Can Hearing Loss Make You Feel Fatigued?

There are lots of potential causes of exhaustion, everything from not being able to sleep at night to respiratory problems like sleep apnea. But there is something more common that can also be the cause of tiredness and that’s hearing loss.

That’s at least partly due to the fact that hearing loss normally progresses gradually over time. You might not immediately detect the symptoms and, as a result, you may feel as if you’re constantly tired for no reason. This experience can be very frustrating. In addition, this exhaustion can frequently result in irritability and, eventually, social isolation. The good news is that treating your hearing loss will often boost your energy levels, reducing tiredness and exhaustion.

Hearing loss progresses slowly (and your brain compensates)

Hearing loss is typically a gradually developing condition that grows worse over time. In its early phases, you probably won’t even detect that you’re developing hearing loss. 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.

One of the harder to miss symptoms of hearing loss is often exhaustion. No matter how much sleep you get, you could still feel fatigued. Regrettably, many individuals don’t instinctively link this symptom with hearing loss.

Because the cause happens in your brain, the symptoms aren’t generally considered an ear problem. When your ears aren’t receiving as much information, your brain works overtime to comprehend it all. In the same way as prolonged periods of intense concentration can leave you tired, the extra brain power required to hear what people are saying can be exhausting. Left untreated, this fatigue can grow worse over time, impacting your quality of life and your ability to execute daily routine tasks.

The role of stigma

So when individuals begin to feel tired, why wouldn’t they simply consult a hearing specialist? One partial reason is that people just don’t associate fatigue with hearing loss. But the notion of stigma is another reason which can be even more detrimental. People frequently feel as if others will think they’re old if they have hearing loss and that acknowledging it will ruin their lives. All of these things are false, 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 common 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 get over this stigma won’t even see them.

Regrettably, this perception of social stigma can cause people in the early stages of hearing loss to avoid getting the treatment they need resulting in more severe permanent hearing loss.

How to deal with hearing loss-associated fatigue

There are frequently no obvious symptoms of early stage hearing loss. That’s why hearing specialists favor taking a preventative strategy instead of the far more challenging and less effective reactive approach. For instance, scheduling regular screenings with a hearing specialist before you detect symptoms can help create a baseline of what your healthy hearing looks like. Once this baseline is established, early intervention is often far more effective.

You can lessen hearing loss related exhaustion by taking a few proactive steps. A few of the easiest and most common measures include the following:

• See a hearing specialist: Keeping an eye on the state of your hearing is essential. Visiting 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 have to work as hard to compensate.
• Try to find more quiet, secluded areas for conversations: When there is a lot of background noise, it can be challenging to sort out voices, even with hearing aids in some circumstances. Moving conversations to an area with less background noise can make it easier for your brain to focus on the voice you’re attempting to hear, reducing fatigue in the process.
• Be sure you wear 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 substantially easier to make out 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.
• Take breaks from 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.

It’s most likely time to make an appointment with a hearing specialist if you’re experiencing fatigue with no obvious cause. You can minimize your fatigue and boost your energy by treating your hearing loss. Don’t neglect your hearing loss because you’re concerned about the stigma.