It starts as a soft, rhythmic "whoosh." Then, it gets louder. Suddenly, every breath you take sounds like you’ve shoved a seashell against your ear—except the sound is coming from the inside. You might even hear your own voice booming in your skull or the sound of your eyes moving. It’s distracting. It’s annoying. Honestly, it’s a little bit scary if you don’t know what’s happening.
If you are asking yourself why can i hear myself breathing in my ear, you aren't going crazy. You are likely experiencing a phenomenon called autophony.
Most people go through life with their "internal" sounds muffled. Your body is actually quite loud—blood rushes, joints creak, and air whistles through your nasal passages—but your brain and your anatomy work together to filter that noise out. When that filter breaks, the world inside your head gets very, very loud.
The Patulous Eustachian Tube: When the Valve Stays Open
The most common culprit behind hearing your own breath is something called a Patulous Eustachian Tube (PET).
Think of your Eustachian tube as a tiny pressure-relief valve. It connects your middle ear to the back of your throat. Normally, this tube stays closed. It only pops open when you swallow, yawn, or sneeze to equalize the pressure behind your eardrum. It’s that "pop" you feel on an airplane.
In people with PET, the tube stays open when it shouldn't.
Because the valve is stuck in the "on" position, there is a direct, open physical channel between your throat/nasal cavity and your middle ear. When you inhale or exhale, the sound waves travel directly up that tube and vibrate your eardrum from the back. It’s like having a microphone in your throat piped directly into your headphones.
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Why does this happen out of nowhere?
It's weirdly specific. Often, this starts after rapid weight loss. Even losing 10 or 15 pounds can do it. There are small pads of fat (called Ostmann’s fat pads) that help keep the Eustachian tube closed. If you lose weight quickly, those fat pads shrink. The "seal" is lost. The tube flops open.
It’s not just weight loss, though. Pregnancy can trigger it because of how estrogen levels affect the mucus membranes. High doses of caffeine or even neurological issues like a stroke can play a role. Some people notice it more after intense exercise because of dehydration and the way blood flow shifts in the head.
Superior Canal Dehiscence: The "Third Window" Effect
Now, there is another, rarer reason you might hear your breathing—or even your heartbeat and footsteps—inside your ear. It’s called Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SCDS).
This isn't a tube issue. This is a bone issue.
Your inner ear is encased in very hard bone. In SCDS, a tiny hole (a dehiscence) develops in the bone covering the superior semicircular canal. This creates a "third window" in the inner ear. Normally, sound enters through the eardrum and leaves through a specific exit. With a third window, the inner ear becomes hypersensitive to internal vibrations.
Dr. Lloyd Minor, who first identified SCDS at Johns Hopkins in 1998, noted that patients often hear their own pulse or even the sound of their eyes moving in their sockets. It sounds like a "squishing" or "scratching" noise. If your breathing sounds like a mechanical bellows and you also feel dizzy when you hear loud noises, SCDS is a possibility your doctor needs to check for.
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Is it just earwax or a cold?
Sometimes the answer is much simpler.
If you have a massive buildup of earwax (cerumen impaction) right against the eardrum, it can create an occlusion effect. This traps sound in the ear canal. Think about when you plug your ears with your fingers and talk—your voice sounds deeper and louder. That’s the occlusion effect. If wax or a foreign object is blocking the canal, your internal sounds have nowhere to go but back toward your inner ear.
Middle ear fluid (serous otitis media) from a lingering cold or allergies can also cause this. When the middle ear is filled with "gunk" instead of air, it changes how vibrations move. However, with fluid, the sound is usually more of a "muffled" thumping rather than the clear, hollow "wind" sound associated with a patulous tube.
How to tell the difference
There's a quick "gravity test" you can try at home. It’s not a medical diagnosis, but it’s a huge clue.
If you can hear your breathing in your ear, try bending over so your head is between your knees, or lay flat on your back with your head hanging off the edge of the bed. If the sound goes away or gets much better, it is almost certainly a Patulous Eustachian Tube.
Why? Because when your head is lower than your heart, blood pressure increases in the tissues of the head. This causes the tissues around the Eustachian tube to swell slightly. That temporary swelling can force the tube to close, silencing the autophony. Once you stand back up and the blood drains, the tube opens again, and the "whooshing" returns.
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Dealing with the "Whoosh"
Living with this is exhausting. It makes it hard to focus. It makes you want to stop talking because your own voice sounds like it’s being shouted through a megaphone inside your skull.
If it's caused by PET, the first line of defense is often hydration. Staying super hydrated can help the tissues stay plump and closed. Some doctors suggest saline nasal drops, but you have to be careful—nasal decongestants (like Sudafed or Afrin) usually make PET worse because they shrink the tissues and keep the tube open even wider.
For SCDS, the "third window" issue, the treatment is more involved and usually requires a CT scan of the temporal bone to see the hole. If it's severe, surgeons can "plug" the hole with bone graft or medical wax.
Actionable steps for relief
Don't just ignore it and hope it goes away, especially if it's affecting your mental health. Here is what you should actually do:
- Stop the Decongestants: If you’ve been using nasal sprays to "clear" your ear, stop. They might be keeping the Eustachian tube stuck open.
- The Hydration Test: Drink a significant amount of water over the next 24 hours. See if the "open" feeling diminishes as your body hydrates.
- The Position Check: Notice if the sound stops when you lie down or put your head between your knees. Document this for your doctor.
- Consult an ENT: Specifically ask about "Patulous Eustachian Tube" or "Autophony." A general practitioner might just look for an ear infection and tell you your ear "looks clear" because they aren't looking for an open tube—they’re looking for redness or fluid.
- In-Office Tests: A specialist can perform a tympanometry test while you breathe heavily. They can actually see the eardrum moving in sync with your breaths on the graph.
The sensation of hearing yourself breathe is physically real and often has a mechanical cause in the ear's anatomy. Whether it’s a side effect of weight loss or a structural gap in the bone, identifying the trigger is the only way to get your quiet back. Focus on tracking when the sound is loudest and whether position changes affect it, then take those specific notes to an Otolaryngologist.