What can help me get a good night’s sleep?
Sleep problems are commonly reported by people with tinnitus and it is understandable that this is one of the most complained about aspects of the condition.
Many people who have trouble sleeping find themselves worrying about the consequences of a poor night’s sleep: ‘How will I cope with the meeting at work?’, ‘Will I be able to concentrate?’. But thinking in this way is more likely to keep a person awake and so begin a vicious cycle.
For tinnitus sufferers at bedtime, when the TV has been switched off and the hum of the fridge is left behind, the volume of tinnitus can seem to increase. What might be a relaxing time of day, a time to switch off, can instead become a time of anxiety. Rather than the tinnitus actually becoming louder at night, some experts say that anxiety associated with sleep concerns increases the attention being paid to it and it is this that keeps people awake.
When people wake in the night, they may believe it is due to their tinnitus, but it is more likely just their natural sleep pattern. On waking in the quiet, with little to distract a person, there is more opportunity to focus on the tinnitus and worries can then easily resurface.
If you are troubled by tinnitus and poor sleep, it may not be easy to overcome the situation without help. Sleeping tablets may be appropriate treatment in the short-term, but whilst such drugs have a calming effect on the body, they may not help people with a busy mind. Also, there are those for whom medication may not be appropriate. For others it might not be a preferred option. If you are prepared to consider sleeping tablets, it is important to talk over your suitability with your GP.
A more appropriate long-term solution might be to get a referral to a tinnitus clinic to receive counselling, learn relaxation techniques, or gain a better understanding about tinnitus. Alternatively, a specific habituation therapy may be recommended such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). CBT aims to reduce anxiety by looking at unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. It leads people to believe that tinnitus is not a threat and provides coping strategies to reduce the impact of tinnitus on a person's life.
If you have not yet sought help for your tinnitus or if you are waiting for a referral, there are a number of things you can do meanwhile to get a better night's sleep.
- It may be useful to prepare for sleep, by doing things that help you relax such as having a bath, stretching your muscles or having a warm milk drink.
- It is also a good idea to identify the time of day you feel most ready for sleep and to stick to it as a routine. It may not help to go to bed if you don't feel ready for sleep or, similarly, to stay up too late and go past sleepiness. But, if you get into bed, having felt sleepy, and then cannot fall asleep, another suggestion from one of our GP advisors, Dr Grant Ingrams, is to not ‘toss and turn’ but to get up until you feel sleepy again, possibly using the above ideas as a way to help you feel ready for sleep.
- Once in bed, another of our GP advisors, Dr Gordon Hickish, who himself has tinnitus, recommends listening to the radio, to music or nature sounds. He says he finds listening to BBC Radio 4 or the World Service helpful, using an ear piece to prevent it from disturbing anyone else. But while helpful for some, it may not be useful for people who also have a hearing loss. So, alternatively, focusing on the other senses may help to distract the mind, perhaps concentrating on smells from relaxing essential oils or visualising something that makes you happy such, as a favourite place.
- If an overactive mind prevents sleep, Betty Hawthorne of the Sheffield Tinnitus Association also recommends using imagery. Try to visualise putting any thoughts or concerns as you have them into a lidded box, as if to say they can be stored away until another time when it is more appropriate to think about them. Another suggestion is to keep paper and a pen by your bed to jot down any thoughts or concerns you have and then forget about them until the morning.
- Although overcoming sleep problems may not happen overnight, Dr Hickish says, "If you can come to realise that tinnitus needn’t have a big impact on your life, it does become easier not to worry about it."
Click on the following link for details of a breathing exercise suggested by our advisor Dr Danuta Orlowska:
