Hacker News Reader

Comment by dkarras | Hacker News Reader

Does everyone not have ringing in their ears when they really pay attention? Or like when they are trying to go to sleep? I always thought everyone had it because I had it since childhood. Still have to this day, same intensity. During the day it does not bother me, nor do I notice it. But if I pay attention, it feels pretty loud.

View on HN

I've always wondered that too. In very quiet rooms I hear quite intense ringing. I have distinct memories as a young child of wanting a fan turned on in my bedroom at night because of the sound of silence was ringing. It seems like what people describe as tinnitus, but... I don't seem to have any of the hearing loss that is always described as causing tinnitus. I can quite clearly high pitched noises such as CRT monitors and ultrasonic mosquito repellent. I don't have a history of working with loud equipment or going to concerts, and in any case that doesn't explain why I would hear it in childhood. It all doesn't quite correspond with with a lot of the causes and symptoms I hear described.

Apparently 60-80 percent of people can hear a sound like a faint buzzing or hissing when inside a perfectly anechoic chamber but Tinnitus is more noticeable in regularly quiet environments.

I’ve always wondered this. This sound which when reading about these low sound rooms, turns out to be blood flowing through the ears. Your brain is not getting any stimulation so amplifies your hearing - is this what tinnitus is but just significantly louder and all the time?

That’s pulsatile Tinnitus but what most people hear is more a buzzing or high pitched continuous tone.

Ah. Thank you, good to know

> I always thought everyone had it because I had it since childhood.

I can remember being about five or six years old and hearing the Simon and Garfunkel song, "The Sound of Silence" and I thought my tinnitus was what they were talking about, and that everybody had it. I cannot remember a time when I didn't have it. Since it has always been with me, it doesn't really bother me. I feel bad for people who get it later in life and for whom it is a very large annoyance.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com