10 ms·
1920 Hz in my case. I had tinnitus after I got rear-ended at a stop light. Decades later, it still recurs once in a blue moon, lasts for a mere 10-15 seconds th
by twangist 3y ago
1920 Hz in my case. I had tinnitus after I got rear-ended at a stop light. Decades later, it still recurs once in a blue moon, lasts for a mere 10-15 seconds then vanishes when I tell myself repeatedly "nothing is playing 1920 Hz".
- disantlor 3y agoI can relate to the last bit; I sometimes have (or notice) tinnitus when going to bed. I try to think about what frequency it is exactly and it seems like the direction attention to it causes it to go away (or at least get much more quiet)
- lisper 3y ago> 1920 Hz in my case How do you measure that?
- kadoban 3y agoYou can just use a program that plays adjustable frequencies and shift it up/down until it matches.
- lisper 3y agoAh. My tinnitus frequency is higher than anything I can actually hear so that doesn't work for me.
- kadoban 3y agoOh wow, I did not consider that, interesting.
- idontwantthis 3y agoHow do you have tinnitus if you can’t hear it?
- eru 3y agoHearing tinnitus seems to work according to different rules than hearing outside sounds for lisper. Since tinnitus uses different mechanics and pathways, that seems plausible. For comparison, think of a recently blinded person still dreaming visually. Or think of phantom pain.
- pastaguy1 3y agoThey can hear the tinnitus, but not real sounds at that freq. IANAD, is there any kind of "gain correction" theory for tinnitus? ie, the brain notices your ear can't hear this frequency very well, so it pumps up the volume ... maybe too much. That would fit this data point, at least. Weirdly, maybe not so different than when a hearing aid starts ringing.
- wizzwizz4 3y ago> ie, the brain notices your ear can't hear this frequency very well, so it pumps up the volume I've heard this theory. Apparently weak stimulation of the nerves prevents some people's tinnitus.
- Ankaios 3y agoYou could have tinnitus at a frequency you can't hear if the tinnitus arises downstream of auditory issues that reduce hearing sensitivity. For instance, if someone couldn't hear a certain frequency because the corresponding hair cells in their ears were damaged, they could still have tinnitus at that frequency arising from parts of the brain that process that frequency.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- edgyquant 3y agoMine starts as a high pitch and then I can’t hear anything out of that ear for a good 10 seconds.
- LeifCarrotson 3y ago
- dehrmann 3y agoCan you match it to half or a quarter of the frequency?
- dalmo3 3y agoNot OP, but same problem. Interesting suggestion!
- kadoban 3y agoIs there some kind of resonance or something that happens at half/quarter that lets you identify it? I experimented real quick and wasn't able to do a great job estimating half of a frequency from playing with the slider on the lower one. Wasn't _totally_ off, but nothing magical seemed to happen when I got to half.
- adzm 3y agoYou can actually hear the beat frequencies like tuning a guitar. So intervals like the fifth or an octave are definitely 'in tune' when you try it. Interestingly if you play a pure sine in each ear with one slightly detuned, your brain will also hear the beat frequencies as if the waves were interfering despite each ear getting separate pure signals! There was even an open source program Gnaural for experimenting with this effect - binaural beats.
- dahart 3y agoI can’t hear a beat frequency against my tinnitus tones, and I really wish I could. (I’ve tuned my guitar with beat frequencies for decades.) The tinnitus tones are very elusive when I try to pin them down with a sine wave, but I can get close by alternating a sine wave on and off while I vary the frequency... the memory of the tone from a second ago has been more reliable than trying to hear if they’re close when overlapping.
- jacurtis 3y agoHow can you hear something that you can not hear? I'm not trying to be facetious, genuinely curious.
- DougWebb 3y agoHearing loss is a physical problem. Tinnitus, often, is a signaling problem. The signal can represent a sound that the physical sensors can't produce anymore.
- dahart 3y agoIt’s two different sources, and a subjective tinnitus source is perceived but not “heard”, if that makes sense. You might be able to experience something perhaps similar: many people can hear much higher frequencies when the speaker is in contact with their skull than through the air.
- lisper 3y agoIt's a fair question, and it's hard to describe. What I perceive is a very high pitched pure sine wave. When I take a hearing test, my ability to hear real tones drops off long before I can hear anything approaching the pitch that I perceive. Does that make sense?
- Fauntleroy 3y agoYou're not actually "hearing" anything. For one, the sound (usually) does not actually exist. In many cases it's more like an inappropriate signal from a damaged nerve or some of the teeny tiny "hairs" within the ear that sense sounds.
- tonymillion 3y agoI have something similar - or rather I thought I did. An incredibly high frequency sine wave noise almost inside my head. I remembered when I was younger (a long time ago - early 80s) that I used to be able to “hear” when a computer CRT was on in my school computer room (uk, so BBC micro, with the standard monitor). Ultimately I figured out I could hear the switching frequency of poorly designed / made power transformers. specifically 110/220v to 5v or 12v transformers and cheap USB outlets. I spent a day up close and personal around all my power outlets and now my head is clear of that super-sonic ultra high frequency nightmare.
