I got these symptoms suddenly one morning and it woke me up from sleep. I've noticed them occasionally. My two theories on the cause are 1) My high cholesterol or 2) I've been listening to white noise at night, maybe a little bit too loud. #2 is the main reason I am posting here. Curious if anyone else here listens to various forms of white noise or sound for long periods of time? Maybe that could be a contributing factor, perhaps I'm never giving my ears a chance to rest and it's causing some strain in there? I've turned the volume way down at night and I haven't actually experienced it again in weeks. It would be alarming if white noise was a common tool we were using to block out the thumping sound in our ears and it was actually contributing to making symptoms worse through some kind of strain/overuse. But, equally compelling to me is that I need to lower my cholesterol through healthy diet and exercise, high cholesterol seems to damage all sorts of things in the body. Appreciate any feedback if anyone else thinks white noise for long periods of time could be a contributing factor, and also just wanted to throw that out there as a possible caution for others. Lastly, this doesn't really add much to my main question, but just for the sake of telling my whole story, another strange trigger for me is hearing fast clicking sounds, like if I hear someone reeling in a fishing pole suddenly my right inner ear starts thumping and fluttering uncomfortably and I want to get away from the clicking. Maybe its so strained that particular sound sends it into a spasm. Best of health to you all!