Ear rumbling

How it works

The tensor tympani is a small muscle in the middle ear. It attaches to the malleus, the first of the three tiny ear bones¹. When it contracts, it pulls the eardrum inward and stiffens it. This dampens loud sounds and reduces the noise of chewing and speaking.

The contraction itself is not silent. The tensed muscle vibrates, and you hear that vibration as a low rumble or roar³. Contracting muscle in general vibrates at about 10 to 70 Hz¹. In most people the muscle contracts only as a reflex. Some people can also contract it on purpose³. Many of them do not know that other people cannot.

The muscle has been documented as voluntary since 1884¹. The subreddit r/earrumblersassemble has over 100,000 members who compare notes on it². Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Lancaster University used the rumble as a hands-free input signal for wearable devices and detected it with 95% accuracy³.

How common it is

The 43% figure comes from a 2021 online survey of 192 people³. The ads for it did not say what the survey was about³. A 2024 online survey of 1,853 people found 55%⁴. Its authors call this an upper bound, because some people came from an ear-rumbling subreddit⁴. Neither is a national survey. A 2013 case report about one patient called voluntary tensor tympani control “an extremely rare event”¹. It did not count the ability in ordinary people. The large size of the online community suggests the true share able to do it is not small.

Try it

1. Sit somewhere quiet.
2. Tense the muscles around your ears as if you were about to yawn, but keep your mouth closed.
3. Listen for a low rumble, like distant thunder or wind over a microphone.
4. If you hear it, try to hold it without clenching your jaw. Isolated contraction is the real trick.

If nothing happens, you are probably in the other half. There is no known way to learn it.

Is it a problem?

No. Ear rumbling is a harmless muscle contraction, not a sign of ear damage or a hearing problem. Some people use it on purpose to muffle sudden loud noise, since it works like the reflex the muscle already performs¹.

Mention it to a doctor only if the sound:

• happens on its own,
• keeps happening without you tensing anything,
• comes with pain.

That pattern is different from the voluntary trick described here.

History and culture

The rumble can also be heard when the neck or jaw muscles are strongly tensed, as in a deep yawn¹. The related thump you hear when yawning is the same muscle working as a reflex.