Help your brain filter out tinnitus and get your life back this Tinnitus Awareness Week

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Experts available to talk about tinnitus, their family experience, and how new tools can make a difference for millions of people.

A free trial of the latest evidence-based therapies is available for Tinnitus Awareness Week. 

The seven-day challenge incorporates the latest research from Newcastle University in the UK along with research from Auckland University, the Ear Institute at University College London and Leeds Trinity University. 

  • Many people living with tinnitus are still told that “nothing can be done” but clinicians following the latest research say that is bad advice which can lead to more stress, anxiety, and depression.
  • While there is no cure, there are new evidence-based tools that help reduce the impact of tinnitus. You can help your brain filter out the noise and get your life back.
  • These approaches are available for free trial during Tinnitus Awareness Week via a guided 7-day challenge.
  • The free Sound Wellness Challenge is available online at: 
    tools.mindear.com/sound-wellness-challenge

Our researchers are available for interview about the trial and about the broader issues of tinnitus including: 

  • What tinnitus is (and what it isn’t), including why the brain can lock on to the sound
  • What actually helps (and what doesn’t), and why advice to “just ignore it” often backfires
  • The role of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based approaches, and why access has traditionally been a bottleneck
  • Digital care and apps: what the evidence suggests, who it might suit, and how to use them safely as part of a broader care plan
  • The guided 7-day challenge giving access to the latest evidence-based sound tools, and the research that informs the tools.
  • How to spot red flags and avoid miracle cures that exploit desperation.

They can also speak to their personal experience of tinnitus in their own families, and how those experiences led them to dedicate their professional lives looking for better options. Available for interview are:

Media contacts: 

For media coordination: Niall Byrne: niall@scienceinpublic.com.au, +61 417 131 977.

Dr Fabrice Bardy (UK, Bristol), whose father developed severe tinnitus after a head injury. fabrice@mindear.com +44 7878 140 422; +33 744 81 82 88

Dr Matthieu Recugnat (Sydney, Australia), whose grandmother suffered severely from tinnitus. matthieu@mindear.com +61 432 064 071

Dr Will Sedley (UK, Newcastle) Researcher who has been leading the development of the new soundscapes for tinnitus william.sedley@newcastle.ac.uk +44 7713 632553

For general interviews or background, contact Fabrice or Matthieu directly. Will can speak directly to the Newcastle research and how it has been adopted in the 7-day challenge

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Tinnitus Awareness Week 2026

The 7-day challenge

For Tinnitus Awareness Week 2026, MindEar is inviting those living with tinnitus to try a free 7-day challenge focused on practical, evidence-informed strategies people can start immediately, including sound-based strategies, attention and stress regulation techniques, and habit-building that supports sleep and daytime coping.

The challenge is not a treatment or cure, but an opportunity to try evidence-informed coping strategies under guidance. We invite all to share this opportunity to those living with tinnitus.

The 7-day challenge is available online at: tools.mindear.com/sound-wellness-challenge

Background

Tinnitus is common, affecting up to 1.5 million in Australia, 4 million in the UK, and 25 million in the USA. It mostly affects older adults but can impact children and younger adults. For some, it goes away without intervention. For many others, it is debilitatingly life changing, affecting hearing, mood, concentration, sleep and, in severe cases, causing anxiety and a significant increased risk of depression.

Specialist psychological support, hearing aids, smartphone apps and other interventions can all help equip the brain to ignore tinnitus, reducing the impact of the condition. 

What is tinnitus?

  • Tinnitus is experienced as ringing, buzzing, clicking or hissing sounds heard without an external source. For some it fades, but for others it becomes persistent and distressing, impacting sleep, concentration and mental health.
  • Tinnitus is not a disease itself but is a symptom of another underlying health condition, such as damage to the auditory system or tension in the head and neck. It can often be triggered by a fall or head-strike.
  • The sound is perceived as an unpleasant, irritating, or intrusive noise that can’t be switched off. The brain focuses on it insistently, further training our mind to pay even more attention to the sound.
  • Tinnitus is linked to a significant increase in depression.[1]

Why does ignoring it not work?

  • Before we are born, our brains learn to ignore sounds that we determine to be irrelevant, such as the surprisingly loud sound of our own blood rushing through our blood vessels past our ear drums. As we grow and become used to different environments, our brains continue to learn how to filter out distracting environmental noises such as a busy road, an air conditioner or sleeping partners.
  • Most alarms, such as those in smoke detectors, are deliberately designed to try and bypass this filter and trigger a sense of alert for people, even if they are asleep. This primes the fight-or-flight response and is especially strong for sounds we associate with bad prior experiences.
  • Tinnitus often triggers a similar mental reaction to an alarm, bypassing the mental filter. Unlike an alarm though, tinnitus occurs when there is no external risk, yet the mind still responds with an alert response, focusing on it no matter how consciously the patient tries to ignore it.

What options are there for patients?

  • There is no known cure for tinnitus. There are, however, management strategies and techniques that help many sufferers find relief.
  • Most patients find relief through psychologist support who provide options including cognitive behaviour training (CBT). By training and using tactics to give tinnitus less attention, the sounds become easier to tune out.
  • For those who experience tinnitus associated with hearing loss, the support of a hearing aid can reduce tinnitus symptoms and make the symptoms more manageable.
  • There are also some smartphone apps that assist in this space, including Oto and MindEar tinnitus apps.
    • MindEar aims to help people to practice focus through a training program, supporting stress regulation and reducing the brain’s threat response, and thus reducing the brain’s focus on tinnitus.
    • In 2023, MindEar shared the results of a clinical trial (28 patients) demonstrating over two-thirds experience clinically significant improvements within weeks.
  • In December 2025, research from Newcastle University, UK,[2] highlighted modulating sound therapy as an encouraging pathway for support. Outside of the 7-day challenge, the therapy is only available through the clinical trial environment.

Myths vs Facts

  • Myth: “There’s nothing you can do about tinnitus.”
    • Fact: While there isn’t a universal cure, there are evidence-based strategies that can reduce distress and improve quality of life.
  • Myth: “If it’s in your ears, the solution must be in your ears.”
    • Fact: Tinnitus is often strongly shaped by how the brain interprets and reacts to signals. This is why approaches targeting attention, stress response and sleep can help.
  • Myth: “If it doesn’t go away quickly, you’re stuck with it forever.”
    • Fact: Many people improve over time with support and structured strategies.

Further background

[1] Among adults ages 20 to 69, approximately 8% have depression. In comparison, about 17% of adults with one or more occurrences of tinnitus per month have depression.
NIDCD: https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing

[2] https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2025/12/tinnitussoundtherapyresearch/

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