You first notice the sound when you’re in bed attempting to sleep: Your ear has a whooshing or pulsating in it. The sound is rhythmic in tune with your heartbeat. And once you hear that sound, you can’t tune it out. It keeps you up, which is not good because you need your sleep and you have a big day tomorrow. Not only are you not feeling sleepy, you feel anxious.
Does this seem familiar? Anxiety, tinnitus, and sleep, as it so happens, are closely related. A vicious cycle that robs you of your sleep and affects your health can be the outcome.
Can tinnitus be caused by anxiety?
Generally, ringing in the ears is the definition of tinnitus. But it’s not as simple as that. First of all, the actual sound you hear can take a large number of forms, from pulsation to throbbing to buzzing and so on. Basically, you’re hearing a sound that doesn’t really exist. For many people, tinnitus can occur when you’re feeling stressed, which means that stress-related tinnitus is definitely a thing.
An anxiety disorder is a condition in which feelings of fear, worry, or (as the name suggests) anxiety are hard to control and strong enough to interfere with your daily life. Tinnitus is only one of several ways this can physically materialize. So can anxiety cause tinnitus? Definitely!
What’s bad about this combo of anxiety and tinnitus?
There are a couple of reasons why this particular combination of tinnitus and anxiety can result in bad news:
- Normally, nighttime is when most individuals really notice their tinnitus symptoms. Can ringing in the ears be triggered by anxiety? Yes, but the ringing may have also been there during the day but your day-to-day activities simply masked the symptoms. This can make it harder to get to sleep. And more anxiety can result from not sleeping.
- You may be having a more serious anxiety attack if you start to spike tinnitus symptoms. Once you’ve acknowledged the link between anxiety and tinnitus, any time you detect tinnitus symptoms your anxiety could increase.
There are situations where tinnitus can start in one ear and at some point move to both. Sometimes, it can stick around 24/7–all day every day. In other cases, it might pulsate for a few moments and then disappear. Either way, this anxiety-tinnitus-combo can present some negative impacts on your health.
How does tinnitus-anxiety impact your sleep?
So, yes, anxiety-related tinnitus could definitely be causing your sleep issues. Here are a few examples of how:
- The level of your stress will continue to rise the longer you go without sleep. As your stress level goes up your tinnitus will get worse.
- Most people like it to be quiet when they sleep. You turn everything off because it’s time for bed. But when everything else is quiet, your tinnitus can become much more obvious.
- It can be difficult to ignore your tinnitus and that can be really stressful. In the quiet of the night, your tinnitus can be so unrelenting that you lie awake until morning. As your anxiety about not sleeping increases, the sound of the tinnitus symptoms can get louder and even more difficult to ignore.
When your anxiety is triggering your tinnitus, you might hear that whooshing sound and fear that an anxiety attack is coming. This can, obviously, make it very difficult to sleep. The problem is that lack of sleep, well, sort of makes everything worse.
Health impacts of lack of sleep
The impact insomnia has on your health will continue to become more profound as this vicious cycle carries on. And this can really have a detrimental impact on your wellness. Here are some of the most common impacts:
- Reduced reaction times: Your reaction times will be slower when you’re exhausted. Driving and other daily activities will then be more hazardous. And if, for example, you run heavy machinery, it can be particularly dangerous.
- Higher risk of cardiovascular disease: Over time, lack of sleep can begin to affect your long-term health and well-being. You could find yourself at a higher risk of heart disease or stroke.
- Increased stress and worry: When you don’t sleep, it makes those anxiety symptoms you already have even worse. A vicious cycle of mental health related symptoms can occur.
- Poor work performance: Obviously, your job performance will suffer if you can’t get a sound night’s sleep. Your thinking will be slower and your mood will be more negative.
Other causes of anxiety
Tinnitus, of course, is not the only source of anxiety. It’s essential to recognize what these causes are so you can stay away from stress triggers and maybe decrease your tinnitus at the same time. Here are some of the most common causes of anxiety:
- Hyperstimulation: For some people, getting too much of any one thing, even a good thing, can result in an anxiety attack. For example, being around crowds can sometimes cause an anxiety response for some people.
- Medical conditions: In some situations, you might simply have a medical condition that makes you more prone to an elevated anxiety response.
- Stress response: When something causes us extreme stress, our bodies will normally go into an anxious mode. That’s fantastic if you’re being chased by a lion. But when you’re dealing with a project at work, that’s not so great. oftentimes, the connection between the two is not very clear. You could have an anxiety attack today from something that caused a stress reaction a week ago. Even a stressor from last year can trigger an anxiety attack now.
Other causes: Less commonly, anxiety disorders might be caused by some of the following factors:
- Exhaustion and sleep deprivation (see the vicious cycle once again)
- Lack of nutrition
- Use of stimulants (that includes caffeine)
- Certain recreational drugs
This isn’t an all-inclusive list. And you should talk to your provider if you believe you have an anxiety disorder.
Treating anxiety-related tinnitus
In terms of anxiety-related tinnitus, there are two general choices available. You can either try to address the anxiety or address the tinnitus. Here’s how that may work in either circumstance:
Addressing anxiety
There are a couple of options for managing anxiety:
- Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT): Certain thought patterns can inadvertently exacerbate your anxiety symptoms and this method will help you recognize those thought patterns. Patients are able to better prevent anxiety attacks by interrupting those thought patterns.
- Medication: In some instances, medication could help you cope with your symptoms or make your symptoms less noticeable.
Treating tinnitus
Tinnitus can be treated in a variety of different ways, especially if it presents while you’re sleeping. Some of the most common treatments include:
- Masking device: Think of this as a white noise machine you wear beside your ears. This may help your tinnitus to be less obvious.
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): When you suffer from tinnitus, CBT techniques can help you produce new thought patterns that accept, acknowledge, and decrease your tinnitus symptoms.
- White noise machine: When you’re trying to sleep, utilize a white noise machine. This could help mask your tinnitus symptoms.
You may get better sleep by dealing with your tinnitus
You’ll be in danger of falling into a vicious cycle of anxiety and tinnitus if the whooshing and ringing are keeping you awake at night. One plan is to focus on fixing your tinnitus first. Contact us so we can help.