Soft ear ringing in a very quiet soundproof room - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnor 

Tinnitus is a sound your brain creates too. It's level can be so low that you can only hear it in very silent rooms.

And of course, if suddenly all you can hear is this ringing and therefore concentrate on it ...

I think I have tinnitus, but after reading this thread I'm not sure. My room is 100% silent at night and I hear ringing. When I plug my ears the ringing continues. I used to listen to insane volume levels (it was a result of your typical metal MOAR LOUDER, and a lack of knowledge on hearing loss). My hearing is sill really detailed, so I'm not sure if this is the case.

Same here bob, but mine was triggered by a cold. Most of the time I don't even notice it, just in very quiet places. Doc said ignore it, I'm fine with that heh.

Afaik it is tinnitus and produced by the brain for reasons unknown. It's always there but you don't notice it at everyday work.

Oh by the way, to high sensitivity (e.g. as a result of using ear plugs to fall asleep etc.) can be the cause too. 

Well, yes - tinnitus is a brain-induced symptom of a condition, and can arise from various things. I should have specified that I was referring to tinnitus as a result of noise-induced hearing loss, when there is damage to the stereocilia, the hair cells that ultimately transform the physical waves of sound into signals to the brain.

So what I was wondering is, if a person with absolutely no hearing loss or other damage to the outer or inner ear was to be deprived of outer audio stimuli, would the brain then create tinnitus as some sort of response to this? Or does everybody have a low level of tinnitus that is masked by everyday sounds?

Quote:

Well I also notice this slightly in VERY silent rooms but it doesn't sound like tinnitus as I've been quite careful with volume but I think it's more what explained that the brain is accustomised to hearing some noise and tries making up for it. I'm a comp hardware nerd and I've slept next to my comp with it running day and night for MAAAANY years (10~12 years maybe) so my ears rarely get a completely silent environment and I think this is the reason I might "think" I'm hearing something in a silent room, yea it's more like "imaginary" noise than actual noise in my case as it depends how much I focus on it etc and can't or can barely notice it at all if I don't focus on trying to hear anything.

Thank goodness for this thread!  Before joining head-fi, I always noticed that when it was quite, at times I registered a ringing noise, but thought nothing of it.

Then I joined head-fi and came across this word "tinnitus" for which I paid no attention to as I had no idea what it meant and the term sounded like defective hearing for which I never suspected that I had...then I read about hearing ringing in silence and this was the meaning of tinnitus...

Then I heard this ringing more, sometimes very loudly, more than usual...even though my listening habits have always been the same.  Still the paranoia persists and I was ready to accept that I have a "tinnitus".

I'm pretty sure tonight I will be cured, and these noises won't bother me the slightest no more.  Thank goodness for that.

Some tinnitus is thought to come from the nerve cells in your inner ear going into oscillation and not just noise that your brain is making up itself.