One of the challenges of hearing loss is understanding and interpreting the noises we hear through our devices. Sometimes the sound is speech, only too fast or too muffled to understand. Other times it is the hum of a refrigerator or the call of a bird we havenβt heard before. One time the doorbell rang on the TV and I rose from my chair to go and open the front door. My family got a kick out of that one. We have to laugh at the inevitable mishearings and misunderstandings β they are just a normal part of living with hearing loss.
But recently there was a noise that nobody could identify. A high-pitched Tink, intermittently breaking the silence of my home. Sometimes it would repeat itself. Tink β pause β Tink Tink. Because my high-pitch hearing is my best, I am sensitive to shrill noises like this. This Tink was driving me crazy.
Every few moments: Tink. Silence. Tink Tink Tink.
A New Addition to My Tinnitus Repertoire?
I feared that this was a new addition to my tinnitus repertoire. Normally my tinnitus sounds like the hum of a fluorescent lightbulb. I am lucky that regular meditation helps me keep it mostly under control. Sometimes my tinnitus takes other forms, usually after prolonged exposure to a repetitive sound like a bathroom fan or heavy rain. Those bouts are harder for me to ignore.
My tinnitus flares up seasonally, worsening in the winter when the temperatures drop. This reaction is fairly common. A 2015 study by European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology found that Google searches for tinnitus spike in the winter. The logical conclusion β more people suffer from tinnitus in colder weather. It seemed reasonable that the approaching polar vortex might be causing a spike in my own tinnitus.
But other people in my family could hear the sound too β so that wasnβt it. I was relieved.
The Search Continued
Even though they could hear it, my family was not bothered by the noise as much as I was. It seemed to fade into the plethora of New York City sounds like sirens and expanding heating pipes. But I couldnβt seem to let it go. I wore noise-cancelling headphones during the day to block it out, but this wasnβt going to work when I was sleeping.
Before bed, we searched and searched. Was it a dying lightbulb? A loose ceiling fixture? The heating unit expanding and contracting? The neighbors upstairs or downstairs? We gave up and turned off the lights to go to sleep.
The first night did not go well. While most people remove their hearing aids to sleep, I do not. I wear extended wear hearing aids for up to eight weeks at a time, in part to block the annoying buzz of my tinnitus by bringing in ambient sounds.
Each time I would drift off to sleep β Tink β I was awakened by the noise.
Hearing Loss Keeps Me Attentive to Unfamiliar Sounds
Why couldnβt I acclimate to the sound β my family had β and move on, like when I go nose blind to a strong odor after a few minutes? I think it is because of my hearing loss.
My body has been trained to jump to attention anytime there is an unexpected sound β just in case it is something important. Because I donβt always know where a sound originates or what it is, I feel the need to attend to it immediately β in case there is danger. It is hard to turn this reflex off, even when I understand the noise is more of a distraction than a hazard.
Mystery Solved
After a few days of frustration, the answer became clear. It was the polar vortex after all β creating the sound of the wind whipping through the A/C units. Thankfully it should only last a few more days.
Readers, does an unexplained sound drive you crazy?
I hear ya (pun intended). Car horns on the radio always get me, too.
So true! Thanks for your comment.
It took a while before I finally tracked down an unexplained click that was picked up by my cochlear implant (not the BTE hearing aid I wear in my other ear). There was a certain regularity about it that made me think it was linked to my houseβs mysterious functions. I finally associated it with the heating system, confirmed when I stood next to the thermostat. Click β on. Another click β off.
Glad you figured it out! Thanks for sharing your story.
Shari
You Bet. We just installed gutter covers and the water dripping from one outside my bedroom window drov me nuts till I figured out what it was.
Glad you figured it out! Thanks for sharing your experience.
My husband couldnβt understand why I hate driving with the windows down on a nice day, until I explained the wind was ALL I could hear, cutting out any conversation or music on the radio. So boring. I also wondered why the bathroom faucet sounded like it was dripping when it wasnβt, only to realize the tick, tick, tick was coming from the moving hands of the little alarm clock we have sitting on the sink to keep us, well, sometimes punctual. π
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
What medication helps with tinnitus?
I donβt think there is a medication that helps. For me, meditation is helpful in controlling the sound β as well as my reaction to it. Thanks for your question.
I find that certain allergy meds aggravate tinnitus, esp Sudafed.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing that tidbit.
I can so identify with this. I canβt tell a phone on TV from a phone in my house, and the heater fan is deafening. I often hear sounds I canβt identify. Thanks for making me feel less alone.
You are definitely not alone. Thanks for your comment.
Oh my gosh. I relate to this so much! I have been hearing a sound and I still donβt know what it is but it stops me from falling asleep. It never goes away, I can hear it now.. I thought it was tinnitus too, but Iβm fairly sure it is real. Itβs like a quiet hairdryer but on permanently arrrgh. Iβm debating ear plugs but I worry about making myself more deaf at night when I am most vulnerable!
So frustrating! I hope you figure it out soon!
I have reacted to cellphone s on tv .The other day there was bubble noise and I thought a pipe broke.My husband said it was tv.lol
LOL! It happens to all of us sometimes I guess. Thanks for sharing your story.
Btw I worked in psychiatric hospital for many years and there are meds that help with tinnitus from brain damage.If neurologist canβt help than psychiatrist might
Exactly the window down in the car is the rudest thing in the world!! Whart noise and then I hear a roaring for the rest of the day.
My soft intermitent beeping mystery was not the smoke detector batteries but the battery in a pager slowly dying!! This drove me nuts.as I have a reverse loss or a ski slope loss. So many noises others never hear or miss. Sigh.
It can be tough. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
I see this is a post from last year but I got stuck on βextended wear hearing aidsβ. What depth of hearing loss does a person have that wears these? I worry when I take my hearing aids out at night that I wonβt hear βdangerβ when it happensβ¦
The ones that I wear are called Lyrics and I believe they are appropriate for people with mild to moderately severe hearing loss. You can read more about them here: https://www.phonak.com/en-us/hearing-devices/hearing-aids/lyric