Fatigue can have a variety of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory problems such as sleep apnea. But there is something more common that can also be the cause of fatigue and that’s hearing loss.
In part, that’s because hearing loss can be a slow-moving, subtle condition. You might not immediately distinguish the symptoms and, as a result, you may feel as though you are constantly tired for no reason. This can be a frustrating experience. In addition, this exhaustion can frequently result in irritability and, eventually, social isolation. Fortunately, your energy levels will usually improve once you get your hearing loss treated.
Hearing loss moves gradually (and your brain compensates)
For most people, hearing loss is a very slow-moving condition that gets worse over time. You may not even recognize that you have a hearing impairment at first. Even prevalent symptoms, like turning the volume up on your TV and smartphone, can be easy to miss if you’re not watching for them.
One of the harder to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often fatigue. In spite of how much sleep you get, you could still feel fatigued. This symptom, regrettably, isn’t typically associated with hearing loss.
That’s because the cause takes place in your brain. Your brain needs to work overtime to process sound due to the loss of your ability to hear, which can leave you exhausted. In the same way as sustained periods of intense concentration can leave you worn out, the extra brain power required to hear what people are saying can be exhausting. 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 when people start to feel fatigue, why wouldn’t they simply consult a hearing specialist? One partial explanation is that people just don’t connect tiredness with hearing loss. But the notion of stigma is another reason which can be even more damaging. There’s an impression that hearing loss is bad or ruins your life or that there’s nothing that can be done about it. 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 let go of this stigma won’t even notice them.
It’s unfortunate that this social stigma can make it harder for individuals to find the care they need because this often results in hearing loss that grows worse over time when it may not need to.
Treatment options for hearing loss-related fatigue
The earliest phases of hearing loss might not have any evident symptoms. That makes it difficult to effectively take a reactive strategy, and it’s why many hearing specialists favor preventative techniques. 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 a lot more effective.
You can minimize hearing loss related exhaustion by taking a few proactive steps. Here are several of the most prevalent and easiest steps:
- Take breaks from conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and refresh in between conversations. This can help your brain recover from all the work it’s doing and make day-to-day communication a bit more sustainable.
- Try to have conversations in quieter places: Distinguishing voices from background noise can be difficult when you have hearing loss (often whether you’re wearing hearing aids or not). It will be easier, and less tiring, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter spot.
- Consult a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the status of your hearing is essential. Visiting a hearing specialist can help you identify hearing loss in its early stages when it’s less of an issue and your brain doesn’t have to work as hard to compensate.
- If you use hearing aids, wear them as frequently as possible: Hearing aids are manufactured to help you focus on the sounds of human speech, meaning conversation will be substantially easier to understand when you are hearing them. This means your brain won’t need to work as hard and you won’t experience the same level of fatigue.
So if you’re experiencing an abnormal amount of exhaustion and tiredness, with no apparent cause, it may 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 let stigma cause your hearing loss to continue to be untreated.