[00:00:00] Welcome to the Hearing Wellness Journey podcast, an exploration of determination, hope, self discovery, and triumph. We'll share the personal experiences of those that are living with hearing loss and provide a haven for their stories to show others that they are not alone in this journey. Please welcome your hosts,

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Hey there, my name is Dawn Heiman. I am Dr. Emily Johnson.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: I'm Dr. Stephanie Michaelides. And I am Lindsey Doherty.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: We are rekindling the Hearing Wellness Journey podcast. Today is our first episode, and you're gonna get, oh my gosh, Lindsey, you're gonna get, Confetti today. all four of us, we all work in the office together, we all see patients together and, we thought it would be a good idea to try to answer a lot of questions that we tend to receive and, bring [00:01:00] on patients.

As well as, um, folks that are experts in the area. And, um, you're going to get a lot of, um, smattering of what happens behind the scenes from us. 'cause we have a really good time in our office and sometimes, um, we go off the handle a little bit so you get a behind the scenes tour of what we're thinking sometimes.

So today's question is, what is it, Lindsey? All right, it is.

Lindsey Doherty: Why is my tinnitus getting worse? So what could be a common trigger? underlying causes of worsening symptoms of your tinnitus? Who wants to take this?

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: I think stress is definitely one of the things that could make things worse for patients. anytime that they have any kind of, something bad going on in their life.

it could be something simple, just work stress. It could be something, significant. we'll also make the. Tinnitus get worse. totally

Dr. Emily Johnson: agree. And I think that it's important to remember that the magnitude of the stress does not always [00:02:00] correlate with how much your tinnitus might spike.

So it might be something that others might view as just something small. Not super stressful. Something inconvenient. But your tinnitus really latches onto it and really spikes it up, and so it's important to remember that it doesn't have to be something super catastrophic in your life that will potentially increase the negative effects and impacts of your tinnitus.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: And I know Lindsey, you actually have tinnitus, so what are some of your triggers that you would have?

Lindsey Doherty: Yeah, so actually a huge trigger of mine is that, when I'm going to a noisy environment, so when I'm going to meet friends at maybe a noisy restaurant or a bar, or I'm going to a band concert or competition, I just know that that's going to, flare it.

Not necessarily that day, but tomorrow is going to look. Not so bright for me. So I actually wear hearing protection during that time, which can make it seem, bring my tinnitus a little bit more to the [00:03:00] forefront while I'm wearing my, my hearing protection. But I know that in the end it's going to make tomorrow.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Okay. I have tinnitus and mine never. Does that mind's the opposite. I can be super relaxed. It's in the morning. I have slept well and it is frying louder than anything and I'm, it has nothing to do with emotions, it has nothing to do with anything. I could be reading a book, I'm fine. It just, out of the blue, out of nowhere, it's just like there.

The other night it was there super loud and I don't know why. So I just kind of redirect and listen to something else or. It's in the morning, I hop in the shower and then kind of forget that I heard it, but mine I never hear in noisy situations. I will hear it after I was in a noisy situation.

Right. Or maybe I had too much wine or something. But, I do know that there are different types of tinnius and people can have a switch and a change. sometimes their ear changed. Do you wanna talk about that? Yeah,

Dr. Emily Johnson: [00:04:00] so it gets you on the spot. Geez, thanks. So it really can come down to part of the ear changing, and usually we're looking at inner ear change.

So that's our cochlea, the little snail shaped piece in our head that is responsible for a lot of changes in returns of tinnitus and overall hearing loss in general. And then we also have to look at the nerve, and we absolutely cannot ignore the fact that the brain has a huge part in. Tinnitus. And so any sort of changes, even if they're just temporary shifts in your hearing.

So I think for most people, you've gone to a loud concert, you've gone to some sort of loud party, and then you step outside and it's like, whoa. It's that feeling like in an action movie where there's an explosive and it's like, and it's that silence. I think that that has happened to most people, and that's actually a sign that something temporarily has changed in your auditory system.

And for [00:05:00] the most part, for most people, it returns back to baseline the next morning and you go out about your day and you don't think about it. But the more times that that happens, it absolutely can add up. If you go outside and you stomp on a piece of grass every single morning, the grass will continue to come back up.

