Because our neighbors are deer, elk, and other wildlife, they don't run any machines. The road is far enough away that I can't hear the occasional car, either. But, there's a really big machine in the partial basement under my bedroom, or so it seems. I know that (a) I'm not supposed to wear my hearing aid when I mow or use the chainsaw or other noisy things, and (b) should use earplugs if I can't avoid something noisy...but, I forget, and then I listen to a rerun of the lawnmower or chainsaw or whatever during the night. I believe that many of the non-existent sounds we hear are sounds we actually DID hear once upon a time. I know that hearing the dishwasher run while I'm in my office is acoustic hallucinations, as I haven't actually heard a dishwasher clearly for a long time, unless I'm wearing the aid and standing right next to it. Even then, I don't hear water swishing, just a faint noise...but, sitting in the quiet of my office, I clearly "hear" the dishwasher, just as I was able to hear it years ago. Just as I can't hear whether or not I've started the car, sometimes I could swear the engine is running after I've shut it off.

I also sometimes think I'm hearing something noisy running while I'm in the kitchen, go stand next to the 'fridge to see if it's acting strange. Again, it's all in my head, not real at all.

Another word for hyperacusis is recruitment, where sounds that most people hear without a problem are overly loud: dog barking, for example. Recruitment is one of the "fun" add ons of Meniere's...probably can be associated with other hearing problems as well. After I went bilateral over two years ago, then finally got the hormones I need to cease having crises, not only did hearing in my one ear that can hear a little return, but the godawful recruitment stopped. (It had been so bad that I wasn't able to wear my aid, because loud sounds were very painful.) That was so encouraging that I'm scheduled to have a new hearing test to see if it might be possible now to have an aid for my nearly useless right ear. I've had recruitment in my useless ear for nearly 40 years (I think), and it's bothersome because I've always at least one large dog, if not two or three. My dog understands that I don't hear, so he barks his big bark to let me know that there's someone walking along our road, over 100' from the house. At least now, with adequate hormone replacement, the sound doesn't tear through my head the way it used to.

I would like to move the "machine shop" from under my bedroom, though! My solution for falling asleep is to work hard all day, which is very easy as I'm the person who keeps up our small acreage and very old house.