Fatigue can have a variety of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory problems such as sleep apnea. But many individuals are surprised to find out that persistent tiredness and exhaustion can also be due to something fairly common: hearing loss.
In part, that’s because hearing loss can be a slow-moving, subtle condition. You might find yourself constantly fatigued for no apparent reason because you failed to recognize the symptoms of early hearing loss. This experience can be quite frustrating. Additionally, this exhaustion can frequently result in irritability and, eventually, social isolation. The good news is that treating your hearing loss will often boost your energy levels, reducing fatigue and exhaustion.
Hearing loss moves gradually (and your brain compensates)
Hearing loss is normally a gradually advancing condition that gets worse over time. You might not even realize that you have a hearing loss at first. Even prevalent symptoms, like turning up the volume on your TV and smartphone, can be easy to miss if you’re not watching for them.
One of the more difficult to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often exhaustion. Regardless of how much sleep you get, you could still feel fatigued. 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 receiving 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 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 individuals just go see a hearing specialist when they start feeling fatigued? One partial reason is that individuals just don’t associate tiredness with hearing loss. But there’s another reason that might ultimately be more detrimental: stigma. There’s a feeling that hearing loss is terrible or ruins your life or that there’s nothing you can do about it. All of these things are untrue, and they prevent many individuals from seeking treatment.
However, as more people are open about their hearing loss experience, the stigma has begun to disappear. It’s becoming a more common understanding that hearing loss can happen to individuals of all ages and modern hearing aids are small enough that the few people who can’t get over this stigma won’t even notice them.
It’s a shame that this social stigma can make it more difficult for individuals to find the care they need because this often leads to hearing loss that gets worse over time when it may not have to.
Treatment options for hearing loss-related fatigue
There are often no apparent symptoms of early phase hearing loss. That makes it challenging to effectively take a reactive approach, and it’s why many hearing specialists prefer preventative approaches. For instance, scheduling routine 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 frequently a lot more effective.
If your hearing loss is causing fatigue, there are some steps you can take to lessen that exhaustion as much as possible. A few of the simplest and most common steps include the following:
- Make sure you use your hearing aids as often as you can: Hearing aids are manufactured 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 tired because your brain won’t have to work so hard.
- Give yourself a rest in between conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and refresh in between conversations. Your brain is working extra hard to engage in conversation and brief breaks will make that more sustainable.
- Schedule an assessment with 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 a problem and your brain doesn’t have to work as hard to compensate.
- Try to have conversations in quieter areas: Distinguishing voices from background noise can be challenging when you have hearing loss (often whether you’re using 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.
It’s most likely time to make an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing fatigue with no apparent cause. Treating hearing loss can help you lessen your exhaustion and boost your energy. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re concerned about the stigma.