Sound Therapy to Manage Tinnitus

Sound therapy is the number one tool that we have to help address the distress of tinnitus. It helps patients cope with the distress of tinnitus.

Tinnitus is the umbrella term for any sounds that you hear in your ears or your head. It might be cicadas, crickets, ringing, buzzing, hissing, whooshing. All of those are different forms of tinnitus. 

Why use sound therapy?

Sound therapy is used for two main reasons. 

1. It provides your brain with positive experiences with sound. 
2. It allows you to have a sound that will compete with your tinnitus. 

It's a way of using sounds to help retrain the brain's response to the tinnitus to provide some long-term positive relief and control. 

What sound should I use?

The sound that you should use for sound therapy should really be personalized for you. It should be a sound that you find pleasant, soothing and relaxing and that makes you go, "Ah, that's nice." 

For a lot of patients, this means sounds of nature, calming sounds, soothing sounds. Sometimes it's white noise or a fan running in the room. 

Brown Noise to Manage Tinnitus

For those with sound sensitivity, brown noise tends to be one of the sounds that is preferred by most patients. This sound is more neutral, low frequency and tends to not have higher frequencies built into it. 

When should I use my sounds?

Basically anything that makes sound can be used for sound therapy. It's up to you to determine which sound works best and when you want to incorporate it in your day. 

So you should use your sounds whenever the tinnitus is most bothersome. We do recommend that you try to anticipate the situations where the tinnitus is particularly bothersome. If you know the tinnitus bothers you at a certain time of the day, try to put the sounds on in advance of that. 

How long should I use my sounds?

Two to four hours is the minimum time needed to help your brain to readjust to the tinnitus signal, so that you can begin to habituate to your tinnitus sound. If your tinnitus is more bothersome, you can use it more. There is no limit as how much you can use your tinnitus sounds, as long as you are finding benefit. 

How do I listen to my sounds? 

You can begin this at home right away. Most people will download sound apps onto their phone or tablets. You can listen to it through speakers or through headphones. If you're using earbuds, phone conduction headphones or hearing aids, you'll be able to stream your sound therapy right into to your ears — which tends to be preferred as most patients get more benefit from having their sounds at ear level. You should listen at a volume that you can easily have a conversation over, that you can hear over and other people can talk to you over as well. 

The idea is that you are not trying to completely cover up or mask your tinnitus as tinnitus is an internal sound, and in most cases, can't be covered up. But, we want to help you to find some relief from the distress of your tinnitus. 

It does take time for your brain to actually do the retraining that needs to happen, so if you stick with it and you keep listening to your sounds every day, we know research shows you will find relief. You just have to trust in the process.