There are a number of possible causes of fatigue, everything from not being able to sleep at night to respiratory problems like sleep apnea. But many individuals are surprised to find out that chronic fatigue and exhaustion can also be due to something fairly common: hearing loss.
In part, that’s because hearing loss can be a gradually-moving, subtle condition. You may not immediately detect the symptoms and, as a result, you might feel as if you’re constantly tired for no reason. This experience can be very frustrating. 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 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 slow-moving condition that grows worse over time. You may not even realize that you have a hearing loss at first. If you’re not specifically watching for them, even conspicuous symptoms, like turning the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to miss.
One of the harder to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often exhaustion. No matter how much sleep you get, you could still feel exhausted. This symptom, unfortunately, isn’t usually associated with hearing loss.
That’s because the cause takes place in your brain. Your brain needs to work extra hard to process sound because of the loss of your ability to hear, which can leave you exhausted. This continual extra work is taxing in the same way that extended periods of concentration can take a toll. Left neglected, this exhaustion can get worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to execute daily routine tasks.
The role of stigma
So why don’t more individuals just go see a hearing specialist when they start feeling fatigued? One partial reason is that people just don’t associate tiredness with hearing loss. But the perception of stigma is another reason which can be even more detrimental. There’s a feeling that hearing loss is terrible or ruins your life or that there’s nothing you can do about it. Individuals will frequently avoid seeking treatment because of these mistaken ideas.
However, this stigma is starting to fade away as more people become open to their hearing loss. Many people 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 get over this stigma.
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 need to.
Treatment options for hearing loss-related fatigue
There are often no noticeable symptoms of early stage hearing loss. That makes it challenging to effectively take a reactive approach, and it’s why many hearing specialists favor preventative techniques. Hearing specialists advocate for regular screenings in order to establish 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 achieved, early intervention is often a lot more effective.
If your hearing loss is causing fatigue, there are some steps you can take to minimize that exhaustion as much as possible. A few of the simplest and most common steps include the following:
- Try to find more quiet, secluded areas for conversations: Distinguishing voices from background noise can be difficult 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 trying to hear, reducing fatigue in the process.
- Schedule an assessment with a hearing specialist: It’s important to keep tabs on your hearing health. When hearing loss is in its early stages, your brain doesn’t need 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.
- Take breaks from conversations: In between conversation, take a quiet break somewhere. This can help your brain recover from all the work it’s doing and make everyday communication a bit more sustainable.
- If you have hearing aids, wear them as often as you can: One of the chief 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 have to work so hard.
So if you’re feeling an abnormal amount of exhaustion and tiredness, with no discernible cause, it might be time to schedule a visit to your hearing specialist. Treating hearing loss can help you minimize your exhaustion and boost your energy. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re concerned about the stigma.