Analysis of a survey led by the Curtin University in Western Australia has concluded that around 25 percent of the Australian workforce will experience tinnitus, also known as ringing ears. Tinnitus, the perception of sound without stimulus, is common and often is not a sign of a severe health problem; however, if persistent, it can disturb sleep, cause anxiety/depression, as well as impair a person’s quality of life according to the research team, led by Kate Lewkowski, an audiologist and research associate at Curtin University in Perth. The research was done under the Australian Workplace Exposure Survey (AWES) from Jun. 7, 2016, to Mar. 20 in 2017 found that out of the 4970 respondents, 35 percent reported experiencing tinnitus. “Of 4970 respondents, 1317 reported experiencing tinnitus (26.5 percent): 713 people had occasional tinnitus (14.3 percent), 259 intermittent tinnitus (5.2 percent), and 345 constant tinnitus (6.9 percent),” the authors wrote. The …