And then after maybe a week a month, that grass stops coming up, up, up. And all of a sudden the grass is just kinda wilted. And that's sometimes how I view our inner ear. I like that analogy. That's a good one.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: have you guys had anybody who's had covid or any kind of sudden infection or anything that their tinnitus flared?

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: I feel like a lot, I feel like a lot of the patients, and, and we don't really have a lot of research saying that, that it's actually directly connected, but I wanna say most of my patients who came in for tinnitus treatment of any kind. Found that that was happening during Covid. Mm-hmm. So is it, I said is it related?

Is it, was it covid was a stressful time? Is there actual aspects of Covid that did give people tinnitus, but I don't know that a lot of patients are [00:06:00] having, you know, came in and that's when they first started noticing that they had tinnitus. It just didn't go away. After they had covid.

So I don't know.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: We have had some people that they have some kind of virus like Covid, and they came in and it turns out they had impacted ear wax. You take it out and then it's better. Or there's some people that they had an ear infection, sometimes something changed, they suddenly noticed it, that it changed, and then their brain couldn't let go of it.

Like it was just that one little event and then it was like they don't remember it ever being there before and now they can't get rid of it.

Lindsey Doherty: Now I kind of have a question about that. Like it's, it suddenly pops up there. We're supposed to exercise for, you know, dopamine and, and just to be better and blood flow and everything.

But sometimes when I exercise really hard, my tinnitus flares. is that something that somebody should be concerned about or is that something how loud that

Dr. Dawn Heiman: [00:07:00] music, Lindsey?

Lindsey Doherty: But it's more like when, because I wear hearing protection, I go to, a workout class and it does have like the big boom boom music. Yeah. But it's like the tennis will be like really high after that. And so I kind of like bring everything down. One of the symptoms of

Dr. Dawn Heiman: changing in Tinnius is, high blood pressure.

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So the, that can, that can make it louder. But we had a patient once I did that, I don't know if you remember her, She won some big award at Lifetime Fitness for the most classes of anybody, and she just, she wanted to hit all the classes. She might even be watching right now. I don't know, I think she follows on Instagram, she won, she went to more classes than anybody else that quarter, and yet the side effect was her ears were roaring ringing.

Super bad. We found, notching high frequency hearing loss because the spin classes were so loud. the, the, the, what do you call, not Ooba, Jamba Zumba. Zumba, thank you. Zumba. Zumba was super loud. Hiphop is all that Zumba that [00:08:00] she attended every single class, multiple classes in a in a day. And, the side effect was the tinnitus and it was.

Because her, her hearing changed. Did you wanna say something? I'm sorry. Yeah,

Dr. Emily Johnson: so I think it's also to important to remember that stress doesn't have to always mean something negative. Mm-hmm. So intense exercise or a new exercise regimen, things like that. It ultimately does stress the body.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Emily Johnson: Even if it's for a beneficial purpose.

And so when we think of going to do workouts or increasing blood pressure, we're having more blood flow to certain places. If you're working out really hard and not getting the oxygen there, then you're gonna have some anaerobic exercise in there. And that's also a different type of stress on the body and.

While we always encourage exercise and healthy lifestyle, it is something to pay attention to and maybe still do those exercises, but cut back a little bit. And Lindsey, turn your music down. 50% on the iPhone [00:09:00] Android volume for your headphones is your sweet spot. And it may seem corny and cheesy to snag those foam plugs before taking a spin class.

Ultimately you should do it. It's beneficial for your ears. And even if you're the only one in the room doing it, you're gonna thank yourself later for being proactive.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: My spin class actually has, earplugs. Yes. And when you first walk in. Yeah. So you can actually use. The ear plug or like nobody takes

Dr. Emily Johnson: them, but they absolutely should.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Yeah. Oh, I wear protection for hiphop fitness. But some of us we were talking about, do you have an internal monologue or not? Yes. Or do like her husband does not for some reason, and I always have like a song going on and I feel like. first of all, I don't wanna hear the thoughts in my head while I'm working out 'cause you know what they are.

