5 ms·
> It is an active process, which generates metabolites, some of which have been shown to be harmful to the inner ear. You probably want to have a period where t
by davidmurdoch 6y ago
> It is an active process, which generates metabolites, some of which have been shown to be harmful to the inner ear. You probably want to have a period where the auditory system can wind down, regenerate and prepare for the next wake period.
Something like 30% of people suffer from tinnitus. Falling asleep with a loud ringing is hard, and for those suffering it's not like we get an auditory break anyway.
I wonder, can others not hear their pulse through their pillow when in a dead quiet room? It's very annoying and I have to fall asleep on my back if a room is that quiet.
- graeme 6y ago> I wonder, can others not hear their pulse through their pillow when in a dead quiet room? That’s called pulsatile tinnitus. I used to hear silence, then after a jaw injury I started hearing my pulse and eventually ringing. But no normally you wouldn’t.
- davidmurdoch 6y agoTIL! My jaw is almost never relaxed, and I clench my teeth together when I sleep. Interesting correlation.
- hoka-one-one 6y agoYou're supposed to clench your teeth together when you sleep. What's the alternative? Hanging your mouth open?
- bookofjoe 6y agoThis company: https://jsdentallab.com/collections/guards https://jsdentallab.com/collections/guards makes pricey but very effective and comfortable mouthpieces for wearing at night while sleeping and/or during the day. They look exactly like the ones some NFL players use. I love mine. If I'd used one before discovering them three years ago at age 69, I wouldn't now be getting a mouthful of astronomically expensive ($6k apiece for extraction/bone graft/Ti screw placement/tooth) dental implants. My qualification: retired neurosurgical anesthesiologist
- graeme 6y agoOh. Take it from me, go see a dentist, and ask them to look for cracks in your teeth, and receding gums. If they do a panorex x ray they can also look for bone growth in your jaw. I clench, didn’t know about it for years and so didn’t have a mouth guard. Have a bunch of cracks in my molars now. My dentist always used to say these sort of cracks were the biggest problem in adult dentistry. The solution is to get a mouth guard. Bottom guard type seems preferable. This will prevent future cracks, protect your gums, and protect the jaw joint. Unfortunately it doesn’t solve the problem, but no one seems to have figured that out yet. You can also use a Sleepguard device to measure clenching activity. A bit clunky, but it has been very useful for me in figuring out triggers for worse clenching and confirming I do it. My clenching started after that same jaw injury, I think. Or wisdom teeth extraction. Someone else recommended off the shelf guards. I would suggest a custom splint from a dentist. If the splint is misaligned you can clench unevenly and cause jaw structure changes.
- davidmurdoch 6y agoThanks for the advice! I'll ask about this at my next appointment.
- graeme 6y agoOh and the word for this is Bruxism. Refers to both grinding and clenching. Clenching is often worse as it can stay hidden for a while.
- Kaibeezy 6y agoApparently this is suddenly a bigger issue during the pandemic. I’ll look for that article... https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/well/live/dentists-tooth-teeth-cracks-fractures-coronavirus-stress-grinding.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/well/live/dentists-tooth-...
- mdbauman 6y agoThank you, that's good to know. I always thought it was normal and people other than me just got used to the pulse noise.
- graeme 6y agoHuh, I hadn’t realized but apparently some of the causes can be trouble. If you or anyone reading this any possibility of cardiac issues (high blood pressure, clogged arteries), it would be worth mentioning at your next checkup. Mine was pretty clearly linked to an injury that eventually caused other tinnitus so I assumed the causes were similar. Note that per the link below pulsatile tinnitus can be quite benign, but is does have some causes worth excluding. https://www.healthline.com/health/pulsatile-tinnitus https://www.healthline.com/health/pulsatile-tinnitus
- barkingcat 6y agoof course, the easiest way to resolve both issues is to have a timer, or hook it up to one of those body motion sensors. Once the person has gone to sleep, turn off the noise generators, allowing 1) the person to fall asleep, and 2) after the systems have turned off, to allow regeneration without noise.
- mavsman 6y agoI've thought this for a very long time. Now that we have tiny technology that can check your heart rate and fit around your wrist or inside your ear canal, I'm not quite sure why this isn't a feature. It would be easy to implement but be a huge marketing draw.
- closeparen 6y agoI never needed the battery backups on my alarm clocks: in a power outage, the box fan would stop, waking me up instantly.
- dorkwood 6y agoI wonder if tinnitus itself also generates metabolites.