Why does my ear make popping noises at night?
Sometimes when you are driving a car in the mountains, or flying in a plane, your ears ‘pop’. The changing altitude affects the pressure of the air in your ears. Your middle ear is connected to the back of your nose by a narrow tube called the Eustachian Tube. This tube acts like a pressure valve and opens to make sure the ait pressure is the same on both sides of your eardrum. When it opens you feel a pop. Normally, each time (or each second or third time) you swallow, your ears make a little click or popping sound. This occurs because a small bubble of air has entered your middle ear, up from the back of your nose. It passes through the Eustachian tube, a membrane-lined tube about the size of a pencil lead that connects the back of the nose to the middle ear. The air in the middle ear is constantly being absorbed by its membranous lining and resupplied through the Eustachian tube. In this manner, air pressure on both sides of the eardrum stays about equal. If and when the air pressur
