Why can I only hear my tinnitus when it's quiet?

We may not hear or notice tinnitus in a noisy environment. The noise either covers up the tinnitus, or we don’t pay as much attention to it because our brain focuses on other sounds. When it’s quiet, like at night when we’re trying to sleep, we can hear tinnitus as there is not much noise around. If you feel tinnitus is stopping you from sleeping at night, you should see a hearing specialist and have a hearing and tinnitus assessment.

It’s also worth reading about hearing in quiet versus noisy places, and you can browse the Tinnitus category page for more on tinnitus.