Wednesday, February 27, 2019

What in the World is Tinnitus and Why in the World Does It Matter?


Before we get too deeply into the subject of Tinnitus, let's all stop for a moment and give thanks we don't live in ancient Egypt roughly 2500 years before the birth of Christ. According to a document called the Ebers papyrus, people who suffered from a condition known as "a bewitched ear" would be treated with an infusion of "balanites oil 1 portion, frankincense 1 portion, and sekhopf 1 portion". I don't know about you, but I don't have 1 portion of balanites hidden in my medicine cabinet behind the tweezers. Let's not even talk about trying to get some sekhopf at 11 P.M., especially if you don't happen to live in a big city in close vicinity to the Nile and some pyramids.

The interesting thing about this papyrus is that it may be the oldest description of a common, but debilitating condition called tinnitus. Tinnitus, most simply, is a persistent steady sound such as a buzzing, clicking, or whistling that is audible without a source of sound. Nearly every adult has suffered from at least a mild and temporary incident of tinnitus, most often caused by prolonged exposure to loud noises. If you've ever spent too much time too close to the speakers at a rock concert and got that ringing in your ears that lasted a few hours after the show, you had a mild form of tinnitus. In that case, what happened was the noise damaged certain fine hair inside your ears that transmit signals to neurons in your brain. Once the damage heals, the signals get to the neurons in the right ways and the tinnitus goes away.

However, some people endure lasting tinnitus that affects them in a number of ways. According to a recent paper published in The Lancet, 10 to 15 percent of people suffer from chronic tinnitus. Most who have the condition are able to function well enough with it but roughly 1 to 2 percent of people report a severe effect on their quality of life. To put that in perspective, New York City has an approximate population of 8.5 million people, which means 170,000 people have a bad enough case of tinnitus that it negatively affects their life. That's a lot of people. Spread that out over a whole nation and the numbers get a bit mind-boggling. For example, the American Tinnitus Association estimates that 20 million or so Americans have what it calls "burdensome chronic tinnitus".

Those negative effects, those burdens, are not trivial. Tinnitus is linked, at least in surveys, to depression, sleep disorders, social isolation, and anxiety. At its worst, it can drive people to attempt suicide. Though detailed medical studies are thin, scientists are finding the condition affects many parts of the brain and may, in fact, change how a tinnitus-sufferer's brain actually works. Imagine 20 million people, all over this country, enduring a persistent noise that simply will not stop. Imagine how miserable those people must be.

Now imagine some of those people are your friends, family, and loved ones. There's a very good chance you know at least one person with tinnitus, especially if that person is a soldier.

The most common cause of tinnitus is noise, though age runs a relatively close second. Because of the nature of their jobs, soldiers are especially prone to to it. In 2012, tinnitus and hearing loss were the two most-reported disabilities connected to service.  This year, the AARP noted some 2.7 million veterans receive disability benefits due to tinnitus or hearing loss. That's a lot of soldiers, and more get diagnosed every year.


Despite its prevalence, there is no sure cure for tinnitus. The ATA says that sound therapy, especially sound masking devices -- devices that make steady and pleasing noises louder than the sounds of tinnitus -- can provide temporary relief. As of right now, no one can say for sure that a certain course of treatment will work for a certain person, but a recent survey of clinical trials has shown some hope that with the right device and the right therapies, people who suffer from the worst effects of tinnitus can find at least consistent temporary relief.

And that sounds a lot better than an infusion of ancient Egyptian schmutz, now doesn't it?


Warning: This guy may be responsible for a few bewitched ears.
(Photo Credits: @chairulfajar_ on Unsplash and ArtsyBee on Pixabay)

Friday, February 22, 2019

Head Tingles and Quiet Whispers: A Quick Guide to ASMR

You are getting sleepy. Sleeeeeeeeepy.
Oh, and tingly too. Tinglyyyyyy. *crackle*


Very recently, you may have seen a beer commercial called "The Pure Experience", in which sound plays a huge role. In it, Zoƫ Kravitz pours a beer in near-silence, whispers into microphones set on either side of her table, and taps her fingernails against the bottle. The very intimate and "close" experience is designed to cause a very particular reaction.

