Recommended Apps for Masking Tinnitus

Do you suffer from tinnitus? Using the proper tools to manage it, is key to having a good quality of life. 

If you own a smartphone, you’re already one step towards managing your tinnitus. There are so many different apps that are available to deal with tinnitus, which include:   

• Breathing techniques
• Educational content
• Guided meditations 
• Habituation assistance 
• Sound masking
• Sensorineural hearing loss improvement

Don’t feel disheartened when a healthcare professional discloses that you simply have to live with tinnitus. There are so many methods of tinnitus relief such as engaging in relaxation and meditation, wearing earplugs or earmuffs, staying away from too much noise exposure (which can harm your hearing health and worsen symptoms of tinnitus).

Top Apps to Mask Sound

When used properly, sound masking can be one of the best coping tools if you suffer from tinnitus. It’s easy to use. Different types of background noise can be utilized to mask the beeping, buzzing, humming, hissing, ringing, static, whooshing noises that come with tinnitus.  For many people who have tinnitus, having the proper background noise may provide temporary, but instant relief. 

It has been proven to be an effective way to manage the symptoms, but it’s complicated. Each masking sound is different, and there’s an infinite amount of sound masking/sound therapy apps. Recommended apps:

MyNoise (Android and iOS)

MyNoise includes a vast library of ambiances and soundscapes, which features some experimental sounds that were primarily developed for individuals with tinnitus. You may customize the soundscape by adding or reducing bird, rain, wind, and chime sounds. The myNoise app is a simple way to adjust to the best soundscape to mask your tinnitus. 

NatureSpace (Android and iOS)

The NatureSpace app features soundscapes that were created using high-fidelity audio recordings of authentic nature sounds.  

What is a Leading App for overall Tinnitus Relief and Habituation?

Quieten (Android and iOS)

There is currently no known cure for tinnitus, but sufferers can experience relief via habituation. There are only a few apps that have been made to help you habituate to the sound of your tinnitus. 

A human brain has the ability to tune out the tinnitus, just as it ignores other background noise. Complications that arise when it becomes severe, are provoking strong and worsening fight-or-flight stress as a never-ending reaction. Tinnitus can’t simply disappear. This fight-or-flight response restricts the brain from the ability to ignore the sound. Humans are designed to concentrate on sounds that the brain and nervous system interpret as dangerous. 

Humans have the ability to adjust the underlying emotional, physiological, and psychological reaction to tinnitus. When you do this, your brain can begin to naturally tune out and ignore the sound of your tinnitus more often.
 
Quieten is a great app from Julian Cowan Hill, who is an author, therapist, and tinnitus expert. The app has a vast number of free audio and educational content that will help you habituate and learn more about tinnitus, along with meditations, coping mechanisms, relaxation techniques, etc. 

Paid apps for Meditation

To manage tinnitus, you must significantly reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. You may engage in mindful meditation, which is one of the most powerful tools that can be used. Mindfulness has been proven to help deal with tinnitus, and also manage the way your brain functions. 

Some mindful meditation apps include:

• Waking Up 
• Headspace
• Calm
• 10% App

Best Free app for Meditation

Insight Timer: This is the most popular free meditation app. It has over 60,000 guided meditations, breathing exercises, and music tracks.

This is not your traditional guided meditation. There are guided meditations that improve sleep, relieving anxiety, relaxation, focus, and more. These are great options for those who experience tinnitus and are interested in using various types of meditation to help cope.  

Insight Timer also has a meditation timer feature that is incorporated into the app, which lets users create custom meditation sessions. This is a training tool that plays a chime sound of your choice to help you focus at different intervals to keep you focused as you meditate. If your mind begins to wander, the chime will sound to focus your attention back to the meditation. 

Best apps to use for Breathing Techniques

Breathing techniques are an effective method of dealing with tinnitus, particularly when there are spikes or severe cases on certain days. Some apps feature guided breathing exercises to help you learn and practice the best ways that work for you.

Some breathing techniques can quickly bring about a relaxed response to the nervous system. Others can help you fall asleep quickly, reduce levels of stress, improve emotional regulation, or increase energy levels and focus. 

Breathwrk app (iOS)

This is one of the best breathing exercise apps for iOS. It received 4.9/5 stars. It has over 10 guided breathing techniques, audio, visual, and vibration cues, lessons in breathing, tracks your personal progress, etc.

Prana Breath: Calm & Meditate (Android)

This is a very popular and effective free guided breathing app that is used with Android. It features 8 preset breathing protocols, audio, visual, and vibration cues to make it easy to follow, in addition to the option of setting up customized breathing sessions with your choice of times during the intervals. Prana Breath gives users control over increasing the level of complexity and difficulty of each technique that you practice while tracking your progress.      

Best Apps to Improve Hearing Loss

AudioCardio (Android and iOS)

Most people who have tinnitus, also experience hearing loss. These two symptoms may require extra approaches in treatment. If you can improve your hearing, chances are there will be better relief in your tinnitus symptoms. AudioCardio provides a new type of sound therapy that can be compared to physical therapy, but for hearing health. It may help to strengthen the hearing abilities in patients who have sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).

The app will perform a hearing test to determine the lowest decibel level of sound that you can hear at a range with different frequencies. The app will target the user’s lowest frequency levels and deliver a unique type of sound therapy known as Threshold Sound Conditioning. 

In many cases of sensorineural hearing loss, the hair cells become damaged, but not destroyed. A person will continue to hear certain frequency sounds if they are loud enough. The app uses a generated tone that was created with an algorithm right at the threshold of what the person can hear.

The tones are either inaudible or barely audible. The creators of the app stated that by stimulating the hair cells at the threshold, the app can strengthen hair cells, which leads to better hearing. 

If you, or a loved one, are experiencing hearing loss, please contact us at Pure Sound Hearing for a free hearing test and consultation. We offer a variety of hearing aid styles and brands for a wide range of hearing loss.

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