Fatigue can have a variety of causes, ranging from a simple sleepless night to respiratory problems like sleep apnea. But many people are surprised to find out that chronic fatigue and exhaustion can also be a result of something fairly common: hearing loss.
That’s at least partly due to the fact that hearing loss normally progresses slowly over time. You might not immediately recognize the symptoms and, as a result, you may feel as though you are constantly tired for no reason. This can be a frustrating experience. This exhaustion can frequently turn into irritability which could cause you to socially seclude yourself. Luckily, your energy levels will typically increase once you get your hearing loss treated.
Hearing loss moves slowly (and your brain compensates)
For most individuals, hearing loss is a very slow-moving condition that grows worse over time. You may not even realize that you have a hearing impairment at first. If you’re not specifically watching for them, even conspicuous symptoms, like cranking the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to overlook.
Fatigue is one of the most obvious symptoms of hearing loss. You may feel tired no matter how much rest you got the night before. This symptom, regrettably, isn’t usually associated with hearing loss.
Because the cause occurs in your brain, the symptoms aren’t generally considered an ear problem. When your ears aren’t getting as much information, your brain works overtime to comprehend it all. This continual extra work is taxing in the same way that extended periods of concentration can take a toll. Left neglected, this fatigue can get worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to execute daily routine tasks.
The role of stigma
So why don’t more individuals just consult a hearing specialist when they start feeling tired? One partial reason is that people just don’t associate fatigue with hearing loss. But the notion of stigma is another cause 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 untrue, and they stop many individuals from seeking treatment.
However, this stigma is beginning to fade away as more individuals become open to their hearing loss. Many people understand that hearing loss is not some kind of social failing, and the very small construction of modern hearing aids makes them easy to hide around folks who unfortunately will not let go of this stigma.
Unfortunately, this perception of social stigma can cause individuals in the early stages of hearing loss to put off on getting the treatment they need resulting in more severe permanent hearing loss.
How to manage hearing loss-associated fatigue
The earliest phases of hearing loss may not have any noticeable symptoms. That’s why hearing specialists favor taking a preventative strategy instead of the far more challenging and less effective reactive method. Hearing specialists recommend routine screenings in order to create 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 often far more effective.
You can minimize hearing loss related exhaustion by taking a few proactive steps. Some of the simplest and most common measures include the following:
- Give yourself a rest in between conversations: In between conversation, take a quiet rest somewhere. Your brain is working extra hard to participate in conversation and brief breaks will make that more sustainable.
- See a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the condition of your hearing is important. When hearing loss is in its early stages, your brain doesn’t have 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 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 circumstances. It will be easier, and less tiring, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter location.
- Make sure you wear your hearing aids as frequently as you can: Hearing aids are manufactured to help you focus on the sounds of human speech, meaning conversation will be considerably easier to make out when you are hearing them. This means you won’t be as fatigued because your brain won’t need to work so hard.
So if you’re experiencing an abnormal amount of exhaustion and tiredness, with no evident cause, it might be time to schedule a visit to your hearing specialist. You can reduce your fatigue and boost your energy by treating your hearing loss. Don’t let stigma cause your hearing loss to continue to be neglected.
