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How Notch Filtering Can Help Manage Tinnitus at Night

5 min read · March 13, 2026

If you have tinnitus, you already know the cruelest thing about it: it's loudest when everything else is quiet. Nighttime — the one time you need silence — is when that phantom ringing, buzzing, or hissing becomes impossible to ignore.

About 15% of the global population experiences some form of tinnitus. For most, it's mild. But for roughly 2% of people, it's severe enough to affect sleep, concentration, and quality of life. Sound therapy is one of the most effective non-medical approaches to managing it — and notch filtering is the most targeted form of sound therapy available.

What causes tinnitus?

Tinnitus isn't a disease — it's a symptom. The phantom sound you hear is your brain's response to damaged or missing input from your auditory system. The most common causes include:

• Noise-induced hearing loss — prolonged exposure to loud sounds (concerts, headphones, machinery) damages the hair cells in your cochlea. Your brain compensates for the missing frequencies by "turning up the gain," creating a phantom tone.
• Age-related hearing loss — gradual high-frequency hearing loss (presbycusis) is the most common cause in older adults.
• Ear infections or blockages — temporary tinnitus can result from ear infections, wax buildup, or Eustachian tube dysfunction.
• Stress and anxiety — while stress doesn't cause tinnitus, it can make existing tinnitus worse by increasing your brain's sensitivity to the phantom signal.

How sound masking works

The simplest form of tinnitus management is masking: playing an external sound that covers up or blends with your tinnitus, making it less noticeable. This is why many tinnitus sufferers already use white noise machines, fans, or nature sounds at night.

Masking works because of a perceptual phenomenon called auditory masking. When your brain receives a real external sound at or near the frequency of your tinnitus, it prioritizes the real sound and suppresses the phantom one. You don't need to completely drown out your tinnitus — even partial masking significantly reduces the distress it causes.

What makes notch filtering different

Standard masking plays sound across all frequencies. It works, but it's a blunt instrument. Notch filtering is more targeted — and the science behind it is fascinating.

Here's the key insight: research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by Okamoto et al. (2010) found that listening to music or noise with a notch cut at your tinnitus frequency actually reduced tinnitus loudness over time. Not just masked it — reduced it.

The theory is called lateral inhibition. By removing the specific frequency of your tinnitus from the sound you're listening to, you're stimulating the neurons surrounding your tinnitus frequency while starving the neurons at the tinnitus frequency itself. Over time, this can reduce the overactive neural response that creates the phantom sound.

Finding your tinnitus frequency

The effectiveness of notch filtering depends on accurately identifying your tinnitus frequency. Here's how to approximate it:

1. Start with a preset. Most tinnitus falls into one of three ranges:
   • Low pitch (around 2,000 Hz) — sounds like a low hum or buzz
   • Mid pitch (around 4,000 Hz) — the most common range; sounds like a steady tone
   • High pitch (around 8,000 Hz) — sounds like a high-pitched hiss or ring
2. Fine-tune by listening. Adjust the frequency slider until the generated tone most closely matches your tinnitus. When the external tone blends with or "cancels" your tinnitus, you're close.
3. Get a professional assessment. An audiologist can perform a tinnitus matching test that pinpoints your exact frequency and loudness level. This gives the most accurate starting point for notch therapy.

Using sound therapy for better sleep

For nighttime use, combining masking with notch filtering can be especially effective:

• Layer a masking sound underneath. Start with a broadband sound like rain, brown noise, or ocean waves at low volume. This provides a comfortable ambient floor that reduces the contrast between silence and your tinnitus.
• Add notch-filtered noise on top. This targets your specific tinnitus frequency while the masking sound handles overall noise reduction.
• Keep the volume low. The goal is to match or slightly exceed your tinnitus — not to blast it away. Loud sound therapy can actually make tinnitus worse over time.
• Use a timer. Some audiologists recommend that sound therapy doesn't need to run all night. 30–60 minutes may be enough to fall asleep, after which your brain is less likely to fixate on the tinnitus.

How Drowze's tinnitus relief works

Drowze's tinnitus relief feature (available with premium) generates broadband noise with a precise notch filter centered on your tinnitus frequency. You can:

• Choose a preset — Low (2,000 Hz), Mid (4,000 Hz), or High (8,000 Hz) — or dial in a custom frequency.
• Adjust the bandwidth — Control how wide the notch is. A narrower notch is more targeted; a wider notch is more noticeable but can be effective for tinnitus that spans a range of frequencies.
• Layer it with sleep sounds — The tinnitus relief runs independently of the main mixer, so you can play rain + brown noise in the mixer while the notch-filtered noise runs simultaneously.
• Set a fade-out timer — Everything fades together smoothly so nothing jolts you awake.

Setting realistic expectations

Sound therapy — including notch filtering — is a management tool, not a cure. Here's what you can realistically expect:

• Immediate masking relief. Most people notice reduced tinnitus awareness within the first session. This is the masking effect.
• Gradual habituation. Over weeks and months, consistent sound therapy can train your brain to deprioritize the tinnitus signal, making it less intrusive even when you're not using the app.
• The Okamoto study results. Participants who used notch-filtered music for 12 months showed measurable reductions in tinnitus loudness. This isn't a quick fix — it's a long-term strategy.

The most important thing is consistency. Use sound therapy as part of your nightly routine, keep the volume moderate, and give it time.