I hate this. I'm upset like my, like all this stuff so negative. So I'm like, turn on the music and I am cranking it too loud. Yeah, I know for a fact. I do love my AirPod Pro Twos. I do love my Bone Connection headphones and now Swim ones, so I am like just [00:10:00] drowning out any negativity and just going with whatever.

But the side effect is I'm a little worried. Yeah,

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: I know someone who can help you. You do. If you get,

Dr. Dawn Heiman: they might even be in this room. I wonder who? I don't know. Like Lindsey, are you really? I've seen you. You're not wearing headphones when I've seen you working out

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: ear.

Lindsey Doherty: She said she

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: wears

Lindsey Doherty: the earplugs.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: You're wearing earplugs? I

Lindsey Doherty: do. I wear my musician plugs when I work out.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Let's say you're out for a run or a bike, are you listening to music or are you just listening anything?

Lindsey Doherty: I would usually put on like my, so a weird fun fact, wind like will cause like an earache. So if I'm riding my bike or something, I will put in like an AirPod and then leave it open though so that I can hear the sounds.

but then I will put on bone conduction headphones when I run usually, or I'll wear my AirPods.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: What do you do in your basement when you're spinning? [00:11:00]

Lindsey Doherty: I put in my AirPods. In my AirPods. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it drowns out. Anything else so I don't have to have it too loud? Yeah. Same.

Dr. Emily Johnson: So definitely wear both headphones if you're going to wear headphones, because there's something called the summation effect.

And what people often don't realize is, okay, we think for safety purposes, for whatever reason, we're only gonna wear one headphones. We can hear out of the other side. But what that results in is you cranking the volume ladder and only putting it into. One ear. So if you do this as a test at home, put one headphone in, put it at a comfortable volume that you'd wanna listen to take the other headphone.

Don't change the volume, put it into your other ear and see how loud you're actually putting music podcasts, our voices into your one ear, and you're gonna be like, whoa, that's way too loud. So it's actually more beneficial to wear both. Or like Michaelides said, bone [00:12:00] conduction headphones. I love them. It's what I use when I run, because then that gives me still some situational awareness mm-hmm.

Of everything going on around me. But I also don't have to crank it too loud to drown anything out. So just be a little bit cautious if you're only wearing one headphone for whatever reason. That you're not putting that one too loud as well, because then we can talk about noise induced hearing loss just to that one ear and increase in tinnitus just to that one side.

And that's definitely a common trigger for your tinnitus getting worse, potentially your hearing loss getting worse because you're just feeding that side. And usually we only wear that headphone in the same ear every single time. So it's just something to be mindful about.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: The shooting ranges, the gun blast. Things like that. Like the special, like, have you guys seen some weird notches with that even, but a lot of times people come in, they're like, I've been, I've been a recreational hunter for years, and now suddenly my tinnitus is super loud. I went to the range, or I did this, or whatever.

Have you guys [00:13:00] had any experiences like that, that you were like, whoa, I didn't expect that. I'm thinking of one particular person.

Dr. Emily Johnson: Yes.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: With, yeah, with with noise induced hearing loss. With the guns though? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, with guns specifically?

Dr. Emily Johnson: Yeah. So I had, a patient who, big hunter, big into shooting ranges was pretty good about using his hearing protection, his hearing loss said otherwise, but I.

It had been pretty stable. No major changes there, and I get a panicked call from him and he went to the range. He took a few shots before realizing that he didn't put in his hearing protection, and that was it. His hearing changed and it didn't recover from that,

And he's like, I totally regret it. If I had just put in my plugs and my muffs, I would've not had to deal with this sudden change, and it impacted his quality of life. And so I always encourage, like it just takes one shot. It doesn't have to be [00:14:00] full rounds and two hours at the range to see an impact. It can happen in as little as one time, and I think that that's important to stress.

Lindsey Doherty: I have, family members who are public servants. a lot in police and fire and experience like going to the shooting range as a police officer. it just takes one time and then it can have an everlasting change. So, I mean, back then hearing protection, I don't think it was really like a. Talked about advertised thing that you should be concerned with, but now paying for it.

