Do you hear "The Hum"

I started hearing a strange hum a few weeks ago and it was driving me mad. To try and find out what it was I -

Turned off mains Electricity
Turned off water
Phoned electricity company to check meter
Explored my loft at 3am
Bought a condenser mic to try and record it.
Asked neighbors to turn off mains
Asked neighbors if anyone was growing cannabis
Went round the house with a stethoscope on the walls
Got vibration meter to use on the floors

I've came to the conclusion its probably tinnitus I have.
 
Strife212 said:
Tinnitus is really high pitched, not low pitched right
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Aod said:
Tinnitus can be perceived as almost any frequency I believe.
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Jokester said:
Mines both. Usually the high pitch is random, the low is triggered by noisy places.
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Yes, mine can be high and low as well. It's like using a tone generator that picks a frequency at random and then sticks with that frequency. It starts off deafeningly loud then gets quieter and disappears after a few minutes. I'm moderate/severely deaf, so I'm prone to tinnitus anyway.
 
I've got a constant high pitched tone in my head/ears. It's right on the edge of hearing unless I'm in a dead silent room. Its been there for so long I can't remember when it started and I only notice it now if I 'listen' for it.

Not picked up on a random humming sound though.
 
I returned from travelling around the world 6 months ago and moved into a new house. It was summer and very hot so I had the windows open. We're now living in a more suburban area compared to where we previously lived in the sticks. For a few nights I kept hearing what I thought was distant traffic on the roads. So I closed my windows and got use to it and put it down to a combination of jet lag and a new house.

A couple of weeks ago, and now that we're in the winter with all my windows firmly shut, I couldn't sleep for 2 or 3 nights in a row. I could hear a faint hum, like traffic, or as though someone had left their engine running, or some sort of generator but I know that nothing was running. We now live in a village so it's pretty obvious when there's work being done. I am very sensitive to noise at night which is why I turn everything off. Any lights or fan noise from a PC will keep me up, so this 'hum' was horrible. I only fell asleep through sheer exhaustion.

The wiki link posted above describes the noise perfectly:

The essential element that defines the Hum is what is perceived as a persistent low-frequency sound, often described as being comparable to that of a distant diesel engine idling, or to some similar low-pitched sound for which obvious sources (e.g., household appliances, traffic noise, etc.) have been ruled out. There are a number of audio reproductions of the Hum available on the web.

It's probably just my hearing going. Poor me.
 
Yes I sometimes hear it for a few days and then it goes away. We have a special hum here called The Bristol Hum, as per your wiki link.
It has been observed for some years but nobody knows what it is. I think it is some sort of resonance due to the fact we're surrounded by hills and when the conditions are right it just happens.
 
On the topic of tinnitus, it can be so much more fun that just a noise. My partner used to complain about music keeping her awake at night and get cross with me because I said I couldn't hear it. Turned out that she has tinnitus which is causing it and not the neighbours.

Couple of tabloid links to stories of people who have this (neither of these women is anything to do with me!):

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-musical-hallucination-rare-form-1711102#.UuWTDPdFBaQ

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2246060/Tinnitus-Cant-tune-head-Tina-30-YEARS--discover-cure-surprisingly-simple.html
 
spengos said:
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. .
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Coincidence, I have been seeing doctors for this since november. It's not tinnitus. I lift share and kept looking out my window thinking my pick up was there as I could hear a car on tick over outside :D

Basically I was told the fluid behind my eardrum is not draining away properly and will be worse this time of year. It should get better in the summer. Officially they tell you nothing can be done and it's something you have to live with, unless your hearing deteriorates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ménière's_disease

I have found you can go private and have a painful injection of steroid in the ear to help clear it up.
 
Menieres typically presents with vertigo and hearing loss. That "fluid" is in the inner ear.

If you have fluid behind your eardrum (middle ear) then it's chronic suppurative otitis media that can be treated with antibiotics, if that fails you might need grommets.
 
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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?
 
Thanks for making me aware of my tinitus for the first time in ages OP, its driving me nuts now! :p

spengos said:
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?
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I can hear it when I plug my ears yes. It is very noticeable in silence, almost annoying. I can hear it quite clearly when I'm in a place without much background noise, such as sitting at my PC with all the fans going and me tapping away on the keyboard, but I don't really 'notice' it unless I think about it.

I cant really hear it when I listen to music or watch the TV etc.
 
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