Tinnitus affects the body by creating a noise in the inner ear that is only audible to the sufferer. In many cases, people with tinnitus have an underlying condition causing the disorder. For this reason, hearing loss is also common in people with tinnitus. Tinnitus can also be very annoying, so much so that it can cause a sufferer to lose sleep, making the sufferer chronically tired and unable to achieve as high of standards of well being.