I do think you know that those types of servicemen and women, that they are a little bit more aware of that now and are offered during protection. So if you don't have it, get it.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: I had a patient once that he was wearing the muffs. And, I think he must have been using a rifle or something, and it kicked the muff out of place.

And then, there were [00:15:00] others at the range and someone, doing an automatic thing just that one side suddenly like that. Or like you're talking about the grass. people in construction or using an air, nail gun or something.

Mm-hmm. Or road work It's like, Why was it that one time that suddenly, that's when the ringing or the change in the hearing happened, I feel like it's been you. You've been weakening the hairstyles, weakening the hairstyles, and then suddenly one day it was like. maybe they couldn't take it anymore.

Your nutrition, right? you, I mean, you're done, you retired, right? you didn't have the vitamins that you normally had. You didn't have the sleep, and it just took that one thing to just like devastate the system and it just couldn't recover. it's hard to say.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: I don't know. But with hearing protection too, you don't have to, you know.

Do something custom. I mean, just to have plugs. You can get 'em on Amazon. You know, it's not like you don't have like lots of options for hearing protection. True. You don't have to come to us to get like custom made ones. I mean, it's, their options are endless as far as Yeah. As what you can do.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: How many times have I've been at like [00:16:00] a, well, I don't go to the bars that often, but if I've been there and I, I'm serious like the few times that I'm there and I'm like, here's my earplugs and everyone's like.

No. No.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: But the movies, Lindsey, I wear to the movie theater a

Dr. Dawn Heiman: concert, you're seeing you two or whatever. And I'm the only person with hearing protection. And I'm like, seriously though? Like it makes a difference. I can walk out and my ears aren't roaring and maybe everyone else is, it's the little things that add up.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: Yes, but I'm like 4th of July. I'm the person that brings the earplugs for all of my friends. The parades,

Dr. Dawn Heiman: hand them out, and everyone's like, thank you. but they hand it to their kids. They don't themselves use it, which is a little annoying because they're too cool. We're all too cool.

Society is, we're just, I'm not too cool. We're too cool for stuff.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: Well, we have the St. Patrick's Day parade and I saw a lot of parents who had the, their babies with the moms on.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Oh, totally. Do it for your babies'. Do it for yourself.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: [00:17:00] Exactly.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Yeah. It's like Coca-Cola. We wouldn't let little babies drink Coke, but Oh my gosh.

It tastes so good. And you've seen the stuff where they pour the coke over like. Someone's, engine for their car and it's eaten away and stuff. Like, that's what it's doing to our body. But we would never let our babies, and we've never let our puppies drink that stuff. But for us, we're like, Ugh, I'm tough, I'm cool.

It's, it'll be fine. It catches up with you though. You can't undo your

Dr. Emily Johnson: damage. Yeah. So I'm gonna switch gears. I just saw Lindsey take a sip of her coffee a few minutes ago. So. As somebody, are we plugging? Are we

Dr. Dawn Heiman: getting, are we sponsored? I'm so brought to you by Dunkin. Just kidding. We was for, for Starbucks.

Kidding. I mean, you just sent me a message on

Dr. Emily Johnson: my watch, so it's fine. But think I grew

Lindsey Doherty: my own.

Dr. Emily Johnson: One of the common triggers for tinnitus is caffeine. Oh, right. And so I think it's important to address that. I would love to know the statistics on how many adults start [00:18:00] their day with a cup of coffee in the morning, but does it make a difference if you do a cup of coffee versus an espresso versus a green tea versus a half calf?

Yes. All of the different options. Yes. So, Lindsey, does caffeine trigger your tinnitus to get worse, or is that not something for you?

Lindsey Doherty: So since my tinnitus, when it was first flaring. I was drinking like three, four cups a day at the office. I had a problem. I had easy access to it.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Is it caffeine? It's gotta be like, oh my God, like I'm having two double espressos and two, that's four espressos in the morning. And I'm like, huh? I wake, I get up in the morning, no. And I'm just sitting there relax and I dunno why my ears are like frying and ringing. And so that never ever occurred to me.

I'm like, I'm super chill. I'm awake. But you would tell people about this. I didn't realize this. Thank you [00:19:00] Dr. Johnson. Why am I not gonna stop drinking coffee? You're not gonna stop drinking coffee. Why is

Lindsey Doherty: my worse on work

Dr. Dawn Heiman: days?

