Does Anyone Have A Constant Buzzing Sound In Your Ears?

Hi @fef ....personally I do not think you are missing anyting if I read correctly... having tinnitus more and more, inner ear pain, hyperacusis and now musical ear and its not nice, IMO Right now yes as another Amazing Grace, but it is the first few notes over and over and over; from about 3pm til after supper another , unknown, but probably military tune again the first part of the music repeatedly its really horrible. Yes I do try and go with the flow but with other ear and body issues such as glaucoma, ibsD, F.I., N.P. and other things with initials, and the fact that so far anyone I have told I have Musical Ear Syndrome looks at me as if I am losing it: thats distressing too especially that many medical people havent hear of it either ..... oh goodie perhaps will wake up to Oh Come All Ye Faithful again or O Canada! Where is the off button?????

Valerie, oh how I sympathize with you. I have developed musical ear over the past year or so, and it is a change that is equal to hearing loss itself in its significance to my quality of life. At first it was what you describe - pieces or snippets of pieces of familiar music that played over and over in my consciousness. Now it has become four- or five-note series of notes that repeat ad nauseam every minute I am awake. I can, if I concentrate very hard, stop it or slow it for a short period of time, and thankfully, if I am very caught up in some other activity, I can ignore it. Once I go back to normal casual attention, however, my awareness of it returns. I hear it whether I am wearing my hearing aids or not.

My audiologist explained it as my brain’s attempt to make up for the ambient sounds it was used to hearing all the time that I can no longer hear. That makes sense to me; nevertheless I find it a debilitating, irritating development. I did read an account of a musician/composer who developed the syndrome and responded to it with curiosity and interest rather than revulsion by listening, recording what he heard, and trying to understand his brain’s creative efforts and using them in his music. For some reason this story helped me come to terms with the condition, although I couldn’t help wondering whether he wasn’t hearing much more compelling musical phrases than I hear all the time!

I do hope work is being done on musical ear’s place in the pantheon of hearing loss phenomena. Programming my hearing aids to play musical notes to distract my brain from creating its own has had no effect on this annoyance in my experience. It may be that nothing other than something that allows us to hear the world’s ambient sounds again will discourage our ever-active brains from trying to give us sound where there is none.

Thanks for your thoughts on this... I, in my own humble non professional way, still feel there is something more to it that our brains coping with hearing loss if it were why arent more hearing impaired people experiencing this, why have drs never heard of it etc etc.... i sometimes get the droning in one ear either the tinnitus or M.E.S., and the repetitive notes in the other and also hear the neighbour cutting grass and not the doorbell... my brain is not working correctly for sure..... maybe by discussing it , more people will admit to having it or at least talking about it... am upset to hear of others with this but also comforting in another way that I am not alone. Why have I never heard of it before .... are audiologists and hearing aid specialists etc. aware of it I wonder. Hearing the same refrain of a few notes over and over and over can really be the icing on the cake with other issues, but as they keep saying;could be worse. Am wondering if some medication spurred it, even a few years ago..... J.

I have just started to hearing a buzzing sound, it's like it is in my BRAIN. My friend who's been in the military related to hear some kind of internal sound. I heard it many years ago but it has been consistent in these past few days of April 2024. Surely some medical professionals have been researching this?

@lacy2 Thanks for sharing I thought I was an oddball hearing things! I have moderate hearing loss in my left ear , severe tinnitus in both ears and recently started hearing a random musical note in my right ear. I took an air last to my left ear about 27 years ago , the ER doctor never tested anything just said it was ok . I’ve had the tinnitus in the left ear since and about 5 years in the right. The blast was strong enough to blow my glasses across the floor and cut my earlobe. I’m going next week to pick up hearing aids, hoping to drown out the daytime tinnitus and maybe it will help at bedtime. I’ve used sleep mask with low music playing in the past.

I hear this buzzing also when not wearing my hearing aids. I do think the brain generates it. Hearing aids bring in sound, which stimulates the brain, and I think absence of stimulation might be a reason for the buzzing.

I understand Lenire became available in the US last year.
Has anybody here tried it? I’ll be asking my ENT and Audiologist about getting one at my next appointment.

Please let us know what you find out about Lenire.

Tinnitus is common and often accompanies hearing loss but not always. Veterans returning from combat zones often complain about it. Noise is a causative factor, so prevention by wearing ear protection is important when noise exposure of any kind is likely.

The Hearing Health Foundation has been doing extensive research on tinnitus. At this time there is no cure, but there are hopes for one. We are fortunate that HHF is working on this as it has been pushed aside in research for decades. http://www.hhf.org