Fatigue can have a wide variety of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory problems such as sleep apnea. But many people are surprised to find out that chronic tiredness and exhaustion can also be caused by something relatively common: hearing loss.
That’s at least partially because of the fact that hearing loss normally develops slowly over time. 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. 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 often boost your energy levels, reducing tiredness and exhaustion.
Your brain will compensate for gradually progressing hearing loss
Hearing loss is usually a slowly advancing 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 obvious symptoms, like turning the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to overlook.
Fatigue is one of the most obvious symptoms of hearing loss. You might feel tired no matter how much rest you got the night before. This symptom, regrettably, isn’t typically associated with hearing loss.
That’s because the cause happens in your brain. Your brain needs to work extra hard to process sound due to the loss of your ability to hear, which can leave you exhausted. Just as prolonged periods of intense concentration can leave you fatigued, the extra brain power needed to hear what individuals are saying can be exhausting. Your ability to perform daily tasks and your general quality of life can be significantly impacted over time as your untreated hearing loss grows worse.
Stigma plays a role
So when individuals start to feel fatigue, why wouldn’t they just visit a hearing specialist? There are many explanations: frequently individuals are busy or thinking about other things. But the notion of stigma is another reason which can be even more damaging. People often feel like others will think they’re old if they have hearing loss and that admitting it will ruin their lives. All of these things are untrue, and they stop many people from seeking treatment.
However, this stigma is beginning to disappear as more individuals become open to their hearing loss. It’s becoming a more prevalent understanding that hearing loss can happen to people of all ages and today’s hearing aids are discreet enough that the few people who can’t let go of this stigma won’t even see them.
It’s a shame that this social stigma can make it harder for people to find the care they need because this frequently leads to hearing loss that gets worse over time when it may not have to.
How to deal with hearing loss-associated fatigue
The earliest stages of hearing loss might not have any apparent symptoms. That’s why hearing specialists favor taking a preventative strategy rather than the far more challenging and less effective reactive method. For instance, scheduling routine screenings with a hearing specialist before you detect symptoms can help create a baseline of what your healthy hearing looks like. Once this baseline is established, early intervention is often a lot more effective.
You can lessen hearing loss associated exhaustion by taking a few proactive steps. A few of the simplest and most common steps include the following:
- Be certain you wear your hearing aids as frequently as you can: One of the primary 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 need to work so hard.
- Try to have conversations in quieter places: When there is a lot of background noise, it can be challenging to sort out voices, even with hearing aids in some cases. It will be easier, and less tiring, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter location.
- Give yourself a rest in between conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and recharge in between conversations. Your brain is working overtime to take part in conversation and brief breaks will make that more sustainable.
- Consult a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the state of your hearing is important. Seeing a hearing specialist can help you detect 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.
So if you’re feeling an abnormal amount of fatigue and tiredness, with no apparent cause, it may be time to plan a visit to your hearing specialist. 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.