“...sleeping with good earplugs helps...”
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If earplugs worked for you, then you did not have tinnitus, since tinnitus is not externally generated.
With tinnitus, the “sounds” that are “heard” are not really “sounds”,
but they are some kind of a short circuit or malfunction of the “hearing” mechanism.
Some believe it to be related to cardiopulmonary issues.
By reducing the input level artificially between the eardrum and the brain you are engaging in artificial programming of the brains auditory circuitry.
That's where the concept of threshold shift comes into play.
Yes, it's not for everyone, but it's worth a try, many have good results, if not plain old better sleep, which is a good thing all in itself.