There are numerous potential causes of exhaustion, everything from not being able to sleep at night to respiratory issues like sleep apnea. But there is something more common that can also be the cause of fatigue and that’s hearing loss.
To some extent, that’s because hearing loss can be a slow-moving, subtle condition. You may find yourself constantly 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 often turn into irritability which could cause you to socially seclude yourself. Fortunately, your energy levels will typically improve once you get your hearing loss treated.
Hearing loss progresses gradually (and your brain compensates)
For the majority of people, hearing loss is a very gradually-progressing condition that gets worse over time. You may not even recognize that you have a hearing loss at first. If you’re not specifically watching for them, even conspicuous symptoms, like turning the volume on your audio devices way up, can be easy to miss.
Exhaustion is one of the most obvious symptoms of hearing loss. You may feel tired no matter how much sleep you got the night before. Unfortunately, many individuals don’t intuitively associate this symptom with hearing loss.
Because the cause occurs in your brain, the symptoms aren’t usually considered an ear problem. When your ears aren’t receiving 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 untreated, this fatigue can get worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to execute daily routine tasks.
Stigma plays a role
So when individuals begin to feel fatigue, why wouldn’t they simply go see a hearing specialist? One partial reason is that individuals just don’t associate fatigue with hearing loss. But the perception of stigma is another cause which can be even more damaging. There’s a feeling that hearing loss is bad or ruins your life or that there’s nothing you can do about it. People will frequently avoid pursuing treatment because of these false ideas.
However, this stigma is beginning to fade away 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 discreet enough that the few people who can’t let go of this stigma won’t even notice them.
Regrettably, 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 serious permanent hearing loss.
Treatment options for hearing loss-related fatigue
The earliest stages of hearing loss may not have any noticeable symptoms. That makes it difficult to effectively take a reactive approach, and it’s why many hearing specialists favor preventative approaches. 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. Once this baseline is established, early intervention is often much more effective.
You can minimize hearing loss associated exhaustion by taking a few proactive steps. Here are a few of the most prevalent and simplest steps:
- See a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the condition of your hearing is important. 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.
- 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 considerably easier to understand when you are hearing them. This means your brain won’t have to work as hard and you will not experience the same amount of fatigue.
- 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). Moving conversations to a location 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.
- Give yourself a break in between conversations: In between conversation, take a quiet rest somewhere. This can help your brain recuperate from all the work it’s doing and make day-to-day communication a bit more sustainable.
So if you’re experiencing an abnormal amount of fatigue and tiredness, with no discernible cause, it might be time to schedule 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 afraid of the stigma.