Do you hear "The Hum"

[spengos]

I started hearing a very low, droning hum a few weeks ago. It's very faint and best described as a car idling outside your house. Having checked outside numerous times it's definitely not an idling car. After that I just assumed it was something in our house. Maybe the central heating or something. But today I went round to someone else's house and heard the exact same sound, which really freaked me out! I've asked many people I know if they can hear it but none of them can.

I got a bit worried and started thinking it might be some sort of hearing problem, like tinnitus for example. But I did a bit of Googling and found this:

Article from the Independent
Also a Wiki link

The sound described in these articles is exactly what I've started hearing and apparently it can be heard by around 10% of people in the country.

Anyone else tuned into this sound? If so what are your findings?

At the moment I'm still in a curious stage and it all seems like a bit of a mystery, but I'm really hoping it doesn't start to become annoying and effect my sleep or life in general.

Ok, so I've found that the humming sound I'm hearing is exactly the same pitch every time. It seems to match a frequency of exactly 60hz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Sf7rSOU78

I will hear this for short periods at a time, anything from a couple of seconds up to no more than 20 seconds, and then just silence in between. The pauses between the humming can be any length of time.

 

[spengos]

Sound like tinnitus, and if it's unilateral and not settling go see your doctor. Work in noisy environments by any chance?

Nope, I work in a fairly quiet office. Never listen to music loudly through earphones or anything either. In fact I don't really like anything really loud, even music.

The two things that are convincing me it's not tinnitus is that it's a very low and almost oscillating drone. Whereas I think tinnitus is normally prolonged high pitch sounds. Secondly the sound doesn't sound internal it sounds external and far away. Like a car up the road in the distance that is idling.

 

[spengos]

For those of you that have tinnitus, do you also hear the ringing/humming(whatever) when you put your fingers in your ears or while listening to music/watching TV etc?

Also, do you hear the sounds inside and outside the house? Or just inside when it's very quiet?

 

[spengos]

Yes everywhere and the silence is worse.

In that case what I'm hearing isn't tinnitus. If I put my fingers in my ears or put on my noise cancelling headphones(no music) the humming stops. I also don't hear it outside. Even if it's really quiet.

I'm gonna go see the doc in the next few days to see what they say.

 

[spengos]

Ok, so I've found that the humming sound I'm hearing is exactly the same pitch every time. It seems to match a frequency of exactly 60hz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Sf7rSOU78

I will hear this for short periods at a time, anything from a couple of seconds up to no more than 20 seconds, and then just silence in between. The pauses between the humming can be any length of time.