Tiredness can have a wide variety of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory problems like sleep apnea. But many individuals are surprised to learn that chronic tiredness and exhaustion can also be a result of something fairly common: hearing loss.
In part, 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 can be a frustrating experience. In addition, this exhaustion can often result in irritability and, eventually, social isolation. The good news is that treating your hearing loss will frequently improve your energy levels, reducing fatigue and exhaustion.
Your brain will compensate for slowly progressing hearing loss
For the majority of individuals, hearing loss is a very gradually-progressing condition that grows worse over time. You may not even realize that you have a hearing loss at first. If you aren’t specifically watching for them, even obvious symptoms, like turning the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to miss.
Fatigue is one of the most noticeable symptoms of hearing loss. Regardless of how much rest you get, you could still feel fatigued. Unfortunately, many people 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 problem. Your brain has to work extra hard to process sound due to the loss of your ability to hear, which can leave you fatigued. This continual extra work is taxing in the same way that long periods of concentration can take a toll. Left untreated, this exhaustion can grow worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to complete daily routine activities.
The role of stigma
So when people start to feel tired, why wouldn’t they just visit a hearing specialist? One partial explanation is that people just don’t connect tiredness with hearing loss. But there’s another reason that may ultimately be more damaging: stigma. Individuals frequently feel as if others will think they’re old if they have hearing loss and that admitting it will ruin their lives. Individuals will often avoid pursuing treatment because of these false ideas.
However, this stigma is beginning to disappear as more people become open to their hearing loss. Many individuals 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 folks who sadly will not let go of this stigma.
Unfortunately, this perception of social stigma can cause individuals in the early stages of hearing loss to avoid getting the treatment they need resulting in more severe permanent hearing loss.
Treatment options for hearing loss-related fatigue
The earliest stages of hearing loss might not have any evident symptoms. That’s why hearing specialists prefer to take a preventative strategy instead of the far more difficult and less effective reactive approach. For instance, scheduling regular screenings with a hearing specialist before you notice symptoms can help create a baseline of what your healthy hearing looks like. Early treatment will be a lot more effective after we have determined that baseline.
If your hearing loss is causing fatigue, there are a few steps you can take to minimize that exhaustion as much as possible. Here are a few of the most prevalent and easiest steps:
- If you use hearing aids, wear them as often as possible: Hearing aids are designed to help you focus on the sounds of human speech, meaning conversation will be substantially easier to make out when you are hearing them. This means you won’t be as fatigued because your brain won’t have to work so hard.
- Schedule a consultation with a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the condition of your hearing is essential. When hearing loss is in its early phases, your brain doesn’t have to work as hard as it does when the condition gets worse, and a hearing specialist can identify hearing loss when it first begins to develop.
- Try to locate more quiet, secluded areas for conversations: Distinguishing voices from background noise can be difficult when you have hearing loss (often whether you’re wearing hearing aids or not). It will be easier, and less exhausting, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter area.
- Take breaks from conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and refresh in between conversations. This can help your brain recuperate from all the work it’s doing and make day-to-day communication a little more sustainable.
So if you’re dealing with an abnormal amount of fatigue and tiredness, with no apparent cause, it might be time to plan a visit to your hearing specialist. Treating hearing loss can help you reduce your exhaustion and boost your energy. Don’t let stigma cause your hearing loss to continue to be neglected.