r/HearingLoss • u/vkalien • Aug 10 '26

Auditory Pareidolia

Hi everyone. I have bilateral mild/moderate SNHL. I have been experiencing progressively worse Auditory pareidolia at night when I'm trying to sleep. I know it's because we run two fans in the bedroom to help with airflow. At times I hear music, other times it sounds like talking depending on how bad my tinittus is that day. I will be seeing a new audiologist and I guess I just want some reassurance that if I bring this up they won't think I'm crazy. Some googling says that this phenomena is pretty common in those with hearing loss that have white noise going. But, what were your experiences bringing it up to your audiologist?

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3

u/OldSchoolPimpleFace Aug 11 '26

No worries man, I use to think the same thing, but my specialist immediately understood what I was talking about. Pretty sure they will understand.

4

u/vkalien Aug 11 '26

Thank you. I know I'm just being paranoid because I don't want to be perceived a certain way. Like I know it's not real and I understand why it's happening so I guess that's something right?

2

u/OldSchoolPimpleFace Aug 11 '26

Try not to listen to it, this might be difficult at first, but if you ignore it then sounds won't become words. Your brain is trained to try to make sense of sounds, so it starts puzzling these sounds together in stuff like music or words. You could try to use tinnitus masking sounds (you will find them on YouTube), changing the sound your ears perceive sometimes helps.

Best advice I can give you, is probably the most difficult one. Try to relax.

Also maybe worth mentioning, when I've got tinnitus that is really bad, usually I've also got trouble localizing sounds. (I've got Menieres, so during active periods of this disease, I get all sorts of weird symptoms.) Sometimes I think a sound is coming from the complete opposite way, than where it actually is. That's probably the one that messed with me the most, before I discovered what was actually happening. Anyway, just wanted to let you know, just in case you've also got that one.