Side effects: Sleeplessness and tinnitus

[MiM]

Hi, I'm male, soon 50, and started an MBSR course a few weeks ago. I love the practice, I love the meditations and I am already experiencing tremendous benefits both in my private life and at work. My relations with my family have improved and I am finding it much easier to concentrate at work. I catch myself using the little skills I have already learned several times a day...

So far so good, or actually very good! I am obviously thrilled by this... but, I have experienced a couple of annoying side effects too. First, whenever I meditate or do yoga, I tend to get a light tinnitus. I also frequently experience this tinnitus outside of actually practising mindfulness. Second, I have experienced a lot of sleeplessness during the last nights. I do fall asleep, and when I wake, I usually fall asleep again, but I constantly keep waking, making most of my night something of a time of being neither well asleep or fully awake.

I have experience of this kind of sleeplessness and tinnitus also from before I started with the mindfulness, but not at this level (well, at least not without obvious reasons...). So I am fairly sure that these effects are related to the practice of mindfulness.

Anyone experienced something similar? Any thoughts on what could be done? or just some consoling words about "it will go away soon..."? The tinnitus during practice is just annoying, but that it hits me almost whenever I experience a really quite minute, makes me a bit worried. I have always cherished deep silence. And sleep, is of course always important.

[Matt Y]

Hi MiM,

I experience a ringing in my ears from time to time too. It seems to be most apparent when it's quiet, such as when I'm meditating. I think this is pretty common. My strategy is to just let it be. That way, it ceases to be a bother. I'd suggest that 'silence' may not be the absence of sound, but the absence of wishing it were silent!

I would suggest not worrying too much about the tinnitus. Your awareness of the tinnitus may be heightened just because you are spending more time sitting quietly.

The sleeplessness may or may not be related to your mindfulness practice; but I wouldn't worry too much about that either. You might usefully think of your sleeplessness as an opportunity to practice.

Often it's the attitudes we have towards discomforts that make them seem problematic, rather than the 'problems' themselves.

[FeeHutch]

Hello and welcome to the EM community

I have tinnitus and did find it much more noticeable when I started my practice, I was in a quiet space for once The lovely lady I see for my hearing issues said the best way to handle tinnitus is to accept it and try not to pay too much attention to it. From a mindfulness point of view I now notice the tinnitus and let it go whether I become aware of it during meditation or when I'm sat watching TV.

I've plenty of experience with insomnia but not anything I have ever felt was linked to my mindfulness practice. I wounder if anyone else has shared that experience?

[Gareth]

Hi, I'm male, soon 50, and started an MBSR course a few weeks ago. I love the practice, I love the meditations and I am already experiencing tremendous benefits both in my private life and at work. My relations with my family have improved and I am finding it much easier to concentrate at work. I catch myself using the little skills I have already learned several times a day...

Thus it begins. As your practice deepens, you should start to see even more of this.

Don't be deterred when some difficulty or another comes along, which it undoubtedly will.

[piedwagtail91]

i'm just agreeing with the other three really.
i too notice a very faint ringing in my ears when i meditate - and after listening to loud music!!
joking aside, it'll be less of a problem if you can accept it as part of the practice,notice it and move on to another sound or the breath, body part etc.

likewise the sleep, from past and current experience it can be unsettling and lead to lots of thoughts and maybe worries, if you can accept that you're going through a stage of learning/development and not let the constant waking become a problem then that too will fade.

to pinch a quote from , possibly, kristin neff - "what you resist persists".
if you fight against the tinnitus by trying to block it out or wish it wasn't there or try to force your way back to sleep or *think about it*- when you are awake, wishing you were asleep and let these situations worry you then they will become problems,

acceptance isn't easy but it is the quickest way to peace.
it's doesn't mean you actually like the tinnitus or the waking up, but that you can accept that this is how it is in the present.

[Gareth]

acceptance isn't easy but it is the quickest way to peace.

Never a truer word spoken.

[MiM]

Thank you all for your kind replies. I don't think I am making too much of a problem out of these things, yet. They still feel more like things I observe, while trying to observe myself more fully. But I do hear you advice about avoiding the worrying part and being more accepting. I have always been a person who is very sensitive to sound, especially continuous sound, so I also need to accept that tinnitus hits on one of my sensitivities, which kind of complicates things...

One thing I have been thinking about with the ringing, is if I tense up in some way that I cannot otherways notice (even when I feel very relaxed) and that might create the ringing in the ears? Some small muscles in the back, neck or cheek, maybe? Like today, I was doing a sitting meditation and about two minutes in, the ringing started. I listened for it already at the beginning and it was not there, so it really started during practice (and is still there while I am writing this).

[Matt Y]

That's an interesting thought / observation regarding the tinnitus possibly being related to tension. It could be something worth exploring. However, I would caution against listening out for that ringing in your ears. There's a cliche for every situation, and in this case "be careful what you wish (or listen) for, it might just come true) seems appropriate. We tend to notice what we focus on, afterall.

On the other hand, if the ringing in the ears is present, another — often very useful — approach, is to give it your full attention: to really listen in, as though to a favourite piece of music, catching all the nuances, tones and subtones, variations and so on.

[AnnieLouisa]

I understand the problem of tinnitus. I think that you probably have tinnitus all the time, but you tend to notice it when you meditate in the peace and quiet. My tinnitus is barely noticeable when I am surrounded by noise. I to try not to notice the tinnitus by consciously paying attention to other things. I personally would not like to pay specific attention to the noise, as Matt Y suggests, but it may work for you.

[MiM]

I don't think my tinnitus is there all the time, or if it is it's highly variable. At times I can sit in complete silence without registering any (or very faint) tinnitus, even when I try to listen for it, and then at other times it can ring loudly in fairly noisy situations.

Anyway, yesterday after my yoga practice I noticed I had not registered any tinnitus at all during the yoga, so with any luck it might have been something temporary.