Q. I apparently have hyperacusis, and it's getting worse. My mother was sensitive to certain vibration noises, and so was my autistic brother.
I've been wracking my brain thinking there must be a way to ALTER the noise if I can't stop it. For noises that have variation the noise cancelling technology may be as good as it gets, but I have a steady, all day nightmare of one long, mind-numbing loud tone coming from the air conditioner across the street. Yes, I've tried all the obvious things, nothing blocks the vibration. I can't go outside, and I can hear it in my house if I don't turn on competing noises.
It seems to me that if the pressure waves could be caused to lose their cohesiveness, if something they encountered on their way to my ear broke their form, bounced them off in multiple directions, changed their length, etc., that it might reduce the discomfort. I actually put a couple of crystal glass multifaceted beads in my ears and it did help with higher-pitched sounds.
My other idea was to identify where on a note scale the tone might fit, (it sounds alot like what you get when you blow across the top of a large beer bottle), and introduce two new tones that would, when combined with the first, create a harmonic, that would be a more pleasing sound. I may try cutting a piece of brass into a teeny tiny tuning fork.
You're probably not the right person to tell this to, but maybe you know some folks who enjoy experimentation.
Surely we have the braniacks and the technology, but they're all being channelled in support of the music industry, and people who need to hear MORE ambient sounds. Since hyperacusis is dealing with an actual, externally originating vibration event, and sticking my fingers deep enough in my ears goes a long way toward making it more tolerable, I'll bet SOMEBODY can come up with a device that would make a difference.
Thanks for listening!
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A. We hear a lot from people with hyperacusis, unfortunately. I believe you hit on the best solution when you said, "...and I can hear it in my house if I don't turn on competing noises."
The key to a happy life for most hyperacusis sufferers is to find a masking sound that prevents them from hearing the painful noises. I know it may sound counter-intuitive that solving a problem with noise sensitivity can be solved by adding more noise, but from what I know, that may well be your best option. Below I will include a primer on how to use masking sounds. It is aimed at snoring relief, and you may not need nearly as much sound to solve your problem, but the principles are the same.
First, though, I want to suggest that you consider using musician ear plugs for daily wear. These reduce the volume of everything you hear, but in such a way that you can still hear everything clearly. You may have to experiment with different attenuation levels to find which works best but I am confident that these products can help you. In general, as they get more expensive, the accuracy improves, they get less obvious to wear, and you get more low attenuation options.
Now to white noise:
White noise machines can give you the closest thing to complete isolation of any consumer device. Here are four ways to use these machines that you might try, in increasing levels of effectiveness in creating a noise isolation field:
First, a table top white noise machine will fill the bedroom with a masking sound that will do two things. First the masking noise, usually called white noise, will keep your threshold of hearing elevated so that you do not hear so acutely. You may have noticed that the quieter you make it by using plugs, the better your hearing seems to get? This is a natural phenomenon and any masking sound will help prevent it. Second, the masking sound will compete with the irritating noises, and as long as the masking sound is louder in your ears, you will be unable to hear the irritating noise. This may not be sufficient to address your noise problems if they are severe, but it is a good place to start. Just be sure you get a white noise machine that has a headphone jack so you can use it in the systems described below if necessary.
Second, add a set of pillow speakers that plug into your white noise machine. This will let you increase the volume right where you are sleeping, to greatly improve the intensity of the masking sound. Note, that white noise types of masking sounds carry no information so your mind can easily tune them out after just a few minutes, allowing you to sleep more soundly than you would in a quiet environment.
Third, if the pillow speakers do not do adequately mask the noise that is bothering you, you might try a NewSound White Noise Ear Bud. This is a combination of an ear plug and an in-ear white noise machine.
Finally, you can try our Office Isolator System. One caution on this one. There is no volume limiter on the Office Isolator so you can potentially do harm to your hearing if you turn it up too loudly, so you need to be cautious and use just the amount of white noise you need to do the job.
Until next time, be safe and do the right thing.
Tom Bergman, Vice President
Ear Plug Superstore
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