Can Stress Cause Tinnitus?

We often get questions from our patients about whether tinnitus can be caused by external forces like stress. Ever felt your ears ringing from stress and wondered what was going on? 

While the most common way to acquire tinnitus symptoms is through hearing loss challenges, the answer to “can stress cause tinnitus?” is actually yes—to some degree. The long answer is a little more complicated. 

If you have a high level of stress, you’re more likely to be more acutely bothered by your tinnitus. Being aware of your stress levels and finding ways to reduce them can help you manage your tinnitus symptoms so that you aren’t tearing your hair out as a result! 

How Is Tinnitus Caused by Stress? 

Tinnitus is a persistent or intermittent whistling, buzzing, or ringing in your ears that you can’t name a source for. Quite often, this is caused by hearing loss, whether due to age, noise exposure, or a medical condition. 

Tinnitus has shown itself to be annoying, and it’s pretty stressful for those dealing with it on a day-to-day basis. As a result, when people are stressed, they’re more aware of their tinnitus symptoms, fearful that they’ll never get the peace and quiet that they deserve. 

While it’s not clear if stress directly causes tinnitus, it’s common for the onset of tinnitus to happen during times of high stress or after a period of stress. It’s important for those with tinnitus to manage their stress to save their tinnitus symptoms from getting worse. 

How Do I Stop My Ears Ringing from Stress? 

The most important thing to consider when it comes to tinnitus is attention: the more attention you pay to it, the more it will annoy you. Easier said than done, but by finding a suitable distraction from your stress—and the tinnitus—you’ll be able to avoid focusing on it.  

Thankfully, we already have systems in place in our brains to help filter out sounds that we don’t need to pay attention to. This is called habituation; for instance, you probably don’t hear the ticking of your watch or the hum of the refrigerator each day, unless you focus on it. 

By focusing on your tinnitus, it will only feel worse. Finding something else to focus on while your ears are ringing from stress can help your stress levels abate, as well as the tinnitus sounds. 

We’ve also had a few patients ask us, “Why is tinnitus worse at night?”