I will get a true hearing aid for my R ear, probably a Widex model, in place of the OTC Audien one I've been using. My tinnitus has not got worse per se, but I do notice it more through the day, not just at night, and it would be nice to have a model that can produce some masking noise at a low level.. Fortunately, since I will only need one aid, cost should be under $1100 or so.

​

I think this summer, I will get a true hearing aid for my R ear, probably a Widex model, in place of the OTC Audien one I've been using. My tinnitus has not got worse per se, but I do notice it more through the day, not just at night, and it would be nice to have a model that can produce some masking noise at a low level.. Fortunately, since I will only need one aid, cost should be under $1100 or so.

I have Phonak Audio Lumity aids. Not cheap. But they work well. My brother got his aids at Costco, which are good units with a good price point and service.

All audio geeks paying for high quality gear and our hearing is going south! Oh, the humanity!

 

[dtaylo1066]

Ok thanks.

Speaking of REM stuff….

I actually tried some of the eye movements that I saw recommended for people trying to fall asleep and it’s been fascinating. It really has an effect.

When you’re lying in bed trying to sleep and your eyes are closed you do a certain type of eye movement under your eyelids, and it’s supposed to help you get to sleep.

I’ve been doing it almost every night for a month or two. Since I have various things affecting my sleep quality, I don’t find that it sends me immediate to sleep.
But wow, does it ever have a reliable and immediate effect on at least getting me partway there. It’s like my mind can be racing, you know when you can’t really shut off your brain to sleep, and if I do these eye movements by the end it’s like a light switches off in my brain and everything seems to go dark like I’m starting to fall asleep and my thoughts stop racing.

I will post it here for anybody interested in trying.

The first thing is it mentions Andrew Huberman. I approach anything Huberman with caution because he’s very popular but also somewhat controversial. He can be too confident in his claims and extrapolations from studies and data.

But this is the kind of thing that’s so easy to try… I figured I may as well….

Here you go:

———————————

Andrew Huberman shares a simple, science-backed trick to fall asleep faster when your mind races or you can't stop noticing your body position:

Close your eyes and do slow, deliberate eye movements to shut down proprioception (body awareness) and signal your brain it's time to transition into sleep.

Try this tonight (takes ~1–2 minutes):

- Slowly move eyes left → right (a few times)

- Then counterclockwise circle → clockwise circle
Look up → down

- Gently attempt to look toward the bridge of your nose (faux cross-eyed)

- Finish with a long exhale to slow heart rate

Why it works: Eye movements coordinate with your vestibular system & cerebellum to mimic the natural forgetting of body position that happens at sleep onset (similar to slow rocking or boat motion calming the brain). It gives your racing mind something active to focus on instead of "just relax."

——————-

I should also add that I do another one that I read about that seems even more effective.
It’s simply with eyelids closed in bed slowly scanning eyes left to right, and I added in counting down very slow slowly from 100.

I’ve done this probably 40 nights in a row and not once have I been able to get past “92” when counting down from 100 before my brain seems to basically shut off and go dark. It’s really wild!

I will try that. I also have sleep apena and use a machine. I got an Apple watch several months ago, which has a sleep tracking app. My hours of sleep and hours of REM sleep were pathetic. Taking some Trazadone has grealy increased my REM sleep and overall sleep hours. While feeling better, my tinnitus seems a bit less as well. I think it is all interrleated.

 

[MattHooper]

Funny story. Was talking to the Audiologist before taking my test. He told me he has tinnitus as well. I told him I hear mine when someone talks about it. Otherwise I don't. He said lucky you. Every day I hear a patient talking about it so mine goes on non-stop!

That reminds me of when I was originally diagnosed with hyperacusis.

It was around 2000 and I was working on a fantasy series TV show on an episode featuring gigantic monster lizard. I had created all these rasping and hissing sounds and was playing those for days quite loud, when I started to notice that they became more and more irritating and painful to my ears. And that afterwards this persisted with all sorts of other sounds in the same frequency range including when I was listening to music afterward.

So I went to an audiologist, he tested me out. We discussed it, and he diagnosed me with hyperacusis.

