Fatigue 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 caused by something fairly common: hearing loss.
To some extent, that’s because hearing loss can be a slow-moving, subtle condition. You may find yourself constantly exhausted for no apparent reason because you failed to detect the symptoms of early hearing loss. This can be a frustrating experience. This exhaustion can often turn into irritability which could cause you to socially seclude yourself. The good news is that treating your hearing loss will often improve your energy levels, mitigating tiredness and exhaustion.
Your brain will compensate for gradually progressing hearing loss
Hearing loss is normally a slowly progressing condition that gets worse over time. You may not even recognize that you have a hearing loss at first. Even common symptoms, like turning the volume up on your TV and smartphone, can be easy to miss if you aren’t looking for them.
Exhaustion is one of the most obvious symptoms of hearing loss. 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.
That’s because the cause occurs in your brain. Your brain has to work overtime to process sound because of the loss of your ability to hear, which can leave you exhausted. In the same way as sustained periods of intense concentration can leave you worn out, the additional brain power required to hear what individuals are saying can be exhausting. Left untreated, this exhaustion can grow worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to execute daily routine activities.
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 individuals just don’t connect tiredness with hearing loss. But there’s another reason that may ultimately be more damaging: stigma. People often feel like others will think they’re old if they have hearing loss and that acknowledging it will ruin their lives. People will frequently 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 people understand that hearing loss isn’t some type of social failing, and the very small nature of modern hearing aids makes them easy to hide around folks who sadly will not let go of this stigma.
It’s unfortunate that this social stigma can make it more difficult for individuals to find the care they need because this frequently leads to hearing loss that gets worse over time when it might not have to.
Solutions for hearing loss-related fatigue
There are frequently no obvious symptoms of early stage hearing loss. That makes it difficult to effectively take a reactive strategy, and it’s why many hearing specialists prefer preventative techniques. Hearing specialists advocate for routine screenings in order to create a baseline of your healthy hearing, that way they will be capable of identifying changes to your hearing in subsequent screenings. Once this baseline is established, early intervention is often far more effective.
You can minimize hearing loss associated exhaustion by taking a few proactive measures. Some of the easiest and most common measures include the following:
- Schedule an assessment with a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the status of your hearing is important. When hearing loss is in its early phases, your brain doesn’t have to work as hard as it does when the condition worsens, and a hearing specialist can diagnose hearing loss when it first begins to develop.
- Try to have conversations in quieter spots: Distinguishing voices from background noise can be challenging 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, minimizing fatigue in the process.
- Take breaks from conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and recharge in between conversations. This can help your brain recover from all the work it’s doing and make everyday communication a little more sustainable.
- Be sure you wear your hearing aids as often as you can: Hearing aids are designed to help you focus on the sounds of human speech, meaning conversation will be substantially easier to understand when you are hearing them. This means you won’t be as fatigued because your brain won’t need to work so hard.
It’s most likely time to make an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing fatigue with no obvious cause. Treating hearing loss can help you lessen your exhaustion and boost your energy. Don’t let stigma cause your hearing loss to continue to be neglected.