It’s not fun when you’re unable to sleep at night. Particularly when it occurs regularly. You lie awake tossing and turning, looking at the time again and again, and stressing about how tired you will be tomorrow. Medical professionals call this kind of persistent sleeplessness “insomnia”. With insomnia, the downsides of not sleeping will then start to add up and can, after a while, have a negative affect on your general health.
And the health of your hearing, not surprisingly, is part of your general health. That’s correct, insomnia can have an impact on your ability to hear. This isn’t necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no connection between hearing loss and insomnia.
Can lack of sleep affect your hearing?
What could the connection between hearing loss and sleep be? According to substantial research, your cardiovascular system can be affected by insomnia over a long time period. Without the nightly renewing power of sleep, it’s harder for your blood to get everywhere it needs to be.
Stress and anxiety also increase when you have insomnia. Feeling stressed and anxious will affect you in physiological ways as well as mentally.
So, how does hearing loss play into that? There are tiny hairs inside of your ears known as stereocilia. These delicate hairs vibrate when sound occurs and the information gets sent to your brain, which then converts those vibrations into sounds.
When your circulatory system is not functioning correctly, these hairs have a hard time remaining healthy. These hairs can, in some instances, be irreversibly damaged. And once that takes place, your hearing will be permanently damaged. This can result in permanent hearing loss, especially the longer it continues.
Is the reverse true?
Is it possible for hearing loss to cause you to lose sleep? Yes, it can! Many people favor a little background noise when they try to sleep and hearing loss can make your environment very quiet. This means that the quiet of hearing loss can sometimes prevent normal sleeping. Another way that hearing loss might cost you some sleep is if you find yourself anxious about losing your hearing.
If you have hearing loss, what can you do to get a quality night’s sleep? Wearing your hearing aids every day can help lessen stress on your brain at night (when you aren’t wearing them). It can also be helpful if you follow some other sleep-health tips.
How to get a good night’s sleep
- Avoid using alcohol before you go to bed: Your existing sleep cycle will be interrupted by drinking alcohol before bed.
- Try to de-stress as much as you can: Get away from work and do something soothing before bed.
- Steer clear of screens for at least 60 minutes before bed: (Really, the longer the better.) Your brain tends to be stimulated by looking at screens.
- Maintain your bedroom for sleeping (mostly): Try to minimize the amount of things you use your bedroom for. Working in your bedroom is not a very good plan.
- Exercise regularly: You may go to bed with some excess energy if you don’t get enough exercise. Being active every day can help.
- For at least a couple of hours before bed, try to avoid liquids: Needing to get up and go to the bathroom can initiate the “wake up” process in your brain. So, sleeping through the night is much better.
- Don’t drink caffeine after midday.: Even if you drink decaf, it still has enough caffeine to give you trouble sleeping. Soda also fits into this category.
Pay attention to 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!