When you saw it, did you get a little pleasant tingle along your scalp that ran down your spine? If so, congratulations! You just experienced something called autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR for short. That tingle was an involuntary response your body has to sensory input from the outside. You may have had a similar sensation while getting your hair cut or listening to someone leaf through a book or magazine. You may have even experiences a reaction while watching Bob Ross paint his happy little trees. Ross' show, in fact, was one of the first places people began to notice their reactions. It wasn't until they could gather on the internet to talk about what they were experiencing that people began to connect the sensory inputs to the reactions and found that they weren't rare nor were they accidental. Something for sure was happening to people, though what that is (as the song goes) ain't exactly clear.

ASMR got its name in 2010, which gives you a pretty good idea about how little time scientists have had to study what it's all about. What we do know is that ASMR is one of those things that you either feel or you don't. Lots of people do. Some people have an adverse reaction. Some people just wonder what all the whispering and microphone brushing is about. We also know that the most popular way to stimulate the response is through videos, namely videos on YouTube. One of the more popular ASMR channels is ASMR Darling, who has over 2 million subscribers and reportedly earns a thousand dollars a day in advertising. Most popular ASMR channels belong to women, usually women with accents who split their videos between whispering soothing scenes and making ambient sounds with their fingers, brushes, and crumpled paper. You can also find plenty of ASMR videos that have nothing but nature sounds as well or environmental noises like typewriters or people reading books quietly, as if you were sitting in a library.  

It's enough to make you nod off right now, isn't it? And that's really the point. Most folks who have a positive reaction to ASMR "triggers" feel more relaxed after they experience that tingly sensation. Some even report nodding off before they even know what's happening.

Now, if only you could find a way to get those sounds quietly into your ears while you were comfortable in bed, possibly with Night Owl Speakers™. That would be pretty handy, wouldn't it? Pretty handy indeed.

This is not the optimal ASMR setup.
Try something softer, with fewer wires.

(Photo Credits: PublicDomainPictures and LOC on Pixabay)

Monday, February 4, 2019

Let's Talk About the Pillow Dance


You sleep on a throne of pillows! 
Imagine this scene.

You're about to go to bed. You have a perfect mattress, squishy in all the right places and firm in all the others. Your blanket keeps you at that juuuuust right temperature and also protects your feet from the monster that hides under the bed. What? You have to cover your feet or the monster will get you. We all know this. Anyhow, you tuck yourself in, roll over onto your side, your head hits the lovely down-stuffed pillow, and--

--nope. Not working. The pillow all but collapsed and now your neck hurts a bit. So you prop yourself up on one elbow, grab the second pillow, and shove it under the first. The second pillow is one of those fancy poly-fill jobbies you got at the mall department store because it promised premium comfort. It ought to help, right? Right. You slide down into the bed again, get settled again, relax your head into the pillow and--

--oh, come on. Too high now? Yeah. It feels like your head is jammed against your shoulder. Also, your head sank into the down pillow so that part of the pillow covers your nose. So you may suffocate as well. That would be a terrible way to go, wouldn't it?

Readjustment time. You sit up all the way and notice, thanks to a glance at your clock, that you've been at this far longer than you ever wanted. But you're sure you have the solution. Two down pillows! That's the ticket! Away goes the pricey premium pillow and into the game comes the second down-stuffed sack of sleepy satisfaction! You give them both a good fluffing, trying not to sneeze as an errant feather runs halfway up your nose, situate them just so, slide back into prime sleeping position and--

--well, you get the idea. You're doing the Pillow Dance -- the same dance many of us have done night after night, in search of that perfect comfortable sleeping position. If you sleep on your side (and according to a survey a few years ago by the company Anna Linens, that's 74 percent of us) you know how tough it is to get the pillows just right. You, like many of us, have probably tried a combination of pillows and have at least two, if not 3 or 4 pillows on or near your bed, ready for nighttime deployment.

But it never works the same way twice, does it? You may find that sweet spot once, but the next night? It's as elusive as the memories of that wonderful dream that involved an all-you-can-eat chocolate ice cream restaurant and several large sacks of found money.

The Pillow Dance is exactly the reason My Butterfly Pillow exists. We got tired of tossing and turning, or having pillows drop our heads too low or jack it up too high. We got tired of the Pillow Dance and we think you're tired of it, too.

Come visit us in the comments and tell us about your own Pillow Dance! Let's see if we can be a help to you! We're ready!

The kitty wants to hear from you! 
(Photo Credits: Jay Mantri and StockSnap on Pixabay)

Make Your Bedroom Like a Cave for Your Best Sleep!

I bet this house has a wonderful comfy bedroom! If you've read our blog for any amount of time, you'll know we are concerned abo...