Blue Moon Rising, I also have severe, bilateral tinnitus. For some reason, even if I nap for only a few seconds, my already loud tinnitus - which consists of many sounds, the most prominent of which resemble a miniature chainsaw and a screaming tea kettle - goes through the roof. And it is always off the scale first thing in the morning. I also wear hearing aids in both ears.
Fortunately, that morning tinnitus does calm down after a while.
Over the years, in spite of all this, I have been able to come to terms with this situation. I am now retired but the work I did was thoroughly absorbing. So I would go many hours without noticing it. However, now that I am stuck at home in a quieter environment, it has become foregrounded again. So over the last few months I have had problems with it again.
Presently, as you probably already know, there is no medical treatment for this condition, though there are some in the pipeline.
So all that exists are therapies that are designed to dampen one's emotional response to this condition. The trick is to get to a point where you no longer react emotionally to your tinnitus. It then drops below the threshold of conscious awareness. It's a bit like when you are in a noisy plane, train or car but wrapped up in a book. You don't hear the engine noise.
It can take time to get to that point as the brain is automatically predisposed to see tinnitus as a threat. So the 'fight or flight' response kicks in.
Presently, there are two approaches that can help to facilitate this process: CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy).
In the case of CBT, a whole book exists that has been authored with tinnitus sufferers in mind. It contains exercises that you can work through to get you to this point.
The whole text is available for free here.
In my case, I went down the MBCT path. This approach is geared to the management of chronic pain. All I did was adapt the protocol for tinnitus.
This publication describes the process. It is usually easy to acquire a cheap secondhand copy.
Lastly, I would also recommend sampling the articles that you will find here:
drnagler.supporttopics.com
It might be an idea to sleep in a more sound enriched environment, maybe by listening to waterfall, rain or rainforest sounds on YouTube through an iPhone if you have one. Some of the samples on YouTube go on for as long as 10 hours.
You will also find tinnitus veterans on this forum who will be happy to provide specific advice if need be.
Tinnitus Support Message Board-
www.tapatalk.com
Hope this post helps in some way.
