Fatigue can have a wide variety of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory conditions like sleep apnea. But many individuals are surprised to find out that chronic tiredness and exhaustion can also be due to something fairly common: hearing loss.
That’s at least partially due to the fact that hearing loss normally progresses gradually over time. You may find yourself continuously fatigued for no apparent reason because you failed to recognize the symptoms of early hearing loss. This experience can be really frustrating. This fatigue can frequently turn into irritability which could cause you to socially isolate yourself. The good news is that treating your hearing loss will frequently boost your energy levels, reducing tiredness and exhaustion.
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. In its early stages, you likely won’t even notice that you’re developing hearing loss. Even common symptoms, like cranking the volume up on your TV and smartphone, can be easy to miss if you aren’t looking for them.
One of the harder to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often exhaustion. You may feel depleted no matter how much rest you got the night before. 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 getting as much information, your brain works harder to comprehend it all. In the same way as sustained periods of intense concentration can leave you fatigued, the extra brain power needed to hear what individuals are saying can be exhausting. Left untreated, this exhaustion can grow worse over time, affecting your quality of life and your ability to execute daily routine activities.
The role of stigma
So why don’t more people just consult a hearing specialist when they start feeling fatigued? One partial explanation is that people just don’t connect tiredness with hearing loss. But there’s another reason that may ultimately be more detrimental: stigma. 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 false, and they stop many individuals from finding 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 today’s hearing aids are discreet 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 often results in hearing loss that grows worse over time when it might not need to.
Treatment options for hearing loss-related fatigue
There are frequently no noticeable symptoms of early stage hearing loss. That’s why hearing specialists favor taking a preventative approach instead of the far more challenging and less effective reactive approach. For example, scheduling routine screenings with a hearing specialist before you notice symptoms can help create a baseline of what your healthy hearing looks like. Early treatment will be much more effective once we have determined that baseline.
You can minimize hearing loss associated exhaustion by taking a few proactive steps. Here are several of the most prevalent and easiest steps:
- Consult 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 worsens, and a hearing specialist can identify hearing loss when it first begins to develop.
- If you have hearing aids, wear them as frequently as you can: One of the main functions of hearing aids is to clarify human speech, making understanding conversations a lot easier. This means your brain won’t need to work as hard and you will not experience the same degree of fatigue.
- Take breaks from conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and recharge in between conversations. Your brain is working overtime to participate in conversation and brief rests will make that more sustainable.
- Try to have conversations in quieter spots: Distinguishing 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 exhausting, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter spot.
So if you’re feeling an unusual amount of fatigue and tiredness, with no evident cause, it may be time to plan a visit to your hearing specialist. You can minimize your fatigue and boost your energy by treating your hearing loss. Don’t let stigma cause your hearing loss to continue to be neglected.
