Have you ever experienced brain fog? This may feel like your brain isn’t working like it’s supposed to, causing confusion and making it difficult to focus. Brain fog isn’t a formal medical condition; many things can cause it, including tinnitus. Living with tinnitus is difficult enough, but adding in brain fog can make thinking and carrying out daily tasks even harder.
What Brain Fog Feels Like
The term “brain fog” quite aptly describes what it feels like: like you’re in a haze, your thoughts clouded over and slowed down. You may notice:
- Difficulty concentrating
- Memory issues
- Feeling mentally “off,” slow or sluggish
- Communication difficulties, such as forgetting a word
- Rereading the same sentence over and over again
How Tinnitus Can Cause Brain Fog
Your brain, just like any other organ, needs energy to carry out its functions. If something is taking up more of your mental energy than normal, it can deplete your energy levels and lead to your brain slowing down or struggling to carry out its usual tasks, which can feel like brain fog.
Tinnitus is a sound in your ear that is not caused by any external stimulus; essentially, your brain is generating the sound that it hears. Generating the sound uses up your mental energy reserves, and then your brain may further divert energy away from focusing on external stimuli—what’s going on around us, information from your other senses or maintaining focus on what you’re in the middle of doing, for example—in order to fixate on the sound of tinnitus.
How to Manage Tinnitus-Related Brain Fog
Here are a couple of strategies that can help you combat brain fog and tinnitus together and find relief from both.
Prioritize Good Sleep
Poor sleep is connected to both tinnitus and brain fog. Not only that, but tinnitus can play a role in poor night’s sleep by keeping you up or waking you up with the noise. Taking steps to get a good night’s sleep with tinnitus can help reduce your tinnitus and give your brain the energy it needs to stay sharp. Do this by:
- Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day (even on the weekends!)
- Avoid screens and bright lights before bed
- Use white noise, soft music or a tinnitus masking library to help fade tinnitus into the background
- Cut back on caffeine during the day
- Create a relaxing pre-bed routine to wind down, such as yoga, journalling, deep breathing or meditating
Brain Games
You can train your brain with games. Think of these games as brain exercises, as if you’re taking your brain to the gym, which will help it focus and perform better. This will make it stronger and build up the ability to focus, even when tinnitus is threatening to hijack your concentration. Some examples of brain games include:
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Crossword puzzles
- Sudoku
- Memory challenges
- Reading
De-Stress
Like sleep, stress is tied to tinnitus and brain fog. The “fight or flight” response of your body releases adrenaline, which can temporarily sharpen your focus and heighten your senses, but it can also lead to overwhelm and sensory overload. And once the stress ebbs away, you’re likely to be left with brain fog as a result of spending all that mental energy. Decreasing the stress in your life can significantly help with both tinnitus and brain fog. Experiment with stress-relief strategies and find one that works for you.
See a Tinnitus Professional
Seeking professional help from a tinnitus specialist can help immensely with tinnitus and relieve brain fog by treating the underlying condition. Consider a tinnitus management plan, such as tinnitus retraining therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy. If you’re interested in this, give Elevate Audiology a call. We can help with your tinnitus, and indirectly, with your brain fog.