Typewriter Tinnitus/Morse Code Tinnitus

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by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

© December, 2022

I’ve written about several different kinds of weird tinnitus including “Moving Tongue Tinnitus” (1), “Nodding Chime Tinnitus” (2), “Reactive Tinnitus” (3), Pulsatile Tinnitus (4), “Squeaking Tinnitus” (5), “Touch-Sensitive Tinnitus” (6), “Exploding-Head Tinnitus” (7) and several other kinds of tinnitus including, “Gaze-Evoked Tinnitus”. These and the above listed kinds of tinnitus are all more fully explained in the 8th edition of my book “Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How” (8).

However, somehow I totally neglected to explain another strange kind of tinnitus variously called “Typewriter Tinnitus” or “Morse Code Tinnitus”.

What Is Typewriter Tinnitus?

The obvious hallmark of typewriter tinnitus is its intermittent staccato tinnitus that sounds for all the world like the staccato sounds of an old-fashioned typewriter, the clicks of a Morse code key, the sound of a machine gun firing, or even the sounds of popcorn popping. (9)

One man explained his typewriter tinnitus thus.

I would describe my typewriter tinnitus as a machine gun ticking over, and then going full pelt at various intervals throughout the day. Essentially, during the day I always hear a sound that varies from louder to softer.

A lady hears her tinnitus as what sounds like Morse code. She related,

One day I started hearing noises in my right ear. It was (and still is) a weird sound—a Morse code type of sound—like I was receiving a message from aliens. After a while I started hearing it in my left ear as well, but the tone was a bit different.

Note: You typically only hear typewriter tinnitus in one ear, but it can (rarely) occur in both ears at the same time. (9)

One study of 22 participants revealed that 21 participants experienced their typewriter tinnitus in only one ear, while one heard it in both ears. Of the 21 participants with unilateral typewriter tinnitus, 10 heard it in their right ears and 11 heard it in their left ears, (10) thus indicating that typewriter tinnitus obviously has no specific preference for either the left or right ear.

Typewriter tinnitus is typically intermittent with periods of silence ranging from minutes to hours to days to months between episodes. For example, one man reported,

I have unwanted clicking in my left ear. It all started when I woke up in January with a clicking sound. I didn’t hear it again until July. It’s gone on for hours, days, weeks or months and then stops only to return hours, days, weeks or months later.

Another man with typewriter/Morse code tinnitus related,

I’ve got some intermittent typewriter tinnitus. It’s never constant, but clicking/beeping. Sometimes it stays away for minutes; sometimes it happens more often.

Typewriter tinnitus may occur as the only symptom, or it may occur in conjunction with other symptoms. For example, in the study of 22 participants (mentioned above), 8 participants (36%) complained of typewriter tinnitus without any other neuro/otologic symptoms, while the other 14 (64%) had combined neuro/otologic symptoms. Of these participants, 3 had both typewriter tinnitus and hemifacial spasms in the same ear, 9 had vertigo, and 2 complained of both hemifacial spasms and vertigo. (10) This reveals that, unlike in other types of tinnitus, a full half of the typewriter-tinnitus participants experienced periodic bouts of paroxysmal vertigo. (9)

“Paroxysmal” is just the fancy medical term used to describe spasms or convulsions, or the sudden onset of a symptom, especially one with recurring manifestations. Thus paroxysmal vertigo is not constant vertigo. Rather, it is intermittent vertigo attacks that occur sporadically just as does the typewriter tinnitus it accompanies.

What It’s Like to Have Typewriter Tinnitus

Just like it is in other kinds of tinnitus, typewriter tinnitus is unique to the person experiencing it, but the following examples (and other examples previously mentioned) give you an idea of what it can be like. For example, one lady wrote,

My typewriter tinnitus came on suddenly one night while in bed when I was 7 months pregnant. I had no experience with tinnitus before that. It was terrible for months and it was all I could focus on day or night. I thought there was no way I could go on living like that. I thought it would go away once I had given birth, but it stuck around. I started using white noise to sleep and tried to avoid quiet places during the day. If there was enough background noise I could avoid thinking about it too much.

A man, somewhat humorously, explained,

My Morse code tinnitus started only a week ago and it can be maddening. My wife jokes that my ears are communicating to me that I should do more household chores.

Another man reported,

My tinnitus is a very faint rapid-firing beep (in addition to...