Lindsey Doherty: But I Exactly, and that's what it was.

Now I drink, I tend to, I limit myself to one cup a day. That is my, that goal. Now, last week I ended up having an. Unexpectedly, a triple espresso

Dr. Dawn Heiman: unexpectedly. Was that an accident? Well, I was making it at home. It was free. No,

Lindsey Doherty: actually I made it at home, which is even worse because I put the pods in there.

And anyway, I paid for it. But I do try and limit that and then switch to, you know, decaffeinated teas. Hot brown water afterwards. Hot brown water. What's

Dr. Emily Johnson: your favorite decaffeinated tea? For those listening who are looking for other options?

Lindsey Doherty: Actually, I, so it's an herbal tea. It's the lemon ginger

It's so good. It's so good. It actually is not a fan. It's actually not brown. Lasso would say no. 'cause it's lemon ginger. It's herbal. Season four is coming by the way. Just Ted lasso. That's where [00:20:00] Oh, I know.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Yeah, that's right.

Lindsey Doherty: Normally I have a sticker, a Ted lasso sticker on the back of my computer, so I'm a huge fan.

Hmm. Yes. So I do, I've made a conscious effort to limit that intake. Okay. Because I think three to four cups a day, that's is a little excessive. Maybe like once a week, right? Maybe once a week, like on a weekend or something, if it's just lazy day, whatever. But, not on the regular,

Dr. Emily Johnson: fair enough, as I have a large brown sugar shaken espresso.

I am not one to talk, but. I don't currently experience Tinnitus. Did you make that yourself? This? Yeah. No, I gotta say Dunkin. They make, I didn't know that. Yes. Yeah. It's Sabrina Carpenter.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Oh,

Dr. Emily Johnson: br For our younger listeners. I

Dr. Dawn Heiman: honestly only thought Starbucks made that. No, no. It's, that's a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's pretty good.

I don't get out much. You can see. I'm gonna learn here. Everyone else. Okay, so [00:21:00] what else have, what, what else could cause your change in tinnitus? sleepless nights. Alcohol. Did we discuss that? Like wine, change your meds?

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: Medication? Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Toxicity. a lot of people, I was surprised. my brother-in-law, his oncologist never mentioned to him that cisplatin could cause a change in his ears.

And the, the nu the, he had the ringing, but then the, the balance problems came. Yeah. Falling. Trying to just get to the bathroom. And they, they don't tell you, but I guess they're keeping your, your body. Mm-hmm. From letting something bad take over. But the more you know, the better off it could be. We can monitor that.

But, it's, our bodies, usually don't schedule stuff like this. If you're concerned, get your hearing tested. Yeah. You know, and, and let us find out if there's anything to be concerned about. We do have treatments.

Dr. Emily Johnson: Mm-hmm. And I know Dr. Michaelides, you have experience with. OX protocol and monitoring from the [00:22:00] audiology side.

So in your past experience, what does that look like when it comes to like counseling patients and working kind of on site, like on the same side as their oncology team and like, what did that look like? For you and your personal experience? Well,

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: I feel like working closely with the, your primary care care doctor, whoever's actually prescribing the medication to work closely with audiologists, I think that's super important because I.

That is like, we need to do testing beforehand. We need to do testing during, and then for Oox, we keep going, doing testing like every three months, six months. And a year after treatment. To make sure that those ototoxic medications didn't have an effect. Because if we do catch it in the middle, I know that, that it's a horrible thing going through any kind of treatment like that.

But to also be able to save your hearing so we can have the, the prescribing medication. doctor. Change, it, change to other types of, medication that don't necessarily cause this bad effect of mm-hmm. Of hearing loss. But I've seen the, like, chemotherapy, like take out someone's hearing. So it is, it's kind of [00:23:00] a scary thing.

I've even seen it with, medications in someone who's in their twenties.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: And now

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: they have permanent hearing loss forever because they weren't monitored appropriately in the beginning.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Or even, let's say they, well, first they should weigh you. I feel like a lot of people have the side effects of vomiting and then their weight changes, and maybe the dosage just needed to be recalculated number one, but number two, if it is changing, if we're actively treating it.

