Music and Moonlight...

As my Tinnitus was particularly loud last night, I listened to one of my favourite acoustic albums using my pillow speaker. I got the speaker from the RNID - it's about the size of the palm of my hand, and I plug it into my personal CD player which sits on the floor by the bed.

The speaker has been an absolute godsend for getting to sleep, especially when my Tinnitus is louder than normal, or I have an insistent ‘burst’ of noise that I need to distract myself from. Last night I managed to get to sleep after 5 or 6 songs, which is pretty good for me. Having my own music source means I don't disturb my husband, so I can relax without worrying about him getting to sleep.

I was told by a hearing therapist that the best music to listen to is instrumental, as you this stops you from listening for the words and singing along in your head. The idea is that you have the volume set at a level so you can still hear the Tinnitus, but your mind is distracted by another noise and your brain ‘forgets’ about the Tinnitus, in the same way that it forgets about the sound of the fridge or the air conditioning etc. The other option is to listen to nature’s sounds – but personally I’ve never been a fan of the sound of running water as a relaxing noise as it just has me running to the bathroom. So I’ll stick to what works for me.

Music is on almost 24 hours a day in our house – I grew up with my Dad’s trad jazz and Mozart on in the background, and I now switch on the radio or put a CD on whenever I walk into the house. One great side effect is that the children are growing up with a real love of music – from the Beatles to the Fratellis, via Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Abba, Sugar Babes, Boomtown Rats, Gomez, Jack Johnson, The Primitives and a host of other stuff from 60s to the 80s. I encourage them not to listen to it too loud, and I'll try to make sure they don’t get into the habit of using head-phones until they are much older.

I don’t think my Tinnitus came as a result of loud music, but I can’t be totally sure, and I want to protect my children as long as possible.