Cerebrospinal fluid ear leak means the clear fluid that bathes the brain is dripping out through the ear. A tiny tear in the lining creates a wet clue that is easy to miss at first but grows louder each day.

The first sign is clear fluid that keeps coming from one ear. It can feel like water after swimming, yet returns even when you have been dry for hours. Tilting your head may trigger a warm trickle.

Dripping increases with bending or straining. You blow your nose and feel liquid run into the ear canal, or a blob of clear jelly appears on the pillow after a big cough.

A salty or metallic taste often rides along. Fluid drains down the throat while you sleep, leaving a morning taste like tears or old coins.

Hearing can feel muffled, as if the ear is stuffed with cotton. The change may come and go, but the same ear stays dull no matter how much you pop it.

Head pressure drops after the drip. You stand up and feel a light-headed “whoosh,” like someone let air out of a balloon inside your head.

Repeated ear infections finish the picture. The same ear swells, aches, and drains pus every few weeks, because outside germs now have a free door into the brain’s space.