You're less likely to have, like atrophy of the brain where the brain's like not able to keep that speech intelligibility. Like we don't wanna have it go and then maybe you're cured of the cancer and five years later you're like, huh, I feel like I just never heard. Well, but you went for five years.

Without hearing, well, that affects your ability to process the speech. So early intervention is definitely a good thing. it's having conversations though with your doctors, getting the right referral. I feel like too many doctors don't think hearing is important and they don't realize end stages of life, [00:24:00] communication and listening and telling stories.

Or all you really have left. Mm-hmm. And if that person, like I've been bedside with someone who their hearing suddenly changed their, their body couldn't fight the infections. They brought me in. I was able to test and then fit power hearing aids on this one particular gentleman where the whole family, all of us were in tears because he could actually have a conversation and they knew he had weeks.

But the stories are everything. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: Quality of life.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Quality of life. Yeah. And why? Yeah, so, so many people is, you know, okay, so we're talking about, oh, okay. I'm a big loser at a concert wearing hearing protection. But so many people do know something changed, and then they're like, I don't wanna be the loser that wears hearing aids.

Right. That's gutting, like you've decided that you're just going to sit in silence rather than join the conversation. Have fun, you know,

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: avoid those places too, because you can't communicate.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: True. Yeah. And then social [00:25:00] isolation, depression, all of that. And then guess what? You're left by yourself with your ringing of your ears.

That's no fun. We can help that. She's got to be Debbie Downer, didn't I? Someone do something happy Debbie Downer

Dr. Emily Johnson: there. Um, so let's talk sleep because you wanna make sure that you get not just enough sleep, but good quality sleep I have a toddler. I know that sleep can come and go. And I often talk about that with my tinnitus patients who they're like, I'm up at 2:00 AM and it's ringing.

And I'm like, well, you can message me 'cause I might be awake too. And I think it's important to talk about good sleep hygiene and good sleep habits and different ways that we can help you get back to better sleep. Because that impacts your entire day. Mm-hmm. If you don't sleep, you then drink caffeine.

If you drink caffeine, that might spite your tinnitus. And then it's just kind of [00:26:00] all interconnected. And so I know that Michaelides has created a helpful handout that we give to our tinnitus patients about getting back to sleep with tinnitus. And she talks about it in our online seminar as well.

Send us an email, we'd ha be happy to get you registered for it because half of this battle is knowledge. Yeah. Is just being aware of different things that we can do because for so long, way too long, it's just been, well, you just have to live with it. Oh, you have it. So do I.

I just ignore it.

Lindsey Doherty: Welcome to the club.

Dr. Emily Johnson: Exactly.

Lindsey Doherty: That's when we hear all the time. Yes. It's

Dr. Emily Johnson: only gonna get louder, right? Oh, it's only gonna get worse. Which it doesn't have to. No, it doesn't have to anymore. So, Michaelides, you wanna touch on sleep strategies.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: I can, I can start and then other people can jump in.

I personally am up at two 30 every morning. Woo. Like we should all be chatting because of Connor and his [00:27:00] diabetes, which by the way, untreated diabetes, if your A1C is high, it not just affects your eyes and your toes. It can affect your ears, so. Mm-hmm. something as a tinnitus is a symptom.

It's not a diagnosis. Yeah. It's a symptom that something has changed. So yeah, you're in the middle of the night. You wake up for whatever reason, an alarm went off or you had to go to the bathroom, or you have a kiddo that needs to be put back down. best thing you can do is, try to get back into bed in a calm state, not a stress state.

So, there was one study I heard years ago that insomniacs, should get out of bed and stretch, like it sounds counterproductive to get out of bed. Before you get in bed, but get outta bed, stretch, like elongate the muscles and then get back into bed and maybe have a soothing sound. Dr. Michael Lindsey, do you have any

Lindsey Doherty: I actually wanna touch on that because my tinnitus has changed in pitch.

It's just kind of like that constantly there. I do listen to sounds when I go to bed. And I just used the free white noise app. On my [00:28:00] phone.

