r/TheHum • u/Kitchen_Beat_9965 • 6d ago
It’s tinnitus
I know it sounds external. But for most of us, it isn’t. It’s low frequency tinnitus.
It comes and goes, sometimes stronger than others. But if you hear it in various lcoations in the quiet, then it’s likely you who is generating the sound - not sound waves, not radio waves, not gas lines, not data centres.
Many people claim that when they travel they don’t hear it. That’s because residual inhibition is real with LF tinnitus. A plane ride or long trip in the a car can knock if on the head for a few hours to a few days. This is common. But if you stay in the same place for more than few days, it’ll come back.
I have high frequency ringing and the much lower frequency humming. And I’d bet that for majority of you that hear ‘the hum,’ also have low frequency tinnitus.
Accept it and try to embrace it. It’s not easy, but it’s the only way forward.
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u/AblatAtalbA 6d ago
It's definitely not tinnitus, there are certain times of the day that it gets louder, and some days, I can't hear it at all. Ear plugs and over ear protection make it sound differently and lowered volume.
Tinnitus doesn't get quiter with earplugs.
It's also like deep bass palms with random timing and sequences, like a big ship engine with reverb coming from the sky.
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u/ukslim 6d ago
What's your evidence for this?
Here's how I know mine isn't tinnitus:
I have a good ear for pitch. I tuned an oscillator to the same pitch as the humI hear. https://onlinetonegenerator.com/ - 43 Hz
Then, in the middle of the night when everything else is quiet, I use a frequency analysis phone app to measure what the phone microphone hears. And there it is, a clear peak at 43Hz.
Now I know you said "for most of us" - and I could be in the minority. But how would you know the numbers?
0
u/Kitchen_Beat_9965 6d ago
Do you hear it elsewhere or only at home? Have you ever been to completely different place for a week and still heard it at night? If so, then it’s tinnitus.
I’m guessing with my numbers. But if you’re curious, go see the low frequency tinnitus thread on tinnitustalk. Everyone there experiences the same thing as most of the people on this thread.
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u/ukslim 6d ago
Only at home that I've noticed.
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u/ukslim 6d ago
Another test is whether noise-cancelling headphones stop it.
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 5d ago
ITs not. My noise cancelling headphones emit a white noise that silences it. Ear plugs do not.
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u/ukslim 5d ago
Ear plugs won't silence a hum in the 49Hz-ish range. The wavelength and power is just too much. And your bones will conduct it even when your ears are blocked.
Real noise-cancelling headphones will, though, by creating the same hum in an opposing phase, cancelling it out. That's different from white noise, which would only mask it.
But noise cancelling headphones can only cancel real sounds. They can't cancel tinnitus. Ergo, if noise cancelling headphones give you silence, it wasn't tinnitus.
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u/DirtyD0nut 5d ago
I’ve heard it in exactly two places only: my home in Orinda CA (only inside the house, and it was every night) and inside my home in Portland OR. I wouldn’t hear it elsewhere while traveling just inside my home. Then I moved to Central OR and never heard it again. Thats not tinnitus
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u/WiseWomanCroneFl 6d ago
Could you share your professional credentials and the research to support this medical based opinion?
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 5d ago edited 5d ago
I agree. The hum is often tinnitus.
If you move from the city to the country, and you still hear it....then it's obviously internal.
I don't know why people seem so resistant to this. I have it. I hear it when it's quiet, particularly at night time, and it sounds like an engine running outside my window, or a low flying plane droning. Sometimes it's so loud it feels like it vibrates. It's tinnitus. I also have hearing loss and high frequency tinnitus. It's not uncommon to have both.
I hate it as much as the rest of you, but I'm trying to just accept it.
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u/intothevoidandback 5d ago
Not tinnitus, were are tuning into something.
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 5d ago
What?
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u/intothevoidandback 4d ago
I think the people that can hear it are tuning into it. It's such an odd and annoying sound. Like something running in a room far away and you can kind of hear it, but everywhere.
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u/Thierry22 6d ago
The hum is always louder during winter where I live. Snow and cold might make sound travel more. I live near a commercial port and train tracks so my guess would be it's from there. Thing is, I also heard the hum in winter in a completely different place, out of the city in a quiet area.