I didn’t know much about it so I started asking will just go away as a permanent. What’s the deal? He said that he had hyperacusis as well. That it doesn’t really go away. He asked me if I had any young kids.
I said yeah at that time a two-year-old.
He had this look of pity and shook his head and said “ sorry to hear it, it’s gonna be rough for you for a while given how loud and piercing kids voices can be…”

He also said I might want to look for a new vocation given I worked in Post Production movie sound.

Needless to say, that was a pretty depressing appointment.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to quit my job andmy hyperacusis turned out to be something that modulated over time. Eventually it got much better and my hearing back to normal not too long after that appointment (months) but it would come and go over the years. Sometimes quite bad sometimes mild. And no matter what I was still having to do long days and nights creating all sorts of sound effects. Never fun having a hyperacusis flareup when you’re doing gun shootouts.

But the other thing about it… and this is supposed to be the same with tinnitus… is that habituation really seems to be a nervous system and mind thing. With both hyperacusis the more you and your nervous system see either the ringing sound or every day sounds in the case of hyperacusis as a threat: the worse your distress and the worse it can get.

That’s why many experts talk about the level of “ tinnitus distress” rather than the tinnitus itself. Just as in pain research some people are put in much more distress than others by the same amount of pain, the amount of stress individuals feel from their tinnitus often isn’t linked to how loud it is.

That’s one reason why some of the top experts in tinnitus seem to emphasize some form of CBT either alone or along with whatever other intervention.

I found out sort of naturally over time that habituation to either my tinnitus or my hyperacusis always happened much faster based on my mental attitude. The natural instinct would be to draw back and seek quiet to protect my ears “ until I feel better” but in fact, it virtually always worked out better when I simply went on with life and immersed myself in my work or anything else.

 

[MattHooper]

Well, that was no fun….

As I’ve mentioned in the thread, due to my big tinnitus spike and hyperacusis, I had taken a couple years off, listening to my system. Only recently did I get back to gingerly introducing listening to music on my system…. Starting off around 37DB for a few weeks…. And over the past months, getting up to averages of 45 DB.

Tonight I eagerly put on a new record.
I have two pre-amplifiers… by Conrad Johnson tube preamplifier and my benchmark LA4. I run the Conrad through the LA four so that I can switch between either of them. This has never been a problem before. And I always check my volume levels both after using the system before I shut it down and usually when I turn it on.

But not tonight.

And you can guess what happened.

I was listening quietly through the CJ, I switched input to the benchmark and for some reason, the volume was up almost all the way. So I was blasted out of my seat.
Plugged my ears as fast as I could. Tried to operate my remote with my elbow to try and mute the sound which I finally did.

But… it happened. Not what my ears needed at this moment.

Hard to know what the effects are going to be. I find after an acoustic shock. The effect often shows up later on like when I’m trying to sleep for the next day. That’s when I will know where I’m at with this one.

Sigh…

 

[Nothingness]

I've had tinnitus for decades. About 15 years ago I was prescribed mirtazipine and my tinnitus disappeared - blessed silence! I couldn't tolerate the mirtazipine so stopped it almost immediately. I'd forgotten about its unusual side-effect until I read this thread.

May I ask what caused your tinnitus in the first place?

 

[mlsstl]

Well, that was no fun….

As I’ve mentioned in the thread, due to my big tinnitus spike and hyperacusis, I had taken a couple years off, listening to my system. Only recently did I get back to gingerly introducing listening to music on my system…. Starting off around 37DB for a few weeks…. And over the past months, getting up to averages of 45 DB.

Tonight I eagerly put on a new record.
I have two pre-amplifiers… by Conrad Johnson tube preamplifier and my benchmark LA4. I run the Conrad through the LA four so that I can switch between either of them. This has never been a problem before. And I always check my volume levels both after using the system before I shut it down and usually when I turn it on.

But not tonight.

And you can guess what happened.

I was listening quietly through the CJ, I switched input to the benchmark and for some reason, the volume was up almost all the way. So I was blasted out of my seat.
Plugged my ears as fast as I could. Tried to operate my remote with my elbow to try and mute the sound which I finally did.

