There are numerous potential causes of fatigue, everything from being unable to sleep at night to respiratory issues like sleep apnea. But there is something more common that can also cause fatigue and that’s hearing loss.
That’s at least partly due to the fact that hearing loss usually progresses slowly over time. You may find yourself continuously exhausted for no apparent reason because you failed to detect the symptoms of early hearing loss. This can be a frustrating experience. Additionally, this exhaustion can often lead to irritability and, eventually, social isolation. Fortunately, your energy levels will typically improve once you get your hearing loss treated.
Your brain will compensate for slowly progressing hearing loss
For most individuals, hearing loss is a very slow-moving condition that grows worse over time. In its early phases, you likely won’t even detect that you’re developing hearing loss. If you aren’t 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 harder to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often fatigue. You might feel tired no matter how much sleep you got the night before. This symptom, regrettably, isn’t usually associated with hearing loss.
That’s because the cause happens in your brain. When your ears aren’t getting as much information, your brain works harder to make sense of it all. This continual extra work is exhausting in the same way that long periods of concentration can take a toll. Your ability to execute daily tasks and your general quality of life can be significantly affected over time as your untreated hearing loss gets worse.
Stigma plays a role
So when individuals begin to feel tired, why wouldn’t they just consult a hearing specialist? One partial reason is that people just don’t associate tiredness with hearing loss. But the perception of stigma is another reason which can be even more detrimental. There’s a feeling that hearing loss is terrible 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 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 today’s hearing aids are small enough that the few people who can’t let go of this stigma won’t even see them.
Unfortunately, this perception of social stigma can cause people in the early stages of hearing loss to put off on getting the treatment they need leading to more serious permanent hearing loss.
How to deal with hearing loss-associated fatigue
The earliest stages of hearing loss might not have any apparent symptoms. That’s why hearing specialists favor taking a preventative approach rather than the far more difficult and less effective reactive method. For example, scheduling routine screenings with a hearing specialist before you notice symptoms can help establish a baseline of what your healthy hearing looks like. Once this baseline is achieved, early intervention is frequently much more effective.
You can minimize hearing loss related exhaustion by taking a few proactive measures. Here are a few of the most prevalent and easiest steps:
- See a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the state of your hearing is important. Visiting a hearing specialist can help you identify hearing loss in its early stages when it’s less of a problem and your brain doesn’t need to work as hard to compensate.
- 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 instances. It will be easier, and less fatiguing, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter spot.
- Give yourself a break in between conversations: In between conversation, take a quiet break somewhere. Your brain is working extra hard to take part in conversation and brief rests will make that more sustainable.
- Be 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 significantly easier to understand when you are hearing them. This means your brain won’t have to work as hard and you won’t experience the same amount of fatigue.
It’s probably time to schedule an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing fatigue with no obvious cause. Treating hearing loss can help you minimize your exhaustion and boost your energy. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re afraid of the stigma.
