Fatigue can have a variety 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.
That’s at least partly because of the fact that hearing loss usually develops slowly over time. You might not immediately distinguish the symptoms and, as a result, you may feel as if you’re constantly tired for no reason. This can be a frustrating experience. This exhaustion can often turn into irritability which could cause you to socially isolate yourself. The good news is that treating your hearing loss will often improve your energy levels, reducing tiredness and exhaustion.
Hearing loss progresses slowly (and your brain compensates)
Hearing loss is normally a slowly developing condition that gets worse over time. You may not even recognize that you have a hearing loss at first. If you aren’t specifically watching for them, even obvious symptoms, like cranking 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 fatigue. You may feel depleted no matter how much rest you got the night before. This symptom, unfortunately, isn’t usually associated 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 harder to make sense of it all. Just as prolonged periods of intense concentration can leave you worn out, the additional brain power required to hear what individuals are saying can be exhausting. Left neglected, this fatigue can get worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to perform daily routine tasks.
The role of stigma
So why don’t more people just go see a hearing specialist when they start feeling tired? One partial explanation is that people just don’t associate fatigue with hearing loss. But there’s another reason that may ultimately be more damaging: stigma. There’s a feeling that hearing loss is terrible or ruins your life or that there’s nothing that can be done about it. Individuals will often avoid seeking treatment because of these false notions.
However, as more individuals are open about their hearing loss experience, the stigma has begun to disappear. Many individuals understand that hearing loss is not some type of social failing, and the very small nature of modern hearing aids makes them easy to hide around people who unfortunately will not get over this stigma.
Regrettably, this perception of social stigma can cause people in the early stages of hearing loss to avoid getting the treatment they need leading to more serious permanent hearing loss.
Treatment options for hearing loss-related fatigue
The earliest stages of hearing loss might not have any apparent symptoms. That’s why hearing specialists favor taking a preventative approach instead of the far more difficult and less effective reactive approach. Hearing specialists advocate for routine screenings in order to establish a baseline of your healthy hearing, that way they will be able to identify changes to your hearing in subsequent screenings. Once this baseline is established, early intervention is often a lot more effective.
If your hearing loss is causing fatigue, there are a few steps you can take to lessen that exhaustion as much as possible. Here are several of the most common and simplest steps:
- Take breaks from conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and recharge in between conversations. Your brain is working extra hard to engage in conversation and brief breaks will make that more sustainable.
- Try to find more quiet, secluded places for conversations: Sorting out voices from background noise can be difficult when you have hearing loss (often whether you’re using hearing aids or not). Moving conversations to a location with less background noise can make it easier for your brain to focus on the voice you’re attempting to hear, lessening fatigue in the process.
- Schedule a consultation with a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the status of your hearing is essential. Visiting a hearing specialist can help you detect hearing loss in its early stages when it’s less of a problem and your brain doesn’t need to work as hard to compensate.
- Be sure you wear your hearing aids as often as you can: One of the main functions of hearing aids is to clarify human speech, making understanding conversations much easier. This means you won’t be as tired because your brain won’t have to work so hard.
So if you’re feeling an abnormal amount of fatigue and tiredness, with no evident cause, it might be time to schedule a visit to your hearing specialist. You can lessen your fatigue and boost your energy by treating your hearing loss. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re concerned about the stigma.