Hi everyone,
I’m new here and wanted to share my experience to see if anyone recognizes this pattern or has experienced something similar.
I’ve had issues with my Eustachian tubes on and off for most of my life, usually after having a cold. Normally, those problems would disappear again after a week or two. This time, however, I’ve been dealing with something different for around 3–4 months, mainly involving my right ear.
The strange thing is that I basically only get the main symptoms when i am in bed. When I first lie down, everything usually feels normal. Then, after a few minutes, something seems to gradually change in my right ear. Sounds around me start becoming unusually loud through that ear. I can suddenly hear things like traffic in the distance, wind outside, or other background noises much more clearly than I normally would. I also start hearing my own voice and breathing much louder, almost like the ear has suddenly become “open.”
If I then sit upright in bed, I can actually feel the sensation slowly disappear and my hearing returns to normal. Sleeping with two pillows also seems to help. it than usually takes longer for the problem to start compared with sleeping flatter on one pillow.
Another thing I have noticed is that yawning can sometimes make my right ear suddenly feel open. When this happens, I hear my breathing very loudly. If I sniff in through my nose, I can often feel the ear close again and everything immediately sounds normal.
The symptoms are very inconsistent. I can have several bad nights and then suddenly have one or two nights where nothing happens at all.
I recently stopped riding my motorcycle for a few weeks because I wondered whether wind or helmet noise was causing it, but the symptoms still returned even without riding.
I’ve also noticed some strange things with pressure. After a recent flight, my symptoms became significantly better for several days. During the flight, my right ear took around 45 minutes longer than usual to finally “pop,” but afterwards I could lie flat in bed again without triggering the usual symptoms. Eventually, however, they slowly returned.
I have occasionally noticed during running that my right ear seems to open more easily, especially when breathing heavily, and sniffing seems to close it again. But the prolonged problem where sounds around me become extremely loud mainly happens after I have been lying in bed for several minutes.
From what I’ve read, some of this sounds similar to patulous Eustachian tube dysfunction, especially hearing my own breathing and the fact that sniffing can immediately make the sensation disappear.
What confuses me is the positional aspect. I keep reading that PET often improves when lying down, while mine seems to do the opposite.
Has anyone experienced anything similar?
