Childhood Disturbances

[Trig]

Hey this is my first post on these forums, and it's one about a strange experience I had. I experienced it over 10 years ago now, however I can remember it pretty well. Okay, let me just explain why I am posting here, this place appears to have intelligent people with a realistic and open view on things, what I am saying is just a recollection of my childhood.

My parents house was (and still is) situated next to an airfield. It's not a commercial field so you can't hear planes all day, the only thing you would see is the radar dish affecting analog TV transmissions, or when I had my Sega Mega Drive (showing my age here!) connected, which also use an RF connection on my TV. Only reason I mention this is because it appears to be [edit] one of the only explanations (other than a developing childs mind) that I can put on my experience.

When I was between 11-14 years old I had a real hard time going to sleep when a normal kid should. By 2am I was still rolling around, unable to sleep, kept awake by the noises in my own head. They definately weren't from the room as I would cover my ears to only magnify the noise.

The noise would be like if you can imagine morse code, but faster and with less variance (I have an mp3 of a noise that resembles it, but the only thing I can think of in words thats a series of beeps is morse). It used to drive me insane, and would never stop, i used to think it was normal and that everyone had it. My mother would tell me that it was because my mind was active from playing computer games so late, maybe she was right.

I've tried to google some things to find out if anyone else has had a similar experience as it was a big problem to me, and made me late for school for 3 terms. But what can you google? "Beeping in my head" "Audible beeps when trying to sleep" anything is likely to return garbage.

I've asked many people about this, almost everyone I have known for longer than a few weeks. Absolutely no-one has recalled an experience like it.
Which gets on to the question, why do I still care? Well it's like if your arm fell off one day as a child and you grew another, you'd still be curious, just in case it happened again, right?

So if anyone has any thoughts or feelings regarding this, any pointers in the direction of understanding this would be useful; like any idea what this was?
I'm still very skeptical myself, even though I experienced it, just attributed it to development and my active imagination (even though it was very real).

Trig

[Amapola]

Hi Trig, and welcome to the forum!

Did you ever talk to an ear specialist about this noise? Your ears can make some strange noises, such as ringing or even the type of noise you are describing. Here is an article for you: Tinnitus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus). As you will see, this can be caused by all sorts of things, sometimes even wax in your ears. For some people it is so loud it even drowns out all other noises.

I had it for a while, so I learned about it the hard way. :) It certainly can be very strange. Anyway, I went to an ear specialist and had my hearing tested. I learned a lot that day. The doctor thought I might experience it for the rest of my life, but fortunately he was wrong. Mine was caused by an injury to my inner ear, and once the injury healed the noise went away.

[coalesce]

First and foremost, welcome. I hope your stay with us is a long and productive one.

Insofar as the noises, I highly doubt it was because of the video games. I'm not a huge gamer, but even when I would go through my gaming phases, it never affected me--or anyone else I know--that way. Personally I think it was an active imagination--a good thing, I think you'll agree. As long as you didn't allow it to rule your later life, e.g. believe in fairies, dragons (except the ones in Indonesia, aka Komodo), 9-11 conspiracies, then you're fine.

Michael

[Trig]

Thanks for the reply.

Amapola, you could be right regarding tinnitus, I have never consulted a doctor regarding my hearing [edit], however if it was it has fixed itself.

One thing I mentioned in my post (but did not clarify) was the fact that it ceased at the age of 14 (roughly around the time I fully hit puberty, yes pretty late I know!).

The noises just stopped and I never heard them again, even as an adult I wish I could just for one night to give me some clarity on the matter.

Coalesce, yes it could be my overactive childhood imagination, it is a very feasible answer. However I do remember covering my ears as a child, and finding the noise would get louder and clearer. This would have me believe at the time that I was hearing something going on inside my own head.

As an adult, I am very skeptical of this, but I'm sure you have heard stranger tales!

[Trig]

Can you think of any other explanations? Taking into consideration I have never had any medical issues that I am aware of.

I'm not quite sure what I am looking for, maybe it could be something that simple. I will get a sample (from the mp3 i mentioned) of a similar noise to what I heard and maybe you will be able to tell me if tinnitus can produce such a noise.

As far as I was aware it was more of a high pitched piercing constant beep which fades. Yes I have experienced that too, but only on a rare occasion, usually when I'm dehydrated.

Best,
Trig

[Roadtoad]

It was the space aliens trying to contact you, Trig.

Welcome. :D

[Trig]

Funnily enough roadtoad, when I was a child, I used to think that something was trying to talk to me.

At the time I was thinking along the lines of electrical or electronic disturbances, or maybe I was picking up a transmission of some kind.

However I am not sure how feasible these things are, I have no neurology experience and have no idea even if our brains are capable of such a feat.

[Trig]

Attached is a zip of an very short mp3 which contains beeps very similar to my experience (the background noise wooshing was not present like in this example).
Obviously I had no way of recording the sounds in my head ;)

[skullerello]

Hmmm... welcome to the forums; interesting place.
(somebody needs to check this out for me) I believe you may have had a condition known as tintinnabulation, a sound in ones ears. Look it up on a medical site, compare your experiences. It could be something as mundane as that.




Not as cool as aleyuns tapping your brain, but much,much,much,much,much more plausable.

[Trig]

Hi Skullerello, and thanks!

I have just learned that a guy i speak to on MSN has a similar experience, yet it is very persistant for him. He wasn't surprised at this thread here, he had the same response from people, but after seeing a specialist, the problem still hasn't been resolved.

I don't know what to make of it, to be honest I was surprised to hear it too, when he said so after I pasted the url to this thread.

I wonder what his condition may be, or what mine has been for that matter, I guess theres only one way to find out.

And if your wondering, this guy, hasn't magically appeared, it really is a genuine person, I swear!

[Roadtoad]

Trig, in all seriousness, it's probably just tinnitis. I have the same condition. A doctor has diagnosed it. It's annoying, and it does come and go, (which makes hearing tests for the ol' CDL tough), but really, it's not that big a deal.

[Silly Green Monkey]

I have a constant whine in my ears, which the ENT says there's nothing they can do for. Luckily, I've learned to sleep through it, and it only bothers me in very quiet places.

[Trig]

How annoying, I find it helps to leave a PC running. The increased background noise level means its harder to hear anything, let alone the beeping in your head :)

[ponderingturtle]

How annoying, I find it helps to leave a PC running. The increased background noise level means its harder to hear anything, let alone the beeping in your head :)

That definitely sounds like Tinnitus, I have always had a low(sometime louder generally pretty soft) noise in my ears and background noise is nice when trying to sleep.

The other possibility it could be is a hypnogogic state as well.

[Cuddles]

As others have already said, the most likely explanation is tinitus. Although this is usually just a constant whine, it can vary in pitch and volume, and in some cases can cause severe problems such as insomnia, although it will often just disappear all by itself.

Another explanation I wouldn't discount is that there actually was something beeping. Did you live near a factory, railway, building site, or anything else that might have an alarm or klaxon? Even from several miles away you could be able to hear them as faint beeping. A few months ago I had a similar problem and I never did figure out where it was coming from, but since I live near a railway and a power station I'm fairly sure it was one of them. Covering your ears could make it seem louder since you would block out ambient noise, but not have much effect on a penetrating beep. It is easy to forget that often the simplest explanation for hearing funny noises is that there is a funny noise.

[Calcas]

I have a constant whine in my ears, which the ENT says there's nothing they can do for. Luckily, I've learned to sleep through it, and it only bothers me in very quiet places.

That's easy to fix. Tell her to sleep in the other room.