Is the ringing in your ears keeping you awake? You don’t need to just live with it. If you want to get a better nights sleep, consider these tricks to quiet this irritating unrelenting sound.

Your sleep habits can be significantly affected by moderate to severe tinnitus. During the day, you’re distracted by noise and activity so your tinnitus may seem less noticeable. But tinnitus can seem louder and more stressful at night when it’s not as loud.

Fortunately, there are a few techniques you can use to fall asleep easier.

Below are 5 tips to falling asleep in spite of your tinnitus.

1. Don’t Fight The Noise

While this might seem difficult to impossible, paying attention to the noise actually makes it worse. If you begin to get irritated, your blood pressure rises and this makes tinnitus symptoms worse. You will feel worse the more you think about it and your aggravation will increase. You can make the sound quieter by thinking about something else and using the following techniques.

2. Establish a Nighttime Schedule

Condition your body to get sleepy at the correct time by creating healthy sleep habits such as dimming the lights, winding down at least a 30 minutes before you go to bed, and going to bed at the same time every night. This will make it less difficult to fall asleep when you’re ready.

Tinnitus has also been related to stress. It’s also helpful to develop habits to lessen stress before bed.

• Sitting in a quiet room and reading a book
• Bathing
• Doing yoga and stretching
• Making your bedroom a little cooler
• Focusing on thoughts that make you happy and calm
• At least one hour before going to bed, dim the lights
• Doing a quick meditation or a deep breathing exercise
• At least a few hours before you go to bed, steer clear of eating
• Staying away from alcohol
• Listening to soft music or gentle sounds

Getting into a predictable routine before going to bed helps you shift away from the stresses of the day into night and trains your body to transition into sleep.

3. Pay Attention to What You Eat

Artificial sweeteners and alcohol are well-known triggers for tinnitus. If you discover, after monitoring your diet and symptoms, that certain foods trigger or worsen your tinnitus, make it a habit to stay away from them. Caffeine is also a trigger so at least avoid drinking it in the afternoon and at night.

4. Avoid Common Causes of Tinnitus

Ringing or other noises in your ears can be caused by many things. Dealing with the cause of tinnitus can help it improve or even prevent it altogether. Here are a few things you can do to help:

• Get help for inherent conditions such as high blood pressure
• Go for your annual checkup
• Evaluate your lifestyle to determine whether you’re subjected to loud noises (and how to limit exposure)
• Don’t use earbuds…use headphones instead and keep the sound level low
• Use ear protection
• Review your medications with your doctor to see if one may be causing tinnitus symptoms
• Get treatment for depression or anxiety

If you can determine what’s causing the ringing in your ears, you might be able to deal with it better.

5. Make an Appointment to See a Hearing Specialist

A professional hearing exam can help you identify what’s causing your tinnitus and suggest possible solutions. There are several ways hearing professionals can help you control your tinnitus including:

• Fitting you for hearing aids created to cancel out the noise
• Help you handle thought patterns revealed to make tinnitus worse by recommending cognitive behavior treatment
• Enrolling in treatment to train your brain to not hear the tinnitus

Expert help can speed up healing and assist you to sleep better at night. Schedule an appointment with your hearing care professional to see if you can get some help with your tinnitus.