You first hear the sound when you’re in bed trying to sleep: Your ear has a whooshing or pulsating in it. The sound is pulsing at the same rhythm as your heartbeat. And once you notice that sound, you can’t tune it out. It keeps you awake, which is not good because you need your sleep and you’ve got 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 linked. A vicious cycle that deprives you of your sleep and affects your health can be the outcome.
Can tinnitus be caused by anxiety?
Tinnitus is typically referred to as a ringing in the ears. But it’s not as simple as that. First of all, the actual noise you hear can take a large number of shapes, from pulsation to throbbing to buzzing and so on. Basically, you’re hearing a sound that isn’t really there. For many, tinnitus can occur when you’re feeling stressed out, which means that stress-related tinnitus is absolutely a thing.
An anxiety disorder is an affliction in which feelings of dread, worry, or (as the name implies) anxiety are difficult to control and intense enough to hinder your daily life. This can manifest in many ways physically, that includes as tinnitus. So can tinnitus be caused by anxiety? Certainly!
Why is this tinnitus-anxiety combination bad?
There are a couple of reasons why this particular combo of tinnitus and anxiety can lead to bad news:
- Tinnitus can often be the first indication of a more serious anxiety attack (or similar episode). Once you’ve recognized the link between anxiety and tinnitus, any time you experience tinnitus symptoms your anxiety could rise.
- Most individuals tend to experience tinnitus more often at night. Can anxiety trigger ringing in the ear? Certainly, but it’s also feasible that the ringing’s been there all day and your ordinary activities were simply loud enough to mask the sound. This can make getting to sleep a bit tricky. And that sleeplessness can itself result in more anxiety.
There are instances where tinnitus can start in one ear and eventually move to both. Sometimes, it can stick around 24/7–all day every day. In other situations, it might pulsate for a few moments and then disappear. Whether continuous or intermittent, this combination of anxiety and tinnitus can have health consequences.
How is your sleep affected by tinnitus and anxiety?
So, yeah, anxiety-driven tinnitus could definitely be causing your sleep troubles. Here are several examples of how:
- The longer you go without sleep, the easier it is for you to become stressed. As your stress level increases your tinnitus gets worse.
- The sound of your tinnitus can stress you out and difficult to overlook. In the quiet of the night, your tinnitus can be so persistent that you lie awake until morning. Your tinnitus can become even louder and harder to tune out as your anxiety about not sleeping increases.
- Most people like it to be quiet when they sleep. It’s night, so you turn everything off. But when everything else is quiet, your tinnitus can be much more noticeable.
When your tinnitus is caused by anxiety, you may fear an anxiety attack is coming as soon as you hear that whooshing sound. It’s no wonder that you’re losing sleep. The problem is that lack of sleep, well, sort of makes everything worse.
How lack of sleep affects your health
As this vicious cycle continues, the health affects of insomnia will become much more substantial. And this can really have a detrimental affect on your wellness. Here are some of the most common impacts:
- Increased stress and worry: The anxiety symptoms already present will get worse if you don’t sleep. This can become a vicious cycle of mental health-related symptoms.
- Higher risk of cardiovascular disease: Over time, lack of sleep can begin to affect your long-term health and wellness. You could find yourself at a higher risk of heart disease or stroke.
- Poor work results: It should come as no shock that if you can’t get to sleep, your job performance will become affected. You won’t be as eager or be able to think on your feet as quickly.
- Slower reaction times: Your reaction times will be slower when you’re exhausted. Driving and other daily activities will then be more dangerous. And it’s especially hazardous if you run heavy machinery, for example.
Other causes of anxiety
Tinnitus, of course, is not the only source of anxiety. It’s essential to know what these causes are so you can stay away from stress triggers and possibly decrease your tinnitus at the same time. Some of the most typical causes of anxiety include the following:
- Stress response: Our bodies will have a normal anxiety response when something causes us stress. If you’re being chased by a wild animal, that’s a good thing. But it’s less good when you’re working on a project for work. Sometimes, the relationship between the two is not apparent. Something that caused a stress response a week ago could cause an anxiety attack tomorrow. You may even have an anxiety attack in response to a stressor from last year, for instance.
- Hyperstimulation: An anxiety reaction can take place when somebody gets overstimulated with too much of any one thing. Being in a crowded environment, for example, can cause some people to have an anxiety response.
- Medical conditions: In some cases, you might simply have a medical condition that makes you more prone to an increased anxiety response.
Other causes: Some of the following, less common factors could also trigger anxiety:
- Fatigue and sleep deprivation (see the vicious cycle once again)
- Certain recreational drugs
- Lack of nutrition
- Stimulant usage (that includes caffeine)
This isn’t an all-inclusive list. And if you believe you have an anxiety disorder, you should talk to your provider about treatment solutions.
Dealing with anxiety-related tinnitus
You have two general choices to manage anxiety-related tinnitus. The anxiety can be dealt with or the tinnitus can be dealt with. Here’s how that might work in either circumstance:
Treating anxiety
Generally speaking, anxiety disorders are managed in one of two ways:
- Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT): Certain thought patterns can inadvertently exacerbate your anxiety symptoms and this method will help you recognize those thought patterns. By interrupting these thought patterns, patients are able to more successfully prevent anxiety attacks.
- Medication: Medications may be utilized, in other situations, to make anxiety symptoms less prevalent.
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:
- Masking device: Think of this as a white noise machine you wear next to your ears. This may help your tinnitus to be less obvious.
- White noise machine: Use a white noise machine when you’re attempting to sleep. Your tinnitus symptoms may be able to be masked by this approach.
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): When you suffer from tinnitus, CBT strategies can help you generate new thought patterns that accept, acknowledge, and decrease your tinnitus symptoms.
Addressing your tinnitus could help you sleep better
As long as that humming or whooshing is keeping you awake at night, you’ll be at risk of falling into one of these vicious cycles, fueled by anxiety and tinnitus. One solution is to focus on fixing your tinnitus first. Contact us so we can help.