Fatigue can have a wide range of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory conditions such as 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 partly because of the fact that hearing loss normally progresses slowly over time. You might find yourself continuously fatigued for no apparent reason because you failed to detect the symptoms of early hearing loss. This experience can be very frustrating. This exhaustion can frequently turn into irritability which could cause you to socially seclude yourself. Luckily, your energy levels will usually increase once you get your hearing loss treated.
Your brain will compensate for slowly developing hearing loss
For the majority of people, hearing loss is a very slow-moving condition that gets worse over time. You might not even realize that you have a hearing loss at first. If you aren’t specifically watching for them, even obvious symptoms, like cranking the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to overlook.
Exhaustion is one of the most obvious symptoms of hearing loss. No matter how much sleep you get, you could still feel exhausted. Unfortunately, many people don’t intuitively connect this symptom with hearing loss.
Because the cause happens in your brain, the symptoms aren’t generally considered an ear problem. When your ears aren’t receiving as much information, your brain works harder to make sense of it all. In the same way as sustained periods of intense concentration can leave you tired, the additional brain power required to hear what individuals are saying can be exhausting. Your ability to execute daily tasks and your general quality of life can be substantially affected over time as your untreated hearing loss grows worse.
The role of stigma
So why don’t more individuals just go see a hearing specialist when they begin feeling fatigued? One partial reason is that people just don’t associate tiredness with hearing loss. But the perception of stigma is another cause which can be even more damaging. People often feel as if others will think they’re old if they have hearing loss and that admitting it will ruin their lives. People will often avoid pursuing treatment because of these false ideas.
However, as more individuals are open about their hearing loss experience, the stigma has started to fade. It’s becoming a more prevalent understanding that hearing loss can happen to individuals of all ages and today’s 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 leads to hearing loss that gets worse over time when it might not have to.
Solutions 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 strategy, and it’s why many hearing specialists prefer preventative techniques. Hearing specialists advocate for regular screenings in order to create a baseline of your healthy hearing, that way they will be capable of identifying changes to your hearing in subsequent screenings. Early treatment will be a lot more effective once we have identified that baseline.
You can minimize hearing loss related exhaustion by taking a few proactive measures. Here are a few of the most prevalent and easiest steps:
- Take breaks from conversations: In between conversation, take a quiet rest somewhere. This can help your brain recover from all the work it’s doing and make everyday communication a little more sustainable.
- 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 much easier. This means you won’t be as tired because your brain won’t need to work so hard.
- Try to locate more quiet, isolated places for conversations: When there is a lot of background noise, it can be difficult to sort out voices, even with hearing aids in some cases. 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.
- Consult a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the status of your hearing is essential. Seeing a hearing specialist can help you detect hearing loss in its early stages when it’s less of an issue and your brain doesn’t need to work as hard to compensate.
So if you’re dealing with an abnormal amount of fatigue and tiredness, with no evident cause, it might be time to plan a visit to your hearing specialist. You can lessen your fatigue and boost your energy by treating your hearing loss. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re concerned about the stigma.