And it used to be that I would listen to white noise and then it turned to gray noise and then brown noise because the white was actually causing it to almost like.

Over amplify. Yeah, over amplify my tinnitus there and, and just compound it. so it, my, my needs changed. And so now I actually, in the white Noise app, the free one, you can create, a mix of sounds. Mm-hmm. So I've created like something that I like to listen to. Oh, what's that app? It's white noise. It's just called White noise.

Yes. It's a blue and white. is the graphic and. It's just, it's really helpful because as things change, and you don't have to say it's not, it's not a one size fits all. I know we tell our patients that, because it's so personal, what you're experiencing and, but that app is there to change with you.

So that helps me. Using lavender lotion or essential oils helps me talking about like that sleep hygiene, like getting into a routine. Mm-hmm. So you [00:29:00] follow it every night and it's almost like you're not tricking yourself, but you're like, okay, it is time to go to bed. And your mind is preparing for that.

Um,

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Dr. Michaelides, you use a different app or you, you recommend? No, I, I

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: actually have a white noise machine

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Oh.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: That I take with me pretty much everywhere. So even when we just recently stayed in a hotel, like I brought it with me and then I actually left it there, so I had to go back.

Shoot.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: Oh, no, no. But what's that calm app that you, you pay for, isn't it Calm? It's, yeah.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: And then, but that they have some free and you can pay for it and then you can get more. But my favorite one on that. So when I do just have my phone, like if we go to Europe or something and I don't, I can't pick, plug my white noise in.

I'll use, that app, calm, and then my favorite one is Airplane Cabin. It's the best. Airplane

Dr. Emily Johnson: cabin. Yeah.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: Really? Yeah. it's kind of a nice, make sure it's not like the white noise. It's really nice because I, if I hear, if I am in a quiet room, I cannot sleep.

Dr. Emily Johnson: Hmm, that's fair.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: Yeah.

I mean, it's just, I have to have some sort of, of background noise. I know other people like to listen to [00:30:00] music. Other people like to have the TV on. I feel like that's too distracting for me. I just like that kind of calm. Otherwise, I'm hearing my tinnitus, but that's really all I need. But if I don't have it, I'm not sleeping.

I

Dr. Dawn Heiman: like the Yx Z app. What do you listen to? I like playing with that. I don't,

Dr. Emily Johnson: I have a white noise machine.

Dr. Stephanie Michaelides: You do? Yeah. Doesn't Resound have an app that, that you can change? Like the pink, like the different types of noise? Yep. Yeah.

Lindsey Doherty: Yeah. And yx is good. Um, I know my kid will say, and I'm sorry if this, um, triggers your, your, um.

Your apparatus at home maybe, but Amazon play, rain sounds, Amazon play, white noise, you know? And so my kid will change it every night and say what she wants to listen to and it's, yeah, really awesome. So there's a lot out there to experiment with background

Dr. Dawn Heiman: sounds now. Yes. [00:31:00]

Lindsey Doherty: You triple click and then you can do background.

All right. So play on your phone, see what you get.

so I can triple click and get my listen to background sounds and there's like four or five different options. You can't really like, customize anything with that, but it's a nice, like, emergency thing if you have nothing else.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: All right. So if you wanted to attend the seminar, we have, I give you.

Worksheets to download with these different apps and also how to get to back to sleep that night, or we can send that to you at any time. I guess we're gonna wrap this up. Dr. Johnson had to go somewhere. Apparently we're not that important.

Lindsey Doherty: Might be a patient that just walked in, it could

Dr. Dawn Heiman: be

Lindsey Doherty: right.

Dr. Dawn Heiman: So, we will see you next time and, put any comments, below or ask us questions.

If there's any questions that you would like us to address and talk about, please, let us know. Um, I did just get

DM'd by somebody I don't know that she asked if, um, if we could address how people, um, how to address. [00:32:00] Someone's hearing loss with someone who doesn't wanna talk about their hearing loss.

Lindsey Doherty: Ooh,

Dr. Dawn Heiman: right. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't even think about that. That wasn't on my radar to talk about, but we can. Alright, have a great day. Stay tuned.

Bye.

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