There are a number of potential causes of exhaustion, everything from the inability to sleep at night to respiratory problems like sleep apnea. But there is something more common that can also be the cause of tiredness and that’s hearing loss.
That’s at least partially because of the fact that hearing loss usually progresses slowly over time. You may find yourself continuously fatigued for no apparent reason because you failed to recognize the symptoms of early hearing loss. This can be a frustrating experience. Additionally, this exhaustion can often lead to irritability and, eventually, social isolation. Fortunately, your energy levels will normally increase once you get your hearing loss treated.
Hearing loss progresses slowly (and your brain compensates)
For the majority of individuals, hearing loss is a very slow-moving condition that grows worse over time. You might not even recognize that you have a hearing loss 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 fatigue. You might feel tired no matter how much sleep you got the night before. Unfortunately, many individuals don’t instinctively link this symptom with hearing loss.
That’s because the cause occurs in your brain. Your brain has to work extra hard to process sound due to the loss of your ability to hear, which can leave you fatigued. In the same way as prolonged periods of intense concentration can leave you tired, the extra brain power needed to hear what people are saying can be exhausting. Left neglected, this fatigue can get worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to complete daily routine activities.
Stigma plays a role
So when people start to feel fatigue, why wouldn’t they simply consult a hearing specialist? One partial reason is that people just don’t associate tiredness with hearing loss. But the notion of stigma is another reason which can be even more detrimental. Individuals frequently feel like others will think they’re old if they have hearing loss and that acknowledging it will ruin their lives. Individuals will often avoid seeking treatment because of these mistaken notions.
However, this stigma is starting to fade away as more individuals become open to their hearing loss. 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 see them.
Regrettably, this perception of social stigma can cause people in the early stages of hearing loss to put off on getting the treatment they need resulting in more serious permanent hearing loss.
Solutions for hearing loss-related fatigue
The earliest stages of hearing loss may not have any noticeable symptoms. That’s why hearing specialists prefer to take a preventative strategy instead of the far more challenging and less effective reactive approach. Hearing specialists recommend routine screenings in order to establish a baseline of your healthy hearing, that way they will be capable of identifying changes to your hearing in later screenings. Once this baseline is achieved, early intervention is frequently far more effective.
You can minimize hearing loss associated exhaustion by taking a few proactive measures. Here are several of the most prevalent and simplest steps:
- Schedule a consultation with a hearing specialist: It’s important to monitor 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.
- Try to locate more quiet, isolated spots for conversations: Sorting out voices from background noise can be challenging when you have hearing loss (often whether you’re using hearing aids or not). It will be easier, and less fatiguing, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter place.
- If you use hearing aids, wear them as often as you can: Hearing aids are manufactured to help you focus on the sounds of human speech, meaning conversation will be significantly easier to understand when you are hearing them. This means your brain won’t have to work as hard and you won’t experience the same degree of fatigue.
- Give yourself a rest in between conversations: In between conversation, take a quiet rest somewhere. Your brain is working overtime to engage in conversation and brief breaks will make that more sustainable.
So if you’re experiencing an unusual 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 reduce your exhaustion and boost your energy. Don’t let stigma cause your hearing loss to continue to be untreated.
