earplugs causing throbbing/pulsing sound in ears

**lafemelle** · 06-25-2010 10:29 PM

I've been using earplugs to help me sleep for over a year now; for about 6 months, I've used the same brand and they've been the most comfortable and until recently, they gave me no problems.

For the past month though, when I insert my earplugs there is a pulsing, almost heart-beatish sound in my right ear (just the right one, not both), and it's so obnoxious it takes me an incredibly long time to fall asleep because I can't focus on anything but the pulsing sound. No matter what I do, I can't get the pulsing sound to stop...and it's a lose-lose situation because I can't fall asleep with any kind of background noise (I live right in the middle of a well-populated city) and it's impossible for me to sleep without them.

Does anyone know what would cause something like this, and if there's anything I can do to make it stop while still being able to wear my earplugs? It's such an odd situation, and pretty random, but I don't know what to do about it and it's caused more than a few restless nights for me.

**ItsASecret** · 06-26-2010 10:13 AM

I am going to say it is your actual pulse. There are a couple arteries (maxillary and temporal) along the face that would pump enough blood as well as act as pulse points on the body. If it is really really quiet as is the case with ear plugs I would imagine that you could hear that fast pumping every once and awhile.

**lafemelle** · 06-28-2010 07:37 AM

That's what I thought at first too, but I can hear (as well as feel) my actual pulse separately from this noise; also, they're not going at the same speed. The throbbing in my ears is much slower than my actual pulse.