There are numerous possible causes of fatigue, everything from the inability 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.
In part, that’s because hearing loss can be a slow-moving, subtle condition. You might find yourself continuously fatigued for no apparent reason because you failed to recognize the symptoms of early hearing loss. This can be a frustrating experience. In addition, this exhaustion can often lead to irritability and, ultimately, social isolation. Luckily, your energy levels will normally 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 slow-moving condition that grows worse over time. You might not even recognize that you have a hearing loss at first. Even common symptoms, like turning the volume up on your TV and smartphone, can be easy to miss if you aren’t looking for them.
One of the harder to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often exhaustion. You might feel tired no matter how much rest you got the night before. Regrettably, many people don’t intuitively connect this symptom with hearing loss.
Because the cause occurs in your brain, the symptoms aren’t usually considered an ear problem. Your brain has to work overtime to process sound due to the loss of your ability to hear, which can leave you fatigued. This continual extra work is taxing in the same way that prolonged periods of concentration can take a toll. Left untreated, this exhaustion can get worse over time, affecting your quality of life and your ability to complete daily routine tasks.
The role of stigma
So why don’t more people just consult a hearing specialist when they begin feeling fatigued? One partial reason is that people just don’t connect fatigue with hearing loss. But there’s another reason that might inevitably be more detrimental: 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, as more individuals are open about their hearing loss experience, the stigma has started to fade. It’s becoming a more prevalent understanding that hearing loss can happen to individuals 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.
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 gets worse over time when it might not need to.
Solutions for hearing loss-related fatigue
There are often no noticeable symptoms of early phase hearing loss. That makes it challenging to effectively take a reactive approach, and it’s why many hearing specialists favor preventative techniques. Hearing specialists advocate for 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 later screenings. Early treatment will be much more effective once we have determined that baseline.
If your hearing loss is causing fatigue, there are a few steps you can take to minimize that exhaustion as much as possible. Here are several of the most common and simplest steps:
- Make sure you wear your hearing aids as frequently as you can: Hearing aids are designed to help you focus on the sounds of human speech, meaning conversation will be substantially easier to make out when you are hearing them. This means your brain won’t need to work as hard and you won’t experience the same degree of fatigue.
- Schedule a consultation with a hearing specialist: It’s important to monitor your hearing health. Consulting a hearing specialist can help you detect 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.
- Give yourself a rest in between conversations: Give yourself some quiet time to rest and refresh in between conversations. Your brain is working overtime to take part in conversation and brief rests will make that more sustainable.
- Try to have conversations in quieter areas: 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 fatiguing, to understand conversations if you move them to a quieter location.
It’s most likely time to schedule an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing exhaustion with no apparent cause. 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.