Tinnitus and concentration: how sound masking supports focus at work

Tinnitus makes concentration harder. That is not a medical claim; it is a straightforward observation about how attention works. Pan et al. (2015) found that 47.7% of tinnitus patients reported quiet environments made their tinnitus worse. When your auditory system generates a persistent signal (ringing, buzzing, hissing, humming) and the room around you is quiet, your brain allocates processing resources to the most prominent sound it can detect. In a quiet office or home workspace, the most prominent sound is often the tinnitus itself.

The result is a competition for attention. You are trying to focus on a document, a spreadsheet, a line of code, or a conversation. Your auditory system is simultaneously processing the tinnitus signal. Cognitive load increases. Focus takes more effort. The quieter your workspace, the harder the tinnitus signal competes.

Sound masking changes the acoustic conditions of that workspace. The concept dates back to Feldmann (1971), who published the first systematic study of tinnitus masking, and was later formalised as a clinical approach by Vernon (1977). By introducing external sound into the environment, you give your auditory system additional input to process. The tinnitus signal does not change, but it sits inside a broader sound landscape rather than dominating a silent room.

This post covers how to set up a sound masking environment specifically for focused work.

---

Why quiet workspaces make tinnitus more noticeable

Most people assume that a quiet room is ideal for concentration. For many tasks, that is true. But for people with tinnitus, quiet is not actually quiet. Silence removes competing audio input, which means the tinnitus signal occupies the foreground of your auditory attention.

A typical quiet office registers around 30 to 40 dB of ambient noise from computers, ventilation, and distant activity. A very quiet home office or library can drop below 25 dB. In those conditions, a tinnitus signal that was easy to ignore during a noisy commute or a busy meeting suddenly becomes the dominant sound in the room.

This is not about the tinnitus getting louder. The perception does not change. What changes is the ratio between the internal signal and the external environment. When external sound drops, the ratio shifts in favour of the tinnitus. The central gain model of tinnitus describes this mechanism: when sensory input decreases, the brain compensates by amplifying neural activity, making the tinnitus signal relatively more prominent (Norena, 2011).

How sound masking works in a focus context

Sound masking for work follows the same acoustic principles as sound masking for sleep or general use, but the goals differ.

During sleep, the priority is a sound environment that fades into the background and does not stimulate alertness. During focused work, the priority is a sound environment that occupies the tinnitus frequency range without distracting from the task at hand. The sound should be present enough to shift the auditory balance but uninteresting enough that your brain does not track it consciously.

This means avoiding sounds with sudden changes, recognizable patterns, or emotional content. Music with lyrics, podcasts, and nature recordings with sharp bird calls or thunder all draw conscious attention. Steady-state sounds (broadband noise, ambient textures, tonal layers) tend to recede into the background more effectively during cognitive work.

Practical setup: headphones vs speakers

Headphones

Headphones provide the most direct and controlled sound delivery. The masking sound goes straight to your ears without interacting with room acoustics, nearby conversations, or other environmental factors.

For work, over-ear headphones with good isolation are ideal. They reduce external distractions while delivering the masking sound at a consistent level. In-ear monitors work too, though some people find them fatiguing during long work sessions.

One advantage of headphones in an office: they signal to colleagues that you are in focus mode. The social cue is a secondary benefit, but it is a real one.

Speakers

A desktop speaker provides a more ambient experience. The sound fills the space around you rather than being delivered directly into your ears. Some people find this more natural and less fatiguing for all-day use.

The downside is control. Speaker-delivered sound interacts with room size, surfaces, and ambient noise. You have less precision over what reaches your ears, and in a shared workspace, speakers may not be practical.

A reasonable starting point

If you work from home: try a small desktop speaker first. If you work in a shared or open office: headphones are typically the better choice.

Choosing sounds for focused work

Not all masking sounds are equally suited to concentration tasks. Here is what tends to work and why.

Broadband noise (pink or brown). Pink noise has a natural roll-off in the higher frequencies, which makes it less harsh than white noise during extended listening. Brown noise emphasises lower frequencies even further. A controlled trial by Barozzi et al. (2017) found no significant clinical difference between noise colours, though patients who did not prefer white noise selected brown noise for its deeper quality. Both create a consistent background layer without sharp high-frequency content that can feel fatiguing.

Layered ambient textures. A single sound can become monotonous. Layering two or three sounds at different frequencies and volumes creates a richer texture that the brain is less likely to tune out entirely. The sound stays present without becoming noticeable.

Pitch-adjusted layers near your tinnitus frequency. If you know your approximate tinnitus pitch (or can explore it with a pitch exploration tool), adjusting one sound layer to sit near that frequency concentrates energy where it is acoustically relevant. Less overall volume is needed, which is better for sustained listening during a workday.

What to avoid for focus. Nature sounds with variable dynamics (rain with thunder, ocean with crashing waves) can pull attention. Music, even instrumental music, engages pattern-recognition processes that compete with focused work. Steady, non-evolving sound environments work best.

Volume: less than you think

The instinct is to turn the sound up until the tinnitus disappears. For work, this is counterproductive. Loud masking sound creates its own cognitive load. You are replacing one source of auditory distraction with another.

The goal is partial masking: the external sound sits at a level where it coexists with the tinnitus rather than overwhelming it. This principle is central to Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, where Jastreboff and Hazell (1993) emphasised that both the external sound and the tinnitus should remain audible simultaneously. Smith et al. (1991) also found that experienced masker users preferred partial masking over full masking. Your auditory system processes both signals, and neither dominates your conscious attention. This is typically a lower volume than people expect.

A practical method: set the volume so you can hear the masking sound clearly, then reduce it in small increments until the sound is just present enough that the room does not feel silent. That minimum effective volume is the target.

Adjusting throughout the day

Tinnitus perception is not constant. Stress, fatigue, caffeine, noise exposure, and time of day all influence how prominent the signal feels (Pan et al., 2015). A sound environment that works well at 9 AM may need adjustment by 3 PM.

Having a tool that lets you modify your sound setup quickly (adjusting pitch, swapping a layer, changing the volume balance) means you can adapt without disrupting your workflow. Saving multiple configurations for different states (morning focus, afternoon concentration, post-meeting recovery of a quiet room) makes this even faster.

A tool built for this kind of control

Siasola Tinnitus Masking Sounds was built by Justin, who has tinnitus and works at a computer every day. The app includes 95+ sounds, a 5-layer mixer with independent volume and pitch controls per layer, and DSP effects for shaping each sound. It is a sound customization tool, not a medical device.

The precision controls were designed for exactly this kind of use: building a sound environment that works for your specific situation, adjusting it as conditions change, and saving configurations so you can recall them instantly.

If you have been relying on a single noise track or a generic background sound app during work, the limitation you are running into is not the concept of sound masking. It is the lack of control over the sound itself.

---

References

1. Barozzi S, Ambrosetti U, Callaway SL, et al. Effects of tinnitus retraining therapy with different colours of sound. International Tinnitus Journal. 2017;21(2):139-143. doi:10.5935/0946-5448.20170026

2. Feldmann H. Homolateral and contralateral masking of tinnitus by noise-bands and by pure tones. Audiology. 1971;10(3):138-144. doi:10.3109/00206097109072551

3. Jastreboff PJ, Hazell JWP. A neurophysiological approach to tinnitus: clinical implications. British Journal of Audiology. 1993;27(1):7-17. doi:10.3109/03005369309077884

4. Norena AJ. An integrative model of tinnitus based on a central gain controlling neural sensitivity. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2011;35(5):1089-1109. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.11.003

5. Pan T, Tyler RS, Ji H, Coelho C, Gogel SA. Differences among patients that make their tinnitus worse or better. American Journal of Audiology. 2015;24(4):469-476. doi:10.1044/2015_AJA-15-0020

6. Smith PA, Parr VM, Lutman ME, Coles RR. Comparative study of four noise spectra as potential tinnitus maskers. British Journal of Audiology. 1991;25(1):25-34. doi:10.3109/03005369109077861

7. Vernon JA. Attempts to relieve tinnitus. Journal of the American Auditory Society. 1977;2(4):124-131. PubMed:845067

---

siasola Tinnitus Masking Sounds is a sound customization tool. It is not a medical device and does not claim to produce any health outcome. If you experience tinnitus, consult an audiologist or healthcare provider. The information in this post is for general informational purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice.