You’re lying down in bed trying to sleep when you first notice the sound: Your ear has a whooshing or throbbing in it. The sound is rhythmic in tune with your heartbeat. And no matter how hard you try, you can’t tune it out. It keeps you awake, which is bad because you need your sleep and you have a big day tomorrow. And suddenly you feel very anxious, very not sleepy.
Does this seem familiar? Turns out, tinnitus, anxiety, and sleep are closely related. And you can understand how tinnitus and anxiety might easily conspire to generate a vicious cycle, one that robs you of your sleep, your rest, and can affect your health.
Can tinnitus be triggered by anxiety?
Tinnitus is generally referred to as a ringing in the ears. But it’s a little more complex than that. First of all, the actual noise you hear can take a large number of shapes, from pulsing to throbbing to buzzing and so on. But the sound you’re hearing isn’t an actual external sound. For many people, tinnitus can occur when you’re feeling stressed, which means that stress-related tinnitus is absolutely a thing.
An anxiety disorder is an affliction where feelings of dread, worry, or (as the name suggests) anxiety are hard to control and severe enough to hinder your daily life. This can materialize in many ways physically, that includes as tinnitus. So can anxiety trigger tinnitus? Definitely!
Why is this tinnitus-anxiety combination bad?
There are a couple of reasons why this specific combo of tinnitus and anxiety can lead to bad news:
- Most individuals tend to notice tinnitus more often at night. Can anxiety cause ringing in the ear? Certainly, but it’s also possible that the ringing’s been there all day and your ordinary activities were simply loud enough to cover up the sound. This can make getting to sleep a bit tricky. And more anxiety can result from not sleeping.
- Tinnitus can frequently be the first indication of a more severe anxiety attack (or similar episode). Once you’ve made this association, any occurrence of tinnitus (whether caused by anxiety or not) could cause a spike in your overall anxiety levels.
There are instances where tinnitus can start in one ear and eventually move to both. Sometimes, it can hang around 24/7–all day every day. There are other situations where it comes and goes. Whether continuous or intermittent, this combo of anxiety and tinnitus can have health consequences.
How is your sleep affected by tinnitus and anxiety?
So, yes, anxiety-driven tinnitus could easily be contributing to your sleep problems. Here are a few examples of how:
- 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 be much more noticeable.
- The longer you go without sleeping, the easier it is for you to become stressed out. As your stress level increases your tinnitus will get worse.
- The sound of your tinnitus can stress you out and hard to dismiss. If you’re laying there just attempting to fall asleep, your tinnitus can become the metaphorical dripping faucet, keeping you awake all night. 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 near. This can, naturally, make it very hard to sleep. But lack of sleep results in all kinds of issues.
How lack of sleep affects your health
The impact insomnia has on your health will continue to become more profound as this vicious cycle carries on. And your general wellness can be negatively affected by this. Here are a few of the most common effects:
- Higher risk of cardiovascular disease: Your long term health and well-being will be affected over time by lack of sleep. You could find yourself at a higher risk of heart disease or stroke.
- Poor work results: Naturally, your job performance will diminish if you can’t get a sound night’s sleep. Your thinking will be slower and your mood will be less positive.
- Slower reaction times: Your reaction times will be slower when you’re exhausted. Driving and other daily activities will then be more hazardous. And it’s especially hazardous if you run heavy equipment, for instance.
- Elevated stress and worry: The anxiety symptoms you already have will get worse if you don’t sleep. A vicious cycle of mental health related symptoms can be the outcome.
Other causes of anxiety
Of course, there are other causes of anxiety besides tinnitus. It’s important to know what these causes are so you can stay away from stress triggers and possibly decrease your tinnitus while you’re at it. Some of the most common causes of anxiety include the following:
- Stress response: Our bodies will have a natural anxiety response when something causes us stress. That’s fantastic if you’re being chased by a tiger. But when you’re dealing with a project at work, that’s not so good. oftentimes, the relationship between the two is not very clear. You could have an anxiety attack now from something that caused a stress reaction a week ago. You might even have an anxiety attack in response to a stressor from a year ago, for example.
- Medical conditions: You might, in some situations, have an elevated anxiety response due to a medical condition.
- Hyperstimulation: For some individuals, getting too much of any one thing, even a good thing, can bring on an anxiety attack. Being in a crowded environment, for example, can cause some individuals to have an anxiety response.
Other causes: Some of the following, less common factors may also cause anxiety:
- Lack of nutrition
- Use of stimulants (including caffeine)
- Fatigue and sleep deprivation (see the vicious cycle once again)
- Certain recreational drugs
This isn’t an all-inclusive list. And if you think you have an anxiety disorder, you should consult your provider about treatment options.
How to fix your anxiety-caused tinnitus?
You have two general options to treat anxiety-related tinnitus. The anxiety can be addressed or the tinnitus can be dealt with. Here’s how that might work in either circumstance:
Addressing anxiety
Generally speaking, anxiety disorders are treated in one of two ways:
- Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT): Certain thought patterns can inadvertently worsen your anxiety symptoms and this strategy will help you identify those thought patterns. By interrupting these thought patterns, patients are able to more effectively avoid anxiety attacks.
- Medication: Medications might be utilized, in other situations, to make anxiety symptoms less prominent.
Treating tinnitus
Tinnitus can be treated in a variety of different ways, especially if it presents while you’re sleeping. Here are some common treatments:
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): When you suffer from tinnitus, CBT techniques can help you generate new thought patterns that accept, acknowledge, and lessen your tinnitus symptoms.
- Masking device: This is basically a white noise machine that you wear near your ear. This may help your tinnitus to be less obvious.
- White noise machine: When you’re trying to sleep, use a white noise machine. Your tinnitus symptoms may be able to be masked by this strategy.
Dealing with your tinnitus may help you sleep better
You’ll be at risk 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. Give us a call so we can help.