What Causes Tinnitus to Come and Go?

Why does tinnitus come and go? It is common for tinnitus to come in waves, with some days when the symptoms are less noticeable and others when tinnitus spikes and becomes a huge distraction. There are numerous reasons, including stress levels, the environment around you, and the health of your ears.

We’d always suggest booking a hearing test and ear health check with one of our audiologists if you find that sometimes tinnitus appears to be a mild hissing, and the next materialises as a roar that makes it impossible to go about your daily tasks.

That is because understanding the underlying cause, such as age-related hearing impairments, trauma to the inner ear, a build-up of earwax, or another condition, can help us determine the root of the problem and thus recommend the best solutions.

Key Takeaways:

• Tinnitus symptoms commonly vary and can mean that the symptoms are minimal and almost silent on occasion. On others, they might spike and cause serious distractions and disruptions to your routine.
• The key is to try to determine the cause of your symptoms to uncover the right personalised treatment plan – rather than attempting to mask the tinnitus sounds on bad days.
• Finding out the underlying cause, such as an earwax blockage or infection, enables us to tackle tinnitus more effectively.

Understanding Why Tinnitus Can Vary in Intensity Between Days

It often feels like a mystery: you could wake up feeling refreshed and invigorated, with little to no tinnitus symptoms, but a day later, be unable to sleep or relax due to an insistent and increasingly loud humming, ringing or buzzing in your ear.

Let’s have a look at some of the triggers that are often responsible for exacerbated tinnitus symptoms, even if your tinnitus was less intense the day before.

Exposure to Loud Noises

Attending a concert, hearing fireworks or playing music very loudly can aggravate your tinnitus, which means hearing protection is essential if you anticipate being in an environment with elevated noise levels.

However, some lower-level and continuous noises can also trigger tinnitus, such as drills or other power tools, the monotonous sound of a washing machine, listening to music through headphones, or having a lawnmower running for an hour or so.

Related reading: Tinnitus caused by loud noises: will my hearing recover?

Changes to Air Pressure

Most of us experience our ears popping when we fly, and this sensation can make tinnitus symptoms worse since air pressure impacts the functions within our inner ears. Although extreme changes in air repressure are less common in other circumstances, they might occur if, for instance, thunderstorms are forecast.

Chewing gum and using ear protection can help, although sinus pressure due to seasonal allergies can also exacerbate tinnitus and is normally better treated with medications.

Related reading: How to protect your hearing when flying

Side Effects of Medications

Some people react badly to certain medications or a specific ingredient within a medicine. These can include everyday medicines like ibuprofen and aspirin alongside stronger prescription-only drugs.

If this happens, you may need to consult your GP, who should be able to recommend an alternative that is not ototoxic – which means it doesn’t have any effect on your ears and hearing.

What do our audilogists say?

Tinnitus can often feel like a mystery, fluctuating between barely noticeable and overwhelmingly loud. It’s crucial to identify the underlying causes, such as earwax buildup, exposure to loud noises, or stress, to manage and reduce the symptoms effectively. Understanding these triggers allows us to create personalised treatment plans that can significantly improve daily life for those affected by tinnitus.” – Lee Fletcher, Audiologist at Regain Hearing Clinic

Other Potential Causes That Mean Tinnitus Comes and Goes

There may be no attributable cause or event that has contributed to your tinnitus spike or flare-up, which makes it more likely that the issue is linked to:

• Lack of sleep
• Migraine headaches
• Earwax build-ups
• Increased stress
• Damage to your ear – particularly if your tinnitus worsens in one ear

It’s also possible that you have an infection within your ear or in both, which is causing your tinnitus to worsen. However, it is more likely that your tinnitus will become more intense gradually rather than coming and going intermittently.

It is important to note that, in some scenarios, there is no clear reason your tinnitus comes and goes, no particular events or issues that have triggered a spike in tinnitus or underlying infection, damage or earwax blockage that is responsible.

There are uncommon circumstances where tinnitus seems to spontaneously resolve itself, which usually points to stress-related tinnitus, which improves dramatically when stress levels fall.

Looking at all of these potential causes or factors can help our audiologists understand why your tinnitus is coming and going and provide the right treatment solutions. This can help reduce the impacts of tinnitus, manage the symptoms, and ensure that you begin the process of eliminating tinnitus altogether.

Related Reading

• Why is my tinnitus worse when laying down?
• Why is my tinnitus worse in the morning?
• Why is my tinnitus getting louder? 

How to Manage Tinnitus on Days When Your Symptoms Are Worse

There are no definitive cures for tinnitus that are guaranteed to be effective for every person, partially because there are countless possible conditions, reasons, and lifestyle factors that can make your tinnitus better or worse on certain days.

However, our ground-breaking tinnitus therapy has proven to be enormously effective, with some clients seeing a drastic change in their experiences and perception of tinnitus in one treatment.

In the meantime, you can also try some of these options to try and reduce the severity of your tinnitus:

• Using hearing aids or ear protection can reduce exposure to louder sounds and protect your hearing, avoiding any further damage that could contribute to hearing loss.
• Playing background music or a white noise machine at night can help your brain concentrate on an alternative sound—this is also called tinnitus masking.

You can also try to prevent spikes in tinnitus by being conscious of your environment, such as taking regular breaks if listening to music or watching TV and avoiding settings where there is a good chance of very loud or continuous noises.

Learn More About Personalised Tinnitus Therapy From Regain Hearing

Our innovative tinnitus therapy approach is based on years of intensive research and real-world audiology experience. We recognise that tinnitus can be persistent and problematic and worsen stress or fatigue linked to anxiety or disrupted sleep.

It is always worth seeing an audiologist who will inspect your ears, test and evaluate your hearing, and map the noises generated by your tinnitus to decide on the right treatments and therapies to offer relief.

If you are struggling with tinnitus, concerned about why your symptoms seem to come and go, or want to find out once and for all why you are experiencing tinnitus, please get in touch at any time.