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wikiHow to Sleep with Tinnitus

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Tinnitus is the perception of sound within the human ear when no actual sound is present. These could be sounds such as ringing, humming, buzzing, roaring, static and a wide range of other possible noises. Falling asleep with Tinnitus can be difficult since you have a noise inside your head, so in this article you can find some methods that will hopefully improve your sleep.


  1. 1
    Clear your mind before going to bed. Since tinnitus may trouble your sleep, you certainly don't want to have more troubling things or thoughts on your mind.
  2. 2
    Think about something or someone you like and focus on that as hard as you can. This could be anything or anyone as long as you enjoy thinking about it or them. Create a story and consider visualizing it all, because that will definitely help you focus even more. See it or them as important as it is to breathe. And remember, it can be anything.
  3. 3
    Avoid "The Loop." Rule number one for those with tinnitus is to not start The Loop. The Loop is a vicious circle that works with the following two mechanisms:
    • If you start thinking about your tinnitus you should immediately focus on something else, or else you start the loop and make your tinnitus louder.
  4. 4
    Get out of the Loop if you're in it. At this point you must do whatever it takes to focus on something else. Read a book, watch a movie, do anything that keeps you from staying inside The Loop.
    • Keep telling yourself: "If I let myself focus on my tinnitus, it will just get louder and even harder to ignore." The Loop is something you should always keep in mind not to start.
    • The Loop will be significantly worse if you are in a silent room (like when you go to sleep) so it's even more important not to start the Loop then.
  5. 5
    Try masking the noise from your tinnitus. Noise masking means having another noise like any type of white noise or something like a fan, a TV, or a white noise website to cover up your tinnitus.
    • Online, you can find a bunch of customizable noise generators for sounds such as wind, a waterfall, fire, rain, static and a ton of other generators. These are made for noise masking, and the best part about them is all the customization you have available to create for each noise (and you can even save them!).
  6. 6
    Keep thinking about something else until you fall asleep. Ignore any irrelevant images or thoughts that appear in your mind, as those will only make you lose your focus. Same thing goes for The Loop if you happen to start thinking about your tinnitus.

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  • A loud ticking clock in your room allows you to easily focus on the tick-tock instead of your tinnitus. Counting tick-tocks is a good way to fall-asleep.
  • If you cannot help but pay attention to your tinnitus and its beginning to stress you out, try thinking of your tinnitus coming from an actual device in the room.


  • When noise masking, remember that if your goal is to reduce your emotional response to tinnitus, the tinnitus should still be partially audible over the masking noise. Otherwise you aren't really training your brain to ignore it.

Article Info

Categories: Better Sleeping | Health

In other languages:

Português: Dormir com Zumbidos, Italiano: Dormire con l'Acufene, Español: dormir con tinnitus

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