You first hear the sound when you’re lying in bed trying to sleep: Your ear has a whooshing or throbbing in it. The sound is pulsing at the same rhythm as your heartbeat. And no matter how hard you try, you can’t tune it out. You have a lot to do tomorrow and you really need your sleep so this is not good. And all of a sudden you feel really anxious, very not sleepy.
Does this situation sound familiar? Turns out, tinnitus, anxiety, and sleep are closely associated. And you can see how tinnitus and anxiety could easily conspire to create a vicious cycle, one that robs you of your sleep, your rest, and can impact your health.
Can anxiety cause tinnitus?
In general, ringing in the ears is the definition of tinnitus. But it’s a little more complex than that. First of all, the actual sound you hear can take a wide variety of shapes, from pulsation to throbbing to ringing and so on. But the sound you’re hearing isn’t an actual external sound. When people get stressed out, for many, tinnitus can appear.
For individuals who experience feelings of fear or worry and anxiety, these feelings frequently interfere with their life because they have trouble managing them. Tinnitus is only one of the many ways this can physically materialize. So can anxiety cause tinnitus? Absolutely!
Why is this tinnitus-anxiety combo bad?
This combo of anxiety and tinnitus is bad news for a couple of the following reasons:
- Tinnitus can often be the first indication of a more severe anxiety attack (or similar episode). Once you’ve made this association, any episode of tinnitus (whether related to anxiety or not) could cause a spike in your general anxiety levels.
- Normally, nighttime is when most people really notice their tinnitus symptoms. Can anxiety cause ringing in the ear? Yes, but the ringing might have also been there during the day but your everyday activities simply covered up the symptoms. This can make falling asleep a little tricky. And that insomnia can itself cause more anxiety.
There are instances where tinnitus can manifest in one ear and at some point move to both. There are some cases where tinnitus is continuous day and night. There are other situations where it comes and goes. Whether continuous or intermittent, this combination of anxiety and tinnitus can have health consequences.
How does tinnitus-anxiety affect your sleep?
So, yes, anxiety-driven tinnitus could definitely be contributing to your sleep problems. Here are a few examples of how:
- The longer you go without sleep, the easier it is for you to become stressed. As your stress level rises your tinnitus will get worse.
- It can be difficult to ignore your tinnitus and that can be very 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 grows, the sound of the tinnitus symptoms can get louder and even harder to ignore.
- Most individuals like it to be quiet when they sleep. It’s night, so you turn everything off. But when everything else is silent, your tinnitus can become much more obvious.
When your tinnitus is caused by anxiety, you might worry that an anxiety attack is coming as soon as you hear that whooshing noise. It’s not surprising that you’re having trouble sleeping. But lack of sleep results in all kinds of problems.
Health impacts of lack of sleep
As this vicious cycle keeps going, the health affects of insomnia will become much more severe. And this can really have a detrimental impact on your wellness. Some of the most common effects include the following:
- Elevated stress and worry: The anxiety symptoms already present will worsen if you don’t sleep. This can become a vicious cycle of mental health-related problems.
- Inferior work performance: Obviously, your job performance will diminish if you can’t get a sound night’s sleep. Your thinking will be sluggish and your mood will be less positive.
- Increased risk of cardiovascular disease: Your long term health and wellness will be affected over time by lack of sleep. You could find yourself at a higher risk of heart disease or stroke.
- Slower reaction times: When you aren’t getting sufficient sleep, your reaction times are more sluggish. This can make daily activities such as driving a little more dangerous. And if, for example, you run heavy machinery, it can be particularly dangerous.
Other causes of anxiety
Tinnitus, of course, isn’t the only source of anxiety. And understanding these causes is important (mostly because they will help you avoid anxiety triggers, which as an additional bonus will help you decrease your tinnitus symptoms). Here are some of the most common causes of anxiety:
- Stress response: Our bodies will have a normal anxiety response when something causes us stress. If you are being chased by a wild animal, that’s great. But when you’re working on a project at work, that’s not so great. oftentimes, the connection between the two isn’t obvious. Something that caused a stress response a week ago could cause an anxiety attack today. You might even have an anxiety attack in response to a stressor from a year ago, for instance.
- Medical conditions: In some situations, you might simply have a medical condition that makes you more susceptible to a heightened anxiety response.
- 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 attack.
Other factors: Less frequently, anxiety disorders could be caused by some of the following factors:
- Stimulant usage (that includes caffeine)
- Exhaustion and sleep deprivation (see the vicious cycle once again)
- Certain recreational drugs
- Lack of nutrition
This isn’t an all-inclusive list. And if you think you have an anxiety disorder, you should consult your provider about treatment options.
Dealing with anxiety-induced tinnitus
You have two general options to manage anxiety-related tinnitus. The anxiety can be addressed or the tinnitus can be addressed. Here’s how that might work in either circumstance:
Treating anxiety
Generally speaking, anxiety disorders are treated in one of two ways:
- Medication: Medications may be used, in other circumstances, to make anxiety symptoms less prevalent.
- Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT): Certain thought patterns can inadvertently worsen your anxiety symptoms and this strategy will help you recognize those thought patterns. By interrupting these thought patterns, patients are able to more successfully prevent anxiety attacks.
Treating tinnitus
There are a variety of ways to treat tinnitus and this is especially true if symptoms manifest primarily at night. Some of the most common treatments include:
- Masking device: Think of this as a white noise machine you wear beside your ears. This can help reduce how much you notice your tinnitus.
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): If someone with tinnitus can acknowledge and accept their tinnitus symptoms they can minimize the disruptive effect it has. CBT is an approach that helps them do that by helping them produce new thought patterns.
- White noise machine: Use a white noise machine when you’re trying to sleep. This could help mask your tinnitus symptoms.
Dealing with your tinnitus could 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.