It’s not fun when you’re unable to sleep at night. And when it happens on a regular basis, it’s particularly vexing. You lie awake tossing and turning, checking the time over and over, and stressing about how tired you will be tomorrow. Medical professionals call this kind of persistent sleeplessness “insomnia”. Over time, the effects of chronic insomnia will compound, negatively impacting your overall health.
And, maybe not surprisingly, “your general health” includes your hearing health. Yup, your hearing can be negatively affected by insomnia! This isn’t exactly a cause-and-effect relationship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no link between hearing loss and insomnia.
Can lack of sleep impact 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. It becomes more difficult for your blood to circulate into all of the extremities of your body when you aren’t getting the restorative power of a good night’s sleep.
Stress and anxiety also increase with insomnia. Feeling stressed and anxious will impact you in physiological ways as well as mentally.
So how is that related to hearing loss? There are little hairs inside of your ears called stereocilia. These fragile hairs vibrate when sound happens and the information gets transmitted to your brain, which then converts those vibrations into sounds.
These little hairs have a difficult time remaining healthy when there are circulatory problems. These hairs can, in some cases, be irreversibly damaged. Damage of this type is permanent. Permanent hearing loss can be the outcome, and the longer the circulation issues persist, the more significant the damage will be.
Does it also work the other way around?
Is it possible for hearing loss to cause you to lose sleep? Yes, it can! Hearing loss can make the world really quiet, and some people like a little bit of sound when they try to sleep. This means that the quiet of hearing loss can sometimes prevent normal sleeping. Any amount of hearing loss anxiety (for instance, if you’re stressed about losing your hearing) can have a similar impact.
So how can you get a quality night’s sleep when you have hearing loss? Stress on your brain can be decreased by wearing your hearing aids every day because you won’t be wearing them at night. Following other sleep-health tips can also help.
Some guidelines for a good night’s sleep
- Try to de-stress as much as you can: It might not be possible to remove every stressor from your life, but giving yourself time to de-stress is essential. Do something relaxing before you go to bed.
- For at least a couple of hours before bed, try to avoid liquids: Needing to get up and go to the bathroom can start the “wake up” process in your brain. So, sleeping through the night is better.
- Exercise regularly: You could go to bed with some extra energy if you don’t get enough exercise. Getting enough exercise daily can really be helpful.
- Don’t drink caffeine after lunch.: Even if you drink decaf, it still has enough caffeine to give you difficulty sleeping. Soda also falls into this category.
- Refrain from drinking alcohol before you go to bed: This will simply disrupt your natural sleep cycle.
- For at least 60 minutes, avoid looking at screens: (Really, the longer the better.) Your brain has a tendency to