Well, tinnitus is an odd thing. Literally, it seems to mean 'ringing in the ears'. That is like describing an illness as 'pain in the leg' - I mean it could be caused by anything, with different chances of a cure, from gangrene, pins and needles, broken femur, cartilage trouble, cramp, you get the picture.
Now tinnitus gets a bum rap because you go on their website and they say, hey ho! It's incurable! Just what you want to hear. Then you realise the site is aimed at raising money, so they want to make it sound as bad as possible to get the sympathy vote. It also says helpful things like, hey, it can get so bad, some even commit suicide! Like, thanks for that.
Now, one element of tinnitus appears to be a tad incurable. That is when the tiny hairs in your ear are damaged by loud noise, a pop concert obv, over a long period of time.
But others can be caused by a flu like thing that you just can't shift. I seem to have that. Confusingly, I got it in chime with a load of things: going on the Atkins diet (too much protein can bring it on), looking at the PC on my lap for hours on end (it affects the muscles from your ear to your jaw line), drinking wine a bit on the Atkins and a loud concert at Shepherd's Bush. And, the flu jab when I had a bit of flu already, thanks.
To alleviate it, and stop the ringing waking me up at 4am, I took a Neurofen capsule, and then switched to Paracetomol (they are cheaper). The latter reduce body temperature, which tends to rise at nighttime, hence worsening your tinnitus. Take two at a max, however obviously.
It coincided with some urgent need on my part to gulp down pints and pints of water, and when I got to the top of the stairs I would feel exhausted. So it seemed brought on by flu.
Some say you notice it at night cos of less noise around, the silence makes it apparent, but of course it could be the body temp rise flaring it up. That said, a very low CD on in the bedroom, sort of ambient noise, trance type thing chill out whathaveyou on Vol 2 just takes you out of your head a bit and can be quite relaxing. You want to avoid a fight or flee thing.
Triggers? Cheese and egg, esp round bedtime, drink on empty stomach, certain types of coffee. You might want to sweat out the flu in the steam room and sauna but beware this might make things worse temporarily as of course your body temperature will rise.