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 a result of something fairly common: hearing loss.
In part, that’s because hearing loss can be a gradually-moving, subtle condition. You may find yourself constantly 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 frequently result in irritability and, eventually, social isolation. Fortunately, your energy levels will usually increase once you get your hearing loss treated.
Hearing loss moves gradually (and your brain compensates)
Hearing loss is usually a gradually developing condition that grows worse over time. You might not even recognize that you have a hearing impairment at first. Even common symptoms, like cranking up the volume on your TV and smartphone, can be easy to miss if you aren’t watching for them.
Exhaustion is one of the most obvious symptoms of hearing loss. You may feel depleted no matter how much rest you got the night before. Regrettably, many individuals don’t instinctively link this symptom with hearing loss.
That’s because the cause occurs in your brain. Your brain needs to work extra hard to process sound because of the loss of your ability to hear, which can leave you fatigued. In the same way as prolonged periods of intense concentration can leave you worn out, the extra brain power required to hear what individuals are saying can be exhausting. Left neglected, this exhaustion can grow worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to execute daily routine activities.
Stigma plays a role
So why don’t more people just visit a hearing specialist when they begin feeling fatigued? There are many explanations: often people are busy or thinking about other things. But there’s another reason that may ultimately be more damaging: stigma. There’s an impression 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 untrue, and they stop many individuals from seeking treatment.
However, this stigma is starting to fade away as more people become open to their hearing loss. It’s becoming a more prevalent understanding that hearing loss can happen to people 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 more difficult for people to find the care they need because this often results in hearing loss that grows worse over time when it may not have to.
Solutions for hearing loss-related fatigue
The earliest stages of hearing loss may not have any evident symptoms. That’s why hearing specialists prefer to take a preventative approach 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 established, early intervention is often a lot more effective.
You can minimize hearing loss related exhaustion by taking a few proactive steps. A few of the simplest and most common steps include the following:
- Make sure you use your hearing aids as often as you can: Hearing aids are manufactured to help you focus on the sounds of human speech, meaning conversation will be significantly easier to make out when you are hearing them. This means you won’t be as tired because your brain won’t have to work so hard.
- Schedule a consultation with a hearing specialist: It’s important to keep tabs on your hearing health. Visiting 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 have 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 cases. It will be easier, and less exhausting, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter spot.
- Take breaks from conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and recharge in between conversations. This can help your brain recuperate from all the work it’s doing and make day-to-day communication a little more sustainable.
It’s probably time to schedule an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing exhaustion with no evident cause. You can minimize your fatigue and boost your energy by treating your hearing loss. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re afraid of the stigma.