Have Tinnitus? Help Is On Your Phone

Just like 1 to 3% of the population, I have tinnitus. It rages in the morning, but I’m one of the lucky ones in that I’m able to tune it out by around 10AM. Not so for many others, as the high pitched sound drones on all day and night, becoming a major distraction to daily life. If that describes what you’re going through, there is relief and it’s as close as you phone.

There are a number of apps available for the iPhone aimed at temporarily combating tinnitus, and they all take a different approach. One appropriately called Tinnitus by John Goodstadt uses some brute force white noise that you listen to over a period of time to gradually retrain your hearing not to be as aware of the ringing. White noise actually does a great job of masking the high-pitched sound but you have to endure the more or less grating of the white noise itself in order to reach the goal.

Another called Quieten by Julian Cowan Hill goes into great depth about the condition, and is a tremendous resource of current information on the affliction. The aural therapy centers more around led meditation getting you to concentrate on anything else except the ringing.

Maybe the most innovative that I’ve found so far is T-Minus, the brainchild of musician and producer Rupert Brown (see the video below for more about the project). The app presents a number of recordings using environmental sounds with noise built in that’s used to mask the tinnitus ringing. Choices include 6 series that cover environmental, industrial, supernature, sleep, pure sounds, and binaural bliss, including some with music. There’s also an in-app console that allows you to tune the frequency of the noise, select the type of noise, and the level of it in the mix. The only downside is that you have to be a Spotify Premium subscriber to access these. You can also access some of them on Spotify free but without the app and any of the cool tools.

There are many more tinnitus apps that I haven’t explored yet, but I’m pretty pleased where the 3 above can take you. Even if you’re not suffering from it yet, remember that 57% of musicians eventually develop the malady. If you do have that persistent ringing in your ears already, there may not be a cure yet, but at least some relief may now be in your pocket.

Check out this mini-dock on tinnitus featuring Rupert Brown.

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