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Sound Hypersensitivity and Sound Therapy

Only those who experience or live with someone who experiences sound hypersensitivity can realize what a devastating effect it can have on life. It may be painful or frightening to be outside near traffic, travel, be near household appliances, or attend social activities, especially those with loud music.

There are various ways of defining sound sensitivity:

• Hyperacusis means that something is wrong with the functioning of the ear or auditory reception pathways in the brain, so that sounds are experienced as being very loud, even painful.
• Phonophobia refers to a state where someone develops an emotional reactivity or fear of sound and is reacting to psychological rather than physical causes.

In some cases both conditions may be combined, or some people may simply have an unusual level of irritation caused by certain loud noises.

A more extreme form of sound sensitivity is "recruitment", where a sound becomes magnified by the ear so it echoes or reverberates inside the head and becomes much louder than the original sound.

Photo courtesy of Tim Parkinson

How Sound Therapy helps sound hypersensitivity

The ear should naturally have the resilience to adapt to sounds as quiet as hearing a pin drop or as loud as an opera singer. When this ability is lost it is because certain parts of the ear have lost their functionality, e.g.:

• the muscles in the middle ear may have become stiff or unresponsive so they do not quickly adapt the ear to the volume of incoming sound
• pressure chambers in the ear may be blocked
• auditory pathways in the brain may be functioning inefficiently

Sound Therapy soothes the auditory pathway nerves and tones the middle ear muscles, allowing the natural sound dampening ability of the ear to function properly. The program gently activates all parts of the ear to restore the ear's natural ability to protect itself from noise that is too loud, as well as improving the perception of all frequencies of sound.

Learn more about how to use Sound Therapy.

Relieving stiff ear muscles

The middle ear contains two tiny muscles - the tensor tympani and the stapedius - which play an active role in the functioning of the ear and its ability to adapt to the sound signals it receives.

The alternating high and low frequencies of Sound Therapy cause the ear muscles to repeatedly tense and relax. In the same way that doing sit ups / crunches tones your abdominal muscles, the exercise provided by Sound Therapy restores tone and flexibility to muscles that have become stiff.

Learn more about how Sound Therapy rehabilitates the ear.

Unblocking the ear's pressure chambers

The blockage of the pressure chambers inside the ear occurs when the Eustachian tube is unable to open to allow movement of air to regulate the pressure in the ear.

The opening and closing of the Eustachian tube is controlled involuntarily by the hammer muscle (the tensor tympani), one of the muscles inside the middle ear.

Toning the tensor tympani muscle allows the Eustachian tube to open and close as needed, which removes the sensation of pressure blockages.

Learn more about how Sound Therapy unblocks blocked ears.

Improving the functioning of the auditory pathways

The organised harmonic structure of classical music with its stimulating effect, further enhanced by Dr Tomatis' "Electronic Ear", has proved to be an effective way to increase neural efficiency in processing sound.

Learn more about how Sound Therapy stimulates the brain.

Listener's Stories

Mrs Graham - Stockton NSW

"I could not stand music very loud at all. It was as if my ears were going to explode from the inside out with the pressure I felt inside them, which would quickly result in a bad headache.

"I have been using Sound Therapy for 6 months now. I take my cassette player, I listen to it in bed every night, I enjoy it. Although you don't really listen hard to it. Just softly in your ear. I can even stand the top twenty on Saturday mornings (my partner always has this on). I used to leave the house or go back to bed, anywhere to get away from the noise. I handle that okay now too."