Do you have any additional symptoms? Hearing loss? Muffled hearing? Distorted hearing? Ear pain? A feeling of fullness in the ear? Balance issues? Also, is it both ears or just one?
How severe is the tinnitus on a scale of "only noticeable if you plug your ears" to "dental drill 24/7"?
If you answer those questions I can point you in the right direction. The big thing is to determine if it's tinnitus from sound damage or some other source (viral/genetic/trauma).
I've had it in the past, but it was sporadic, only lasting a few days maybe, and at a level where I didn't really notice it at all.
But last night was pretty bad in terms of sleeping, I had to put the fan on full blast and play videos all night long to distract me from it.
I work in a pretty quiet office, and that was pretty bad today. If I'm not actively on the phone, it gets pretty bad pretty quick.
I can't think of anything that physical that could've caused this.
Could be genetic, my aunt has it real bad, but she was also a professional musician, so I'd attribute hearing damage in her case
Is it both ears or just one? And how long ago in the past? As in weeks or years ago?
The reason I ask is that tinnitus from damage is usually pretty easy to attribute. Power tools, rock concerts, gun ranges, working in noisy factories, etc.
If it's not from exposure to noise, go see an ENT tomorrow because there are other causes for tinnitus which can be treated if you catch them quickly enough. E.g. viral labyrinthitis can cause you to wake up one day with horrific tinnitus, and if a doc hops on it right quick they can prevent long term damage and mitigate the symptoms in the short term.
It has been around in a very mild form for a long time, but so mild I don't really notice it if I turn a fan on at night.
Viral Labyrinthitis sounds like a disease from an awesome small budget horror film, so I'd be ok with that in my obituary.
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