Are my Sleep Problems and my Tinnitus Caused by Anxiety?

Woman can't sleep at night because she's suffering from tinnitus and anxiety

You first hear the sound when you’re lying in bed attempting to sleep: Your ear has a whooshing or throbbing in it. The sound is pulsing in rhythm with your heartbeat. And once you notice that sound, you can’t tune it out. You have a big day tomorrow and you really need your sleep so this is bad. And all of a sudden you feel really anxious, not very 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 deprives you of your sleep, your rest, and can affect your health.

Can anxiety trigger tinnitus?

Tinnitus is generally defined as a ringing in the ears. But it’s not as simple as that. Firstly, lots of different noises can manifest from a ringing, buzzing, or humming to a beating or whooshing. But the noise you’re hearing isn’t an actual outside sound. When people get stressed out, for many people, tinnitus can manifest.

An anxiety disorder is an affliction where feelings of dread, worry, or (as the name implies) anxiety are difficult to control and intense enough to hinder your daily life. This can materialize in many ways physically, including as tinnitus. So can tinnitus be caused by anxiety? Certainly!

What’s bad about this combination of anxiety and tinnitus?

This combo of anxiety and tinnitus is bad news for a couple of the following reasons:

  • Most individuals tend to experience tinnitus more often at night. Can ringing in the ears be triggered by anxiety? Yes, but the ringing may have also been there during the day but your day-to-day activities simply masked the symptoms. This can make getting to sleep a little tricky. And that insomnia can itself cause more anxiety.
  • You might be having a more serious anxiety attack if you begin to spike tinnitus symptoms. Once you’ve recognized the link between anxiety and tinnitus, any time you detect tinnitus symptoms your anxiety could rise.

There are instances where tinnitus can start in one ear and at some point move to both. There are some cases where tinnitus is constant day and night. In other situations, it might pulsate for a few moments and then go away. Either way, this anxiety-tinnitus-combo can present some negative impacts on your health.

How does tinnitus-anxiety impact your sleep?

So, yeah, anxiety-driven tinnitus could definitely be contributing to your sleep troubles. Here are a few examples of how:

  • Most people like it to be quiet when they sleep. You turn everything off because it’s bedtime. But when everything else is quiet, your tinnitus can be much more obvious.
  • Your stress level will keep rising the longer you go without sleeping. The more stressed you are, the worse your tinnitus will tend to become.
  • It can be hard to disregard your tinnitus and that can be extremely stressful. In the quiet of the night, your tinnitus can be so persistent that you lie awake until morning. Your tinnitus can get even louder and harder to tune out as your anxiety about not sleeping increases.

When your anxiety is causing your tinnitus, you may hear that whooshing sound and worry that an anxiety attack is coming. This can, understandably, make it very hard to sleep. The problem is that lack of sleep, well, sort of makes everything worse.

How lack of sleep affects your health

The effect 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. Some of the most common impacts include the following:

  • Inferior work performance: It should come as no surprise that if you can’t sleep, your job performance will become affected. You won’t be as eager or be able to think on your feet as quickly.
  • Increased stress and worry: The anxiety symptoms already present will worsen if you don’t sleep. This can result in a vicious cycle of mental health-related issues.
  • Reduced reaction times: When you aren’t getting adequate sleep, your reaction times are more lethargic. This can make daily activities like driving a little more dangerous. And it’s especially hazardous if you run heavy machinery, for example.
  • Increased risk of cardiovascular disease: Over time, lack of sleep can start to impact your long-term health and wellness. You could find yourself at an increased risk of heart disease or stroke.

Other causes of anxiety

Tinnitus, of course, is not the only cause of anxiety. It’s important 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: When something causes us great stress, our bodies will naturally go into an anxious mode. That’s great if you’re being chased by a tiger. But it’s less good when you’re dealing with an assignment for work. Often, it’s not so clear what the link between the two is. You could have an anxiety attack today from something that caused a stress response a week ago. You may even have an anxiety attack in reaction to a stressor from last year, for example.
  • Medical conditions: You might, in some cases, have an elevated anxiety response because of a medical condition.
  • Hyperstimulation: An anxiety attack can take place when somebody gets overstimulated with too much of any one thing. For instance, being around crowds can sometimes cause an anxiety response for some people.

Other factors: Some of the following, less common factors might also cause anxiety:

  • Exhaustion and sleep deprivation (see the vicious cycle once again)
  • Lack of nutrition
  • Stimulant usage (including caffeine)
  • Some recreational drugs

This isn’t an all-inclusive list. And you should talk to your provider if you think you have an anxiety disorder.

Treating anxiety-induced tinnitus

When it comes to anxiety-related tinnitus, there are two general options at hand. You can either try to treat the anxiety or treat the tinnitus. Here’s how that might work in either circumstance:

Addressing anxiety

There are a couple of options for treating anxiety:

  • Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT): This therapeutic strategy will help you identify thought patterns that can unintentionally worsen your anxiety symptoms. By interrupting these thought patterns, patients are able to more effectively prevent anxiety attacks.
  • Medication: In some cases, medication may help you deal with your symptoms or make your symptoms less pronounced.

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:

  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): If somebody with tinnitus can acknowledge and accept their tinnitus symptoms they can reduce the disruptive effect it has. CBT is a method that helps them do that by helping them produce new thought patterns.
  • Masking device: This is basically a white noise machine that you wear near your ear. This can help minimize how much you notice your tinnitus.
  • 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 may help you sleep better

As long as that thrumming or whooshing is keeping you up at night, you’ll be in danger of falling into one of these vicious cycles, fueled by anxiety and tinnitus. Managing your tinnitus first is one possible option. To do that, you should give us a call.

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.