- lisper 3y agoWell, this is interesting. I was going to respond: I hear it even when I'm outdoors so it can't be transformers. However, then I decided to check if my phone could hear it, so I fired up my DB Meter app. And funnily enough, there is a little spike right around 12kHz, which seems to be right around where my tone is. It's not a huge spike, but it's definitely there. Weird.
- wizzwizz4 3y agoIs the sound from your phone?
- lisper 3y agoIt's possible that the spike shown on my phone is some kind of artifact. I'll need to get another device with a DB Meter app to verify. But proximity to my phone doesn't affect my perception. I can hear it even when I'm outdoors without my phone with me.
- ForestCritter 3y agoI started getting tinnitus shortly before moving from upstate NY. They were in the process of plastering the town with 5g every block or so. Since I've moved to rural MO in an area where even Verizon drops calls it is completely gone. Gotta wonder...
- mock-possum 3y agoThat… doesn’t really make any sense to me. Tinnitus is a ringing - call it a thin buzz, a whine, a whistle, but it’s a tone isn’t it? How could you not tell whether you were matching the pitch?
- lisper 3y agoBecause I can't actually hear that frequency. If I play sine waves through ear buds and increase the frequency, the highest pitch I can hear through the earphones is lower than the pitch I "hear" through the tinnitus.
- pyinstallwoes 3y agoAbout how much higher do you think it is if you followed the curve?
- lisper 3y agoAFAICT, my hearing tops off at about 8kHz and the tone is a major fifth above that, i.e. 12kHz.
- pyinstallwoes 3y agoQuite interesting in terms of the mathematics and physicality of the harmonics. Thanks for answering.
- rajsandhu 3y agohttps://onlinetonegenerator.com/ https://onlinetonegenerator.com/ simply does what it says, and tells you the frequency, while this one, https://www.tinnitracks.com/en/matching# https://www.tinnitracks.com/en/matching# gives you a test that takes a few minutes, which I found worth the time.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- yc-kraln 3y agoReally sorry to hear that. When I worked for Daimler, I was surprised to learn that all of their cars ship with something called "PRE-SAFE Sound" which, when it detects that you might be in a crash (i.e. at the point when the seatbelts are pre-tensioned), it plays a loud-ish burst of white noise through all the speakers, triggering your ears' automatic response which disconnects your ear drums. This means that when the actual (very loud!) crash happens, your hearing is saved. They developed this in the 90s when, after the advent of airbags, they saw that most injuries from moderate car crashes were hearing related. (Here's a video with some cool detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTmLYY-Z2rc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTmLYY-Z2rc) I always thought it was a huge shame that 1) this technology isn't required/mandated for all cars and 2) Mercedes doesn't advertise this more
- kloch 3y agoThe crash itself isn't usually that loud but airbag deployment can be 170 db which is very dangerous to hearing.
- walterbell 3y agoCould a phone accelerometer achieve comparable detection response and play a warning sound?
- qball 3y ago>This means that when the actual (very loud!) crash happens, your hearing is saved. The loud part is not the crash itself, but the airbag deployment; it's as loud as a rifle shot because, fundamentally, it is a rifle shot. That's bad in open air; it's way worse in a confined space where that pressure is going to persist for a much longer period of time. The combustion gas needs to fill the airbag coincident with your face being mashed into it at high speed, and mechanical suppressors slow down the gas so that won't work; using the acoustic reflex (as Daimler clearly does) to get that extra 15 dB of protection means the difference between maximum safe exposure and permanent damage. I'm surprised that this sound doesn't start playing right before the similarly-explosive pretensioners are fired, since they're also pretty loud, but perhaps they figure it's part of the way to prompt the reflex.
- 3y ago
- mderazon 3y agoI have something similar. I got mine after my first COVID infection. The infection was mild, but my sense of smell was gone for a week and i was left with a tinnitus
- jabits 3y agoSame with me. Did not know this happened with other
- somedude895 3y agoHuh, as I commented on the grandparent, I've also been getting it intermittently for very short durations each time. I also had the no-sense-of-smell-only Covid in 2021, but since the "tinnitus" thing really doesn't bother me much, I never thought much of it and can't say whether it started before or after my infection.
- somedude895 3y ago> Decades later, it still recurs once in a blue moon, lasts for a mere 10-15 seconds then vanishes Not trying to minimize your issue, but is it really still considered tinnitus at this point? I ask because I've been getting this regularly, probably on a weekly basis. It's not a big deal, because it also lasts for only 5-15 seconds or thereabouts, but I've never considered to actually call it tinnitus.
- taejo 3y agoAIUI tinnitus is the name of the symptom, not a specific disease, and it's still tinnitus whether it occurs occasionally, frequently, or constantly.
- bradknowles 3y agoMine is at 8900hz.