Fatigue can have a wide range of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory conditions like sleep apnea. But there is something more common that can also be the cause of tiredness and that’s hearing loss.
To some extent, that’s because hearing loss can be a gradually-moving, subtle condition. You may not immediately recognize the symptoms and, as a result, you might feel as though you’re constantly tired for no reason. This can be a frustrating experience. This exhaustion can frequently turn into irritability which could cause you to socially isolate yourself. The good news is that treating your hearing loss will frequently improve your energy levels, reducing fatigue and exhaustion.
Your brain will compensate for gradually developing hearing loss
Hearing loss is typically a slowly advancing condition that grows worse over time. In its early stages, you probably won’t even detect that you’re developing hearing loss. If you’re not specifically watching for them, even conspicuous symptoms, like turning the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to miss.
One of the harder to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often exhaustion. You may feel tired no matter how much sleep you got the night before. Unfortunately, many individuals don’t intuitively associate this symptom with hearing loss.
Because the cause takes place in your brain, the symptoms aren’t generally considered an ear issue. When your ears aren’t getting as much information, your brain works overtime to make sense of it all. This constant extra work is exhausting in the same way that extended periods of concentration can take a toll. Left untreated, this exhaustion can grow worse over time, affecting your quality of life and your ability to complete daily routine activities.
Stigma plays a role
So why don’t more people just consult a hearing specialist when they begin feeling tired? There are several explanations: often people are busy or thinking about other things. But the notion of stigma is another cause which can be even more detrimental. People frequently feel like others will think they’re old if they have hearing loss and that admitting it will ruin their lives. All of these things are false, and they stop many people from finding treatment.
However, as more individuals are open about their hearing loss experience, the stigma has started to fade. It’s becoming a more prevalent understanding that hearing loss can happen to individuals of all ages and modern hearing aids are discreet enough that the few people who can’t get over this stigma won’t even notice them.
Regrettably, this perception of social stigma can cause people in the early stages of hearing loss to put off on getting the treatment they need resulting in more severe permanent hearing loss.
How to deal with hearing loss-associated fatigue
The earliest stages of hearing loss may not have any evident symptoms. That makes it difficult to effectively take a reactive strategy, and it’s why many hearing specialists favor preventative techniques. Hearing specialists advocate for regular screenings in order to establish a baseline of your healthy hearing, that way they will be able to identify changes to your hearing in later screenings. Once this baseline is established, early intervention is frequently far more effective.
You can minimize hearing loss related exhaustion by taking a few proactive steps. Here are several of the most prevalent and easiest steps:
- Schedule a consultation with a hearing specialist: It’s important to monitor your hearing health. Visiting a hearing specialist can help you identify hearing loss in its early stages when it’s less of an issue and your brain doesn’t need to work as hard to compensate.
- Try to locate more quiet, isolated places for conversations: Sorting out voices from background noise can be difficult when you have hearing loss (often whether you’re wearing hearing aids or not). Moving conversations to an area with less background noise can make it easier for your brain to focus on the voice you’re attempting to hear, reducing fatigue in the process.
- Be certain you wear your hearing aids as frequently as you can: Hearing aids are manufactured to help you focus on the sounds of human speech, meaning conversation will be considerably easier to make out when you are hearing them. This means you won’t be as tired because your brain won’t need to work so hard.
- Give yourself a rest in between conversations: In between conversation, take a quiet break somewhere. This can help your brain recover from all the work it’s doing and make day-to-day communication a bit more sustainable.
So if you’re dealing with an unusual amount of fatigue and tiredness, with no apparent cause, it may be time to schedule a visit to your hearing specialist. Treating hearing loss can help you reduce your exhaustion and boost your energy. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re afraid of the stigma.