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 aggravating unrelenting sound.

Moderate to severe tinnitus can really cause a problem with your sleep cycle. During the day, tinnitus can be less obvious because you’re preoccupied with noise and activity. But tinnitus can seem louder and more stressful at night when it’s not as loud.

The good news is, if you want to have an easier time falling asleep, there are some techniques you can use.

Five tricks for falling asleep when you have tinnitus are shown below.

1. Don’t Fight The Noise

Even though this might sound impossible, if you pay attention to it, it becomes worse. This is partly because for most people a rise in blood pressure can worsen tinnitus symptoms. So the more frustrated you become thinking about it, the worse you are likely to feel. Focusing on something else and utilizing the techniques below can help make the noise seem softer.

2. Establish a Nighttime Routine

Condition your body to get sleepy at the right 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 easier to fall asleep when you’re ready.

Tinnitus has also been related to stress. Developing habits to lower your stress level before bed can also be helpful, such as:

• At least a few hours before bed, steer clear of eating
• Doing a short meditation or a deep breathing exercise
• At least one hour before bed time, dim the lights
• Concentrating on thoughts that make you feel happy and calm
• Bathing
• reduce the temperature in your bedroom
• Stretching or doing yoga
• Sitting in a quiet room and reading a book
• Staying away from alcohol
• Listening to quiet sounds or soft music

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

3. Watch What You Eat

There are known triggers to tinnitus like alcohol and artificial sweeteners. If you discover, after monitoring your diet and symptoms, that certain foods trigger or worsen your tinnitus, make it a habit to avoid them. You may feel that you still have to have your morning coffee, but avoid caffeine in the afternoon or at nights.

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 stop it altogether. Here are a few things you can do to help:

• Get help for inherent conditions such as high blood pressure
• Make an appointment for your yearly examination
• If you have depression or anxiety, get it taken care of
• Use headphones at a lower volume instead of earbuds
• Safeguard your ears
• Go over your medications with your doctor to see if one may be causing tinnitus symptoms
• In order to identify whether your exposed to loud noises, and how to reduce that exposure, you need to assess your lifestyle

You may be able to better deal with it if you can discover what’s causing the ringing.

5. Get Examined by a Hearing Care Specialist

A professional hearing examination can help you find possible solutions as well as identify what may be causing your tinnitus. Professionals can help you take care of your tinnitus in many ways such as:

• Enrolling in therapy to train your brain not to hear the tinnitus
• Suggesting cognitive behavioral treatment to deal with thought patterns revealed to make tinnitus worse
• Scheduling a noise canceling hearing aid fitting

To speed up recovery and sleep better at night, seek professional help. Schedule an appointment with your hearing care professional to find out if you can get some help with your tinnitus.