But… it happened. Not what my ears needed at this moment.

Hard to know what the effects are going to be. I find after an acoustic shock. The effect often shows up later on like when I’m trying to sleep for the next day. That’s when I will know where I’m at with this one.

Sigh…

Interesting how different the tinnitus experience can be. I've had the condition for around 30 or more years now -- a constant 9 KHz squeal in both ears the entire time I'm awake. However, music at 75 to 80 dB average, give or take a bit, doesn't bother me nor increase the intensity of the tinnitus. Music at a moderate volume is actually a relief for my tinnitus since it takes my aural attention elsewhere.

The thing that worsens it the most is going to loud events where there are many different noise sources. Trying to focus on one conversation at a crowded event where dozens or hundreds of people are all talking at once is probably the biggest trigger for me. That makes sense to me as the source of the tinnitus noise is not physical within the ears, but rather a creation of the brain. Trying to focus on only one thing when the brain has to filter out the unwanted stuff is a lot of work.

Music at a moderate volume is actually a relief for my tinnitus. Of course, once one gets to 90 dB and above, all bets are off. I rarely attend rock concerts these days, but a set of ear plugs is mandatory. (I've always found it very odd to play at such a volume that one needs to block off what you went to listen to....)

 

[Joe Smith]

Interesting how different the tinnitus experience can be. I've had the condition for around 30 or more years now -- a constant 9 KHz squeal in both ears the entire time I'm awake. However, music at 75 to 80 dB average, give or take a bit, doesn't bother me nor increase the intensity of the tinnitus. Music at a moderate volume is actually a relief for my tinnitus since it takes my aural attention elsewhere.

The thing that worsens it the most is going to loud events where there are many different noise sources. Trying to focus on one conversation at a crowded event where dozens or hundreds of people are all talking at once is probably the biggest trigger for me. That makes sense to me as the source of the tinnitus noise is not physical within the ears, but rather a creation of the brain. Trying to focus on only one thing when the brain has to filter out the unwanted stuff is a lot of work.

Music at a moderate volume is actually a relief for my tinnitus. Of course, once one gets to 90 dB and above, all bets are off. I rarely attend rock concerts these days, but a set of ear plugs is mandatory. (I've always found it very odd to play at such a volume that one needs to block off what you went to listen to....)

My "presentation" of tinnitus is very similar to yours. Yes, when music is playing at normal volumes, it lessens my perception of it. I do have to use a white noise mix at night, and in summertime, the central air woosh helps too.

I share your feeling about concerts. I like live music, but most performers/venues tend to amplify at very high volumes. Unnecessary and annoying. I'd attend more concerts but for this.

 

[Nothingness]

My tinnitus is in the 4k–7kHz range, and this year it has worsened by about 5dB. Meditation helps me quite a lot though.

I remember about 13 years ago I was nearly in tears when everyday sounds could hurt so much. I found walking in the streets unbearable. Now I no longer feel that kind of pain, although certain sounds can still make me feel as though they originate from within my ears and physically vibrate certain parts of them.

Reading this thread makes me thankful that I can still enjoy music at 60–75dB.

 

[PristineSound]

There is hope, more and more therapies are becoming available.

For me, bimodal therapy has been amazing.

I read that tinnitus has a non fully understood relationship with REM sleep. So I tried bimodal therapy while I took a nap, it was the most effective bimodal session I had. After serval of those sessions, tinnitus disappeared even if I was looking for it.

About 2 months ago, after not having done bimodal therapy for about 6 to 8 months, I slowing had a flare up. Started bimodal therapy again and started to help, but these bimodal therapy takes several weeks to months before I get full benefit.

So interesting not too long ago, I came across few reports on how psychedelic drugs helps with a fresh brain to be rewired. Curious, so two nights ago, I experimented a new method, consuming THD drink, then falling asleep to bimodal therapy. So far, tinnitus disappeared. Will try this new method more in the near future.

I know bimodal therapy didn't work for Amir, unfortunately, but it worked like wonders for me. I remember everyone who have the financial means to try it.