Hearing music

[springs65]

Hi my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s almost a year ago and is now on memory medication. Physically he is ok but his memory, concentration and his ability to process information in not good at all. He wears hearing aids as his hearing is now getting worse as well. I have a question I hope someone might be able to help with.
He is hearing music in his head, he says it’s a tenor voice same person but can’t identify the song or words and there is no music it’s just the singing. We checked with his hearing aids out and it’s still the same.
It’s now begging to annoy him. He puts his own headphones with music on to try stop it.
Is this something that is related to Alzheimer’s .
I am finding it so difficult dealing with all this now he seems to be getting worse. I have had to take on so many jobs around the house that he used to do and I am not in the best of health myself so it’s taking its toll.
Sorry to rant on a little

 

[Sarasa]

Hi @spring65 and welcome to Dementia Talking Point. You'll find lots of help and support here. I'm deaf so I can imagine things must be tricky as you can't always be sure if you husband hasn't quite heard when you've said something or if he can process what you've said. I'm always getting wrong ends of sticks as I think I know what someone said, when I've missed out a vital word such as 'not'. I was wondering if the singing was caused by tinnitus and if it would be worth talking to his audiologist about it. Tricky I know in current times, but I had a visit to mine at our local hospital a few weeks ago and it was very well managed.
Have you got things such as Attendance Allowance in place and would it be worth contacting your local social services to see what help might be available for your husband and for yourself as his carer. You don't want to wear yourself out caring for him as that will help neither of you.
I'm sure others will be along shortly with more suggestions, but in the meantime have a look round the site. Here is a link to all the threads where hearing music is mentioned. Many will be rather old, but they may still have useful information.

 

[canary]

It could be Musical Ear Syndrome.
Im not joking - there is a condition called musical ear syndrome where you get auditory hallucinations (often of music) due to hearing loss.

 

[Agzy]

@canary is right and it is a form of tinnitus I believe so no cure or effective treatment and must ne maddening the same song/tune going on and on in your head.

 

[nitram]

Does listening to background music lessen the problem?

The ear has a form of AGC (automatic gain control), when everything is quiet the gain is turned up to enable small sounds to be heard, to prevent the perceived volume becoming too high the gain is turned down when a sound occurs. This turning the gain down may mask the tinnitus.

 

[springs65]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Not applied for AA yet as I thought with him being physically fit we wouldn’t be entitled to it, but saying that he never goes out on his own and I very rare leave him home alone. He is still driving but only short distance on roads he is familiar with.

When he has his earphones on the singing disappears so he is tending to do that more now.

We did quite a few months ago sort POA. Before he got so bad and redone our wills so all that’s in order.
Just so difficult coming to terms with all this, I did suspect he had Alzheimer’s but it’s not until it’s diagnosed it hits you. I am already struggling with it, I’m scared how I will cope with it when he gets worse but no doubt I will adjust as time goes on.
I have cleaners coming in now to help ( not just at the moment with Covid) and we have a good daughter and grandchildren that help so I guess compared to some we are lucky.