Hey echoes - i am training to be an audiologist, only one semster left (wohoo!!) so i know a fair bit about tinnitus, hearing loss and hearing aids etc.

First off i want to sympathise with you, i have seen quite a few people (during my yr work placements in hospitals) who have tinnitus and i know how much it can affect a persons life. Although research is still rather limited on tinnitus (i am doing my dissertation on tinnitus) so there is no 'cure' as such, enough is known to give you some help at least.

First off i wanna explain what tinnitus is (i apologise if you already know this). Tinnitus is basically misfirings off the haircell nerves in your ears. It is not yet know why this is the case but it usually corresponds pitch wise to the place where a person has the most hearing loss. So if you have a high pitch hearing loss (like most ppl) then you are most likely to hear a high pitch sound as this is where you are getting the least 'sound' information. So in places where there is little noise e.g. in bed, you will feel like the tinnitus is getting louder. This isn't the case, it is merely because there is less distraction from normal day to day sounds, so all you have to 'listen' to is the tinnitus, which makes you focus on it. Usually audiologists will tell you that your H/As will help with the tinnitus (during the day) as basically what they do is give you back some sound at the frequencies you have a hearing loss which distracts you from the tinnitus. (again makes sense it is worse at night as you take them out etc).

Now, don't get me wrong tinnitus can happen to anyone not just ppl with hearing loss but it is more apparent in ppl with a hearing loss because there is less sound being heard/less distraction.
Just to clarify too - tinnitus can be at any pitch or at multiple pitches, it can be continuous or on and off. It takes many forms.

Most hearing therapist will start by talking about the cycle of tinnitus - tinnitus is commonly related to stress. So briefly, tinnitus most commonly starts at a time of high stress (although not always), the tinnitus starts, you worry about it, you listen to it more to be sure its there, and as you're listening to it it appears to get louder, this makes you more stressed as you can't concentrate, this stress makes the tinnitus louder and so on so forth. Therefore first off you shouldn't worry about tinnitus if you have been checked by an audiologist - i would advise being seen if you haven't.

Hearing therapists usually take their patients through a general CBT format talking about the links between stress and the way of thinking and tinnitus. They recommened relaxation. Breathing exercises when you feel that the tinnitus is becoming overwhelming. This will take time but what you really need to do is break the cycle that i mentioned above. Some people find it is easier to do this with relaxation tapes etc. You want to reduce stress levels and worry, to reduce the loudness of the tinnitus. The more it annoys you unfortunately the louder and more annoying it will become...which will then increase annoyance. Plus if you don't get much sleep because of it, you are already have lower levels of coping skills to deal with the tinnitus. So it is a vicious cycle.

Other things i would recommend you doing is avoiding places where there is little noise. This may sound odd if someone thinks that they have a hearing loss so why does it matter? But it is very unlikely you have total hearing loss you are more likely (this is only in generality!!) to have a sloping hearing loss which means you can hear some sounds but the problem is that with conversation you can't decifer what someone is saying. It is usually a problem with clarity of speech not loudness. So try to keep something playing or happening in everyroom if you can.
At night you can do what many others have suggested. But the cheapest and best techniques are the relaxation techniques and also try putting a radio in between stations that'll create a white noise that will give you something else to listen to. There are pillow noise generators that you can put under your pillow that do the same thing and are free on the NHS in england anyway. But to be honest a radio does the same thing.

There are maskers that you can be given like sky said but these do take around 6months for the effects to be seen. What you want to do though is make sure you can still hear your tinnitus not 'mask' it out. Sounds odd again i know, but by putting it just below the level of your tinnitus you will learn to assimilate the tinnitus into the noise so you don't hear it anymore, then over time you turn the masker further down so that you can just about hear the tinnitus again etc. I really shouldn't use the word masker, my lecturers would fail me if they knew, as it is now called a noise generator as it was found that patients got confused and felt they had to mask the noise and not hear it which isn't the point of a masker/noise generator. I dunno how much these cost as i've done mostly nhs work but they're a basic analogue type so it will be much less that hearing aids, if its not you're being scammed!

Also you are right about diet and tinnitus, although it is not proven by good studies as yet i do recommened cutting out salt, caffeine and alcohol if possible as all these seem to aggravate tinnitus. Just so you know my project is investigating the effects of caffeine on tinnitus!

Anyway i should stop. But one last thing, it bugs me how much H/As can cost and i would really really recommend shopping around first. There are so many different types of hearing aids and a good private audiologist should offer you the best H/A at the best price, and give you a choice of at least 2 or 3. I dunno if you know the difference between analogue and digital but in england in the nhs they're just coming in (unsure about US) so you should ask which one yours is. Analogue H/As are cheaper but they're worse technology. I really should stop now. Honestly i think i've just written my entire course! haha. Feel free to pm if you want anymore info.