Noises in your head are most often caused by tinnitus , which is a perception of sound (ringing, buzzing, hissing, whooshing, thumping, clicking) that does not come from an external source.

What doctors mean by “noises in your head”

Most people who say they hear noises in their head are actually describing tinnitus, a “phantom” sound generated by the hearing system and brain rather than by anything in the environment.

Even though it feels like it’s in your ears or deep in your head, the sound is linked to how your inner ear, hearing nerve, and auditory cortex are working together.

Many clinic pages describe tinnitus as ringing in the ears , but patients also report roaring, clicking, crickets, or pulsing beats in time with the heartbeat.

Common medical causes

These are some of the most frequent triggers behind noises in your head:

  • Age‑related hearing loss that damages inner‑ear hair cells and alters the nerve signals going to the brain.
  • Long‑term or one‑time exposure to loud noises (concerts, headphones, power tools, gunfire) that injure the microscopic endings of the hearing nerve.
  • Earwax buildup, ear infections, or other blockages in the ear canal or middle ear that change pressure and sound conduction.
  • Head or neck injuries that affect nerves, blood flow, or muscles involved in hearing.

These issues can be temporary (for example, a wax blockage) or long‑term, such as chronic nerve damage from noise or aging.

Less obvious triggers inside the body

Sometimes the sound reflects other conditions in the body rather than a straightforward ear problem:

  • Jaw joint (TMJ) disorders near the ear that disturb how vibrations are transmitted and processed.
  • Changes in the ear bones (otosclerosis) that stiffen the middle‑ear chain and reduce normal sound movement.
  • Sinus congestion or pressure, or rapid pressure changes (barotrauma) from flying or diving, which can temporarily affect the middle and inner ear.
  • Muscle spasms in tiny muscles of the inner ear, which may relate to neurologic conditions in some people.

In these cases, treating the underlying jaw, sinus, or bone problem sometimes eases the noise, though improvement can vary.

Pulsing or heartbeat‑like noises

If the noise in your head feels like a whoosh or thump that matches your heartbeat, it may be pulsatile tinnitus , a special subtype.

This kind of sound can be linked to blood‑vessel issues near the ear, such as high blood pressure, vascular malformations, or narrowing and turbulence in nearby arteries.

Because pulsatile tinnitus is more likely to reflect a circulatory problem, doctors are especially careful about evaluating it with imaging and cardiovascular checks.

How the brain creates the sound

A leading theory is that when the inner ear or hearing nerve is damaged, the brain gets weaker or scrambled input and “turns up the gain,” similar to turning up the volume on a quiet radio.

That extra neural activity in the auditory cortex is experienced as a phantom sound, so the noise feels real even though nothing outside is making it.

Clinics describe this as the brain re‑balancing its sound map after injury, which is why tinnitus often travels with hearing loss or nerve trauma.

Other contributing factors

Several broader health and lifestyle factors can make noises in your head more likely or more noticeable:

  • Certain medications (for example some high‑dose NSAIDs, certain antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs) are reported as potential tinnitus triggers.
  • Cardiovascular conditions such as high or low blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and heart problems can influence blood‑flow‑related tinnitus.
  • Metabolic or hormonal issues including diabetes or thyroid problems are sometimes listed as associated conditions.
  • Stress, anxiety, and depression do not usually cause tinnitus alone, but they can strongly amplify how loud and intrusive it feels.

This is one reason modern treatment approaches often combine sound therapies with stress‑reduction or counseling to reduce how much the noise dominates your attention.

When noises in your head are an emergency

Even though tinnitus is frequently benign and very common, certain red flags mean you should seek urgent medical attention:

  • Sudden hearing loss with new noise in one or both ears.
  • Tinnitus after a head injury, especially with dizziness, confusion, or vision changes.
  • New pulsatile (heartbeat) noise, especially if you also have severe headache, neurologic symptoms, or vision problems.
  • Tinnitus in only one ear that is progressively worsening, which can rarely relate to tumors such as acoustic neuroma.

Clinics consistently advise seeing a healthcare professional—usually a primary‑care doctor, ENT, or audiologist—to rule out these less common but serious causes.

Typical next steps if you notice it

If you or a reader of your post is wondering what to do about noises in their head, the usual medical steps are:

  1. Clinical history and exam to review noise description, exposure to loud sounds, medications, and other health issues.
  1. Hearing tests (audiogram) to check for hearing loss patterns that match tinnitus.
  1. Imaging or blood‑vessel evaluation if pulsatile or one‑sided noise suggests a vascular or structural cause.
  1. Management options such as sound therapy, hearing aids (when hearing loss is present), counseling, and treatment of any underlying condition.

These steps don’t always “turn off” the sound completely, but they often reduce its intensity and how much it bothers day‑to‑day life.

Before I help shape this into a more SEO‑style, sectioned blog post with headings and meta description, are you aiming this article more at people with mild, annoying noise in their head, or also at readers who might have more serious red‑flag symptoms?