Tinnitus and Sleep: What You Need to Know

This Mental Health Awareness Week, the theme is action. And for the millions of people living with tinnitus in the UK, that word feels particularly relevant. Because tinnitus is a condition that often goes unspoken, under-recognised, and under-supported. Taking action, whether that means seeking help, sharing your experience, or simply learning more, can make a profound difference to the people affected by it.

Tinnitus is the perception of sound with no external source. It is not a condition in itself but a symptom, and it can present in many different ways: a ringing, buzzing, hissing, humming, or whooshing sound in one or both ears. For some people it comes and goes. For others, it is constant.

It is far more common than most people realise. Over half of the UK population aged 16 and over has experienced symptoms associated with tinnitus at some point. For more than one in ten people, those sounds are a consistent, ongoing presence. Around 12.6% of UK adults have received a formal diagnosis.

It can begin after exposure to loud noise, as a consequence of hearing loss, following illness or infection, or in some cases, for no clearly identifiable reason at all.

Sleep and silence are deeply connected. For most of us, going to bed means the world quiets down. For someone with tinnitus, that moment is often when the sound becomes impossible to ignore.

During the day, background noise provides a kind of natural cover. Work, conversation, traffic: these things draw your attention away. At night, stripped of distraction, the sound can feel louder, more present, and more relentless than it actually is. That is not imagined. The perception is real, and the impact is significant.

Research from Tinnitus UK found that sleep disturbances affect 85.7% of people living with tinnitus (Tinnitus UK, 2024). That is not a small number. That is the vast majority of people with the condition lying awake, struggling to settle, or waking through the night because of something they cannot switch off.

Poor sleep compounds everything else. It affects mood, concentration, patience, and resilience. It makes anxiety harder to manage and makes the tinnitus itself feel more distressing. The two can become locked in a cycle that feels very difficult to break.

Tinnitus is frequently described as a hearing condition, but its impact on mental health is enormous and tends to be underreported.

Tinnitus UK’s research found that more than eight out of ten people living with tinnitus report low mood or anxiety, with seven in ten describing feelings of hopelessness or helplessness. Over one in five reported thoughts of suicide or self-harm in the previous year. Those figures are sobering, and they matter.

A condition that disrupts sleep, removes the comfort of silence, and generates constant uncertainty takes a significant psychological toll. And yet it is still not always treated with that level of seriousness.

We spoke to Jack Bridge, the founder of Sonovo – a UK brand focused on sound-based products for people living with tinnitus – to find out how tinnitus had affected his life and sleep.

Jack said: “I first noticed my tinnitus in January 2021. I had COVID-19, was struggling to sleep, and put my earphones in to listen to music for a while. When I took them out, there was a ringing. I had experienced that before, usually disappearing within seconds. This time, it did not go away.

“The next morning it was still there. And the morning after that.

“In the early days, I found it genuinely difficult to process. It was not just one sound. At times I could hear what felt like multiple noises at once: a hum, something that resembled a hissing gas leak. The unpredictability made it harder to accept. I was 20 years old, and I found myself thinking about what this would mean at 30, 40, 50. That kind of thinking, at that age, is an incredibly heavy thing to carry.

“One of the hardest losses was silence itself. I had always loved lying in bed at night in complete quiet. The thought that I might never experience that again was genuinely upsetting in a way that felt difficult to explain to anyone who had not experienced it.

“What helped me begin to move forward was a combination of things: honest, practical information about what tinnitus actually is, sound enrichment to take the edge off quiet environments, the support of people around me, and over time, a gradual shift in how I related to the sound. It did not disappear. But it became something I could live alongside rather than something that was consuming me.

“That experience is ultimately what led me to build my business, Sonovo; I did not want what I had been through to be wasted. If understanding my own journey could help someone else feel less overwhelmed by theirs, that felt worth pursuing.”

If you have noticed a persistent ringing, buzzing, hissing, or humming sound that is not coming from an external source, here is what to do.

See your GP. Make an appointment and describe what you are experiencing, when it started, and how it is affecting you. Your GP may refer you to audiology for further assessment.

Do not wait to see if it goes away. Some tinnitus is temporary, but if it has persisted for more than a week, it is worth getting it checked rather than hoping it resolves on its own.

Seek reliable information early. One of the hardest parts of the early stages is the uncertainty. Tinnitus UK provides excellent resources written in plain language that can help you understand what you are dealing with before your appointment.

Be honest about the impact on your sleep and mental health. Tinnitus is not just about the sound. If it is affecting how you sleep, how you feel, or your ability to function day to day, say so. That context matters for the support you receive.

Know that things can improve. The focus in tinnitus management tends to be on habituation, which means learning to relate to the sound differently so that it becomes less distressing over time. That can feel discouraging when you first hear it, because it sounds like acceptance rather than cure. But habituation is a genuine outcome. Things do get easier. That is important to hear, particularly in the early stages when everything feels most overwhelming.

This Mental Health Awareness Week, with its focus on action, feels like exactly the right moment to say: do not sit with this quietly. Tinnitus is not something you simply have to endure without support. There are people who understand it, services designed to help, and real steps you can take today.

If you are struggling, reach out to your GP, contact Tinnitus UK, call the National Sleep Helpline on 03303 530 541 or speak to someone you trust. The sound may feel like something only you can hear. But you are not the only one who has had to learn to live with it, and taking even a small step towards understanding it can change everything.

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