You first notice the sound when you’re lying in bed attempting to sleep: a pulsing or perhaps a throbbing, possibly a whooshing, right in your ear. The sound is beating in rhythm 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’ve got a big day tomorrow. And suddenly you feel really anxious, not very sleepy.
Does this sound familiar? Turns out, tinnitus, anxiety, and sleep are closely associated. And you can see how tinnitus and anxiety could easily conspire to generate a vicious cycle, one that deprives you of your sleep, your rest, and can impact your health.
Can tinnitus be caused by anxiety?
In general, ringing in the ears is the definition of tinnitus. But it’s a little more complicated than that. First of all, the actual noise you hear can take a large number of shapes, from pulsing to throbbing to ringing and so on. But the sound you’re hearing isn’t an actual outside sound. When people get stressed out, for many, tinnitus can manifest.
An anxiety disorder is an affliction in which feelings of fear, worry, or (as the name implies) anxiety are difficult to control and severe enough to hinder your daily life. Tinnitus is just one of several ways this can physically manifest. So can tinnitus be triggered by anxiety? Definitely!
Why is this tinnitus-anxiety combo bad?
This combination of anxiety and tinnitus is bad news for a couple of the following reasons:
- Tinnitus can frequently be the first sign of a more severe anxiety attack (or similar occurrence). Once you’ve made this association, any occurrence of tinnitus (whether related to anxiety or not) could cause a spike in your general anxiety levels.
- Most individuals tend to notice tinnitus more often at night. Can ringing in the ears be triggered by anxiety? Certainly, but it’s also possible that the ringing’s been there all day and your normal activities were simply loud enough to hide the sound. This can make it harder to get to sleep. And that sleeplessness can itself result in more anxiety.
Often, tinnitus can start in one ear and then move to the other. Sometimes, it can stick around 24/7–all day every day. There are other circumstances where it comes and goes. Whether constant or intermittent, this combination of anxiety and tinnitus can have health consequences.
How does tinnitus-anxiety affect your sleep?
So, yeah, anxiety-related tinnitus could definitely be contributing to your sleep issues. Here are a few examples of how:
- The sound of your tinnitus can stress you out and hard to ignore. If you’re laying there just trying 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 grow louder and even more difficult to ignore.
- Your stress level will continue to rise the longer you go without sleep. As your stress level rises your tinnitus will get worse.
- Most people like it to be quiet when they sleep. It’s nighttime, so you turn everything off. But when everything else is quiet, your tinnitus can be much more obvious.
When your tinnitus is due to anxiety, you might fear an anxiety attack is coming as soon as you hear that whooshing sound. This can, obviously, make it very difficult to sleep. The issue is that lack of sleep, well, kind of makes everything worse.
Health impacts of lack of sleep
The effect insomnia has on your health will continue to become more profound as this vicious cycle continues. And this can really have a negative impact on your wellness. Some of the most common effects include the following:
- Higher risk of cardiovascular disease: Over time, lack of sleep can begin to impact your long-term health and wellness. Increased danger of a stroke or heart disease can be the outcome.
- Poor work results: Obviously, your job performance will suffer if you can’t get a sound night’s sleep. You won’t be as enthusiastic or be able to think on your feet as quickly.
- Slower reaction times: When you aren’t getting enough sleep, your reaction times are more lethargic. Driving and other daily activities will then be more dangerous. And if, for example, you run heavy machinery, it can be particularly dangerous.
- Increased stress and worry: When you’re not sleeping, it makes those anxiety symptoms you already have even worse. This can become a vicious cycle of mental health-related symptoms.
Other causes of anxiety
Of course, there are other causes of anxiety besides tinnitus. It’s essential to recognize what these causes are so you can stay away from stress triggers and maybe reduce your tinnitus at the same time. Here are some of the most common causes of anxiety:
- Hyperstimulation: For some individuals, getting too much of any one thing, even a good thing, can result in an anxiety attack. Being in a crowded environment, for example, can cause some people to have an anxiety response.
- Stress response: Our bodies will have a normal anxiety response when something stresses us. If you are being chased by a wild animal, that’s great. But it’s less good when you’re dealing with an assignment for work. Sometimes, the connection between the two isn’t apparent. You could have an anxiety attack today from something that caused a stress response last week. Even a stressor from last year can trigger an anxiety attack now.
- Medical conditions: You may, in some situations, have a heightened anxiety response due to a medical condition.
Other causes: Some of the following, less common factors may also trigger anxiety:
- Certain recreational drugs
- Stimulant usage (that includes caffeine)
- Exhaustion and sleep deprivation (see the vicious cycle once again)
- Poor nutrition
This isn’t an all-inclusive list. And if you suspect you have an anxiety disorder, you should consult your provider about treatment options.
How to fix your anxiety-related tinnitus?
You have two general choices to manage anxiety-related tinnitus. The anxiety can be addressed or the tinnitus can be addressed. In either situation, here’s how that may work:
Addressing anxiety
There are a couple of options for treating anxiety:
- Medication: Medications might be used, in other circumstances, to make anxiety symptoms less prevalent.
- Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT): Certain thought patterns can inadvertently exacerbate your anxiety symptoms and this strategy will help you identify those thought patterns. Patients are able to better prevent anxiety attacks by interrupting those thought patterns.
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:
- White noise machine: When you’re trying to sleep, utilize a white noise machine. Your tinnitus symptoms might be able to be masked by this approach.
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): When you have tinnitus, CBT techniques can help you create new thought patterns that accept, acknowledge, and decrease your tinnitus symptoms.
- Masking device: Think of this as a white noise machine you wear beside your ears. This can help minimize how much you notice your tinnitus.
You may get better sleep by addressing your tinnitus
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 solution is to focus on fixing your tinnitus first. To do that, you should give us a call.
