There are a number of potential causes of tiredness, everything from not being able to sleep at night to respiratory problems like sleep apnea. But many individuals are surprised to learn that persistent tiredness and exhaustion can also be caused by something fairly common: hearing loss.
To some extent, that’s because hearing loss can be a slow-moving, subtle condition. You might find yourself continuously exhausted for no apparent reason because you failed to recognize the symptoms of early hearing loss. This experience can be quite frustrating. In addition, this exhaustion can often lead to irritability and, ultimately, social isolation. Fortunately, your energy levels will typically improve once you get your hearing loss treated.
Hearing loss moves gradually (and your brain compensates)
Hearing loss is usually a slowly advancing condition that gets worse over time. In its early phases, you probably won’t even detect that you’re developing hearing loss. If you’re not specifically watching for them, even obvious symptoms, like turning the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to miss.
One of the more difficult to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often fatigue. You may feel depleted no matter how much rest you got the night before. Unfortunately, many individuals don’t intuitively associate this symptom with hearing loss.
Because the cause occurs in your brain, the symptoms aren’t usually considered an ear issue. When your ears aren’t receiving as much information, your brain works overtime to comprehend it all. This constant extra work is exhausting in the same way that long periods of concentration can take a toll. Left neglected, this fatigue can grow worse over time, affecting your quality of life and your ability to complete daily routine tasks.
Stigma plays a role
So why don’t more people just go see a hearing specialist when they begin feeling fatigued? There are many explanations: frequently individuals are busy or thinking about other things. But there’s another reason that may ultimately be more damaging: stigma. Individuals 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 false, and they prevent many individuals from seeking treatment.
However, this stigma is starting to disappear as more people become open to their hearing loss. It’s becoming a more common understanding that hearing loss can happen to people 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 harder for people to find the care they need because this frequently results in hearing loss that gets worse over time when it might not have to.
How to deal with hearing loss-associated fatigue
There are often no apparent symptoms of early stage hearing loss. That’s why hearing specialists favor taking a preventative strategy instead of the far more difficult and less effective reactive method. Hearing specialists recommend regular screenings in order to create a baseline of your healthy hearing, that way they will be able to identify changes to your hearing in subsequent screenings. Once this baseline is established, early intervention is frequently far 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. Here are several of the most prevalent and simplest steps:
- Give yourself a rest in between conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and recharge in between conversations. This can help your brain recuperate from all the work it’s doing and make everyday communication a bit more sustainable.
- Try to have conversations in quieter spots: Sorting out voices from background noise can be difficult when you have hearing loss (often whether you’re wearing hearing aids or not). Moving conversations to a location with less background noise can make it easier for your brain to focus on the voice you’re trying to hear, lessening fatigue in the process.
- Be sure you wear your hearing aids as frequently 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 fatigued because your brain won’t have to work so hard.
- Schedule an assessment with a hearing specialist: It’s important to keep tabs on your hearing health. Seeing a hearing specialist can help you detect 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.
It’s most likely time to make an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing fatigue with no evident cause. Treating hearing loss can help you minimize your exhaustion and boost your energy. Don’t let stigma cause your hearing loss to continue to be neglected.
