I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

I get a weird transient tinnitus where my hearing drops out in one ear or the other for about 15 seconds, and is replace by a tone, which slowly fades as my hearing comes back. It sometimes happens multiple times per day, and sometimes not for weeks at a time. I've seen a couple specialists about it, but no known cause.

I also notice a low-level tinnitus when I'm in very quiet places. I keep white noise machines around to cover it.

I have this too. My theory is the random "drops" are caused by the inner ear hairs attuned to that frequency get disturbed by something (like a shift in fluid) and overloading their respective nerves, similar to the afterimages that come from staring at a bright light.

The low level tinitus in a quiet room seems pretty normal to me, it's your brain looking for really quiet noises that are at the limit of what your ears can pick up. Or something, I'm no expert on it.

I have this. It’s pretty uncommon for me but happens every once in a while. I have heard it’s no big deal. My imagined explanation is that it is a muscle that spasms and temporarily blocks sound to the ear, but actually I have no idea.

I have permanent tinnitus and have this too, though it very rarely happens on its own. When it happens, for me, this sound is usually a signal to immediately change my posture when sitting in a chair.

When I reach flow, I tend to not notice until later that I'd now be sitting cross-legged, or that I've tucked one leg under myself.

That pressure tends to trigger the sound you describe after a while. I imagine because of bad blood circulation, though I have no idea why it's that sound signalling that for me.

I have the same thing, it feels like your ear is clogged with water, or when you shift in altitude, then like a high pitched sound for ten seconds and then everything is normal again. Every few months or so this sporadically happens.

Funny thing is every time I mentioned this IRL there's always someone who has experienced it too, like some sort of common mystery condition

This happens to me as well, I believe the official term for this is "Sudden Brief Unilateral Tapering Tinnitus". Seems like it is fairly common, and can occur regardless of whether one has tinnitus or not [0].

[0]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21970850/

Same with me. It usually happens when I've been reading in bed for long and I unconsciouly get in a bad posture (neck). Correcting it, doing some shoulder and neck light exercices help but I've never associated it with pressure caused by lower body, mainly legs. Which it might as it also happens when I'm cross legged (and somewhat torso twisted) at the computer desk for too long.

I got this after chemo. It hasn't gone away and probably never will, but it's not so bad. Unfortunately I lost a lot of hearing, too. Turns out platinum is quite bad for the ears.

Perhaps consider seeing an upper-cervical (Blair) chiropractor. I know I'm probably going to get dog-piled for mentioning the word since so many people think it's nonsense... a lot of the practices are, but the Blair system is very effective.

My girlfriend at the time told me I needed to try this "new pillow that's the best." I woke up with a kink in my neck and an ear that was screaming at me (2300 Hz for those masochists that want to know what it sounded like).

Took around four years to track it down and get it mostly solved.

The screaming is gone most of the time now, but occasionally I'll move a certain way and it will suddenly come back. A firm press with my thumb in a particular spot on the back/side of my neck for a few seconds will be enough to get it to go away.

I've had this for as long as I can remember. I have distinct memories from being maybe toddler-aged and having this. I've found that the Valsalva maneuver can make it fade away faster, as can placing your palm over your ear and squeezing it to pump air around. Always figured it was something to do with the pressure in my ear.

> I have this too. My theory is the random "drops" are caused by the inner ear hairs attuned to that frequency get disturbed by something (like a shift in fluid) and overloading their respective nerves, similar to the afterimages that come from staring at a bright light.

Interesting theory. Yeah, for me, it often happens when I'm sitting still working. I have never noticed it in response to sound. But, yeah, I can imagine it being some innocuous physical thing in the fluid.

> The low level tinitus in a quiet room seems pretty normal to me, it's your brain looking for really quiet noises that are at the limit of what your ears can pick up. Or something, I'm no expert on it.

Yeah, might be somewhat like the hum when the gain is turned up on a guitar amp and nothing's playing. Basically just amplifying the noise floor. I'm not sure if it's true tinnitus, or just my brain filling in for the white noise I normally have in the background.

Oh wow, I have tried to research it, but never came across the name. This is exactly it. The neurologist (who I saw for a cluster of similarly petty symptoms) and the ENT I've seen about it didn't provide that term for me.

Same here. Some days are worse than others. Like some of the other comments, I notice it most when tired or stressed. But it is constant. Chemo also gave me optical migraines, that show up most along with the increased tinnitus. Glad you're still here!