It’s no fun when you’re unable to sleep at night. Particularly when it occurs frequently. You lie awake tossing and turning, looking at the time again and again, and worrying about how tired you will be tomorrow. When these types of sleepless nights routinely occur, medical professionals tend to use the label “insomnia”. Over time, the effects of chronic insomnia will compound, negatively impacting your overall health.
And the health of your hearing, not unexpectedly, is part of your overall health. That’s correct, insomnia can have an impact on your ability to hear. This isn’t exactly a cause-and-effect relationship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no link between hearing loss and insomnia.
Can your hearing be impacted by lack of sleep?
What could the connection between hearing loss and sleep be? There’s a significant amount of research that indicates insomnia, over time, can affect your cardiovascular system. It becomes more difficult for your blood to flow into all of the extremities of your body when you aren’t getting the recuperative power of a good night’s sleep.
Insomnia also means an increase in stress and anxiety. Being stressed and anxious aren’t only mental states, they’re physiological states, also.
So, how does hearing loss play into that? There are little hairs inside of your ears known as stereocilia. When sound waves vibrate these tiny hairs, signals are transmitted to your brain which translates these signals into sound.
These tiny hairs have a hard time remaining healthy when there are circulatory problems. These hairs can, in some cases, be irreversibly damaged. And once that takes place, your hearing will be irrevocably damaged. This can result in permanent hearing loss, especially the longer it continues.
Does it also work the other way around?
Is it possible for hearing loss to make you lose sleep? It’s certainly possible. Many individuals favor a little background noise when they try to sleep and hearing loss can make the world very quiet. This means that the quiet of hearing loss can sometimes prevent normal sleeping. Another way that hearing loss may cost you some sleep is if you find yourself stressed about losing your hearing.
If you have hearing loss, what can you do to get a good night’s sleep? Stress on your brain can be reduced by wearing your hearing aids during the day because you won’t be wearing them while you sleep. Following other sleep-health tips can also help.
Some tips for a quality night’s sleep
- Before bed, refrain from drinking alcohol: This will simply interrupt your existing sleep cycle.
- Get some exercise regularly: You might go to bed with some excess energy if you don’t get enough exercise. Being active every day can be helpful.
- Find ways to alleviate stress: Get away from work and do something soothing before bed.
- Maintain your bedroom for sleeping (mostly): Try to limit the amount of things you use your bedroom for. For instance, don’t do work in your bedroom.
- For at least a couple of hours before bed, try to avoid liquids: Every time you need to get up and go to the bathroom, you begin the wake up process. It’s much better to sleep right through the night.
- For at least an hour, abstain from looking at screens: (Even longer if possible!) Your brain has a tendency to be stimulated by looking at screens.
- Don’t drink caffeine after lunch.: Even if you drink decaf, it still has enough caffeine to give you problems sleeping. Soda also fits into this category.
Be aware of the health of your hearing
Even if you’ve experienced some insomnia-associated symptoms before, and have some hearing loss, your symptoms can still be controlled.
Make an appointment for a hearing exam today!