Tiredness can have a wide variety of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory problems like sleep apnea. But there is something more common that can also cause fatigue and that’s hearing loss.
To some extent, that’s because hearing loss can be a gradually-moving, subtle condition. You might not immediately detect the symptoms and, as a result, you may feel as if you are constantly tired for no reason. This experience can be very frustrating. This fatigue can often turn into irritability which could cause you to socially seclude yourself. The good news is that treating your hearing loss will frequently improve your energy levels, mitigating fatigue and exhaustion.
Your brain will compensate for gradually progressing hearing loss
Hearing loss is usually a gradually progressing condition that grows worse over time. You might not even realize that you have a hearing impairment at first. If you aren’t specifically watching for them, even conspicuous symptoms, like cranking the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to overlook.
One of the harder to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often exhaustion. You might feel depleted no matter how much sleep you got the night before. This symptom, regrettably, isn’t usually associated with hearing loss.
That’s because the cause takes place in your brain. When your ears aren’t getting as much information, your brain works overtime to comprehend it all. Just as sustained periods of intense concentration can leave you tired, the additional brain power needed to hear what people are saying can be exhausting. Left untreated, this exhaustion can get worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to complete daily routine tasks.
Stigma plays a role
So why don’t more people just consult a hearing specialist when they start feeling fatigued? One partial explanation is that individuals just don’t associate tiredness with hearing loss. But the notion of stigma is another cause which can be even more detrimental. There’s a feeling that hearing loss is bad or ruins your life or that there’s nothing that can be done about it. All of these things are false, and they stop many people from seeking treatment.
However, as more individuals are open about their hearing loss experience, the stigma has begun to fade. Many people understand that hearing loss is not some kind of social failing, and the very small construction of modern hearing aids makes them easy to hide around people who unfortunately will not let go of this stigma.
It’s a shame that this social stigma can make it more difficult for individuals to find the care they need because this often results in hearing loss that grows worse over time when it may not have to.
Treatment options for hearing loss-related fatigue
There are frequently no obvious symptoms of early stage hearing loss. That’s why hearing specialists prefer to take a preventative approach instead of the far more challenging and less effective reactive method. Hearing specialists recommend 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. Early treatment will be a lot more effective after we have identified that baseline.
If your hearing loss is causing fatigue, there are a few steps you can take to lessen that exhaustion as much as possible. Some of the easiest and most common measures include the following:
- Take breaks from conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and recharge in between conversations. This can help your brain recuperate from all the work it’s doing and make day-to-day communication a bit more sustainable.
- Schedule an assessment with a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the state of your hearing is essential. Consulting 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.
- Be certain you use your hearing aids as often as you can: One of the primary functions of hearing aids is to clarify human speech, making understanding conversations a lot easier. This means you won’t be as tired because your brain won’t need to work so hard.
- Try to have conversations in quieter areas: When there is a lot of background noise, it can be difficult to sort out voices, even with hearing aids in some instances. 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.
It’s most likely time to schedule an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing fatigue with no evident cause. You can minimize your fatigue and boost your energy by treating your hearing loss. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re concerned about the stigma.
