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“Real” Phantom Music in the Night–Musical Ear Syndrome

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A grandaughter wrote:

My grandmother is 93 years old. She is deaf in one ear and uses a hearing aid in the other. For the past month she has been calling and complaining about the upstairs neighbor and all the noise and “music that goes on all night long.” We have complained to the management company that runs the senior’s complex about the noisy neighbor because my grandmother is completely sane and not suffering from any kind of dementia in any way.

We believed her and supported her allegations until I finally stayed overnight with her on several occasions. Within an hour of going to sleep, she would awake abruptly, get up and tell me to listen to the horrible music. There was nothing! I could not hear a thing.

This happened regularly every hour or so. Again and again she got me up to hear it now! Always, there was nothing. When I told her there was nothing, she was furious. She told me there was something wrong with me!

I began to think that dementia of some sort was finally, after 93 years, beginning to affect her–until I found the article on MES on your web site. Whew! What an incredible relief to find out that her Musical Ear syndrome is real.

Is there a remedy for this?

As you now know, these musical sounds are totally real to the person “hearing” them. This is because they occur in the auditory circuits in the brain where a person perceives sound. Thus these phantom sounds are absolutely indistinguishable from real sounds.

That is why your grandmother was acting totally rational (to her), and at the same time seemed to be acting totally irrational (to you).

I think you can now understand her confusion. The music sounds real and wakes her up–yet it is totally phantom.

What is the remedy?

Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to explain to your grandmother what is really going on. Explain that she is neither going crazy, nor does she have some dreadful brain tumor. These are the two biggest fears of people who experience Musical Ear syndrome.

Just setting these two fears at rest goes a long ways towards bringing peace of mind to such people.

You can explain that her brain is playing “tricks” on her, and that she needs to realize that music she hears in the night is almost certainly phantom no matter how real it sounds. (After all, she does live in a senior’s complex where people are typically quiet.) She needs to use logic now to try and determine if a sound is real or not, rather than just accepting sounds at face value.

In my book, “Phantom Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky Sounds,” I explain 7 other things you (and she) can do in order to help bring her phantom sounds under control.

In addition, by reading it, or you reading selected portions to her, she will discover that she isn’t the only one experiencing these phantom sounds. She’ll feel right at home as she hears about the many other people that have similarly strange experiences.

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Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How

If your ears ring, buzz, chirp, hiss, click or roar, you know just how annoying tinnitus can be. You do not have to put up with this racket for the rest of your life. This book teaches you many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under your control so it no longer bothers you.

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Sounds Now Too Loud for You?

Hypersensitive to Sound front coverIf some (or all) normal sounds seem so loud they “blow the top of your head off”, or make you wince or jump, or cause you headaches or ear pain, or affect your balance, or result in fear or annoyance of sounds so you feel you have to avoid these sounds, this book is for you!

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Hearing Phantom Sounds?

When hard of hearing people begin hearing phantom voices or music, they immediately worry they are going crazy. It never crosses their minds that they are sane and are just experiencing Musical Ear syndrome.

To learn more about the strange phantom sounds of Musical Ear syndrome and what you can do about them, click here to read a comprehensive article about Musical Ear Syndrome.

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Center for Hearing Loss Help

Neil G. Bauman, Ph.D.

1013 Ridgeway Drive, Lynden,
WA 98264-1057 USA

Email: neil@hearinglosshelp.com

Phone: 360-778-1266 (M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM PST)

© 2025 Center for Hearing Loss Help – Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [which also includes perfect hearing] through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 6:23]

"But know this, in the last days perilous times will come" [2 Timothy 3:1]. "For there will be famines, pestilences, and [severe] earthquakes in various places" [Matthew 24:7], "distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring"—tsunamis, hurricanes—Luke 21:25, but this is good news if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads [and rejoice] because your redemption draws near" [Luke 21:28].