There are numerous possible causes of tiredness, everything from being unable to sleep at night to respiratory issues like sleep apnea. But many people are surprised to learn that persistent tiredness and exhaustion can also be caused by something fairly common: hearing loss.
In part, that’s because hearing loss can be a gradually-moving, subtle condition. You may find yourself constantly exhausted for no apparent reason because you failed to recognize the symptoms of early hearing loss. This can be a frustrating experience. This fatigue 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 fatigue and exhaustion.
Your brain will compensate for gradually progressing hearing loss
Hearing loss is usually a gradually developing condition that grows worse over time. You may not even realize that you have a hearing impairment at first. If you’re not specifically watching for them, even obvious symptoms, like cranking the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to overlook.
One of the more difficult to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often exhaustion. In spite of how much rest you get, you could still feel exhausted. Regrettably, many individuals don’t instinctively associate this symptom with hearing loss.
Because the cause occurs 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. In the same way as prolonged periods of intense concentration can leave you tired, the extra brain power required to hear what people are saying can be exhausting. Left neglected, this exhaustion can grow worse over time, affecting your quality of life and your ability to execute daily routine activities.
The role of stigma
So when people start to feel fatigue, why wouldn’t they simply go see a hearing specialist? One partial reason is that individuals just don’t connect fatigue with hearing loss. But the perception of stigma is another cause which can be even more detrimental. Individuals often feel as if others will think they’re old if they have hearing loss and that acknowledging it will ruin their lives. Individuals will frequently avoid seeking treatment because of these false ideas.
However, as more people are open about their hearing loss experience, the stigma has started to disappear. It’s becoming a more prevalent understanding that hearing loss can happen to individuals of all ages and today’s hearing aids are discreet enough that the few people who can’t get over this stigma won’t even notice them.
It’s unfortunate that this social stigma can make it more difficult for people to find the care they need because this often leads to hearing loss that gets worse over time when it might not need to.
How to manage hearing loss-associated fatigue
There are frequently no noticeable symptoms of early phase hearing loss. That’s why hearing specialists favor taking a preventative strategy rather than the far more challenging and less effective reactive approach. For example, scheduling regular screenings with a hearing specialist before you detect symptoms can help establish a baseline of what your healthy hearing looks like. Once this baseline is achieved, 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. A few of the easiest and most common steps include the following:
- Give yourself a break in between conversations: In between conversation, take a quiet break somewhere. This can help your brain recuperate from all the work it’s doing and make day-to-day communication a bit more sustainable.
- If you have 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 significantly easier to make out when you are hearing them. This means you won’t be as fatigued because your brain won’t need to work so hard.
- Try to have conversations in quieter spots: When there is a lot of background noise, it can be difficult to sort out voices, even with hearing aids in some cases. 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, reducing fatigue in the process.
- Consult a hearing specialist: It’s important to monitor your hearing health. Seeing 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 have to work as hard to compensate.
It’s most likely time to schedule an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing exhaustion with no obvious cause. You can reduce your fatigue and boost your energy by treating your hearing loss. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re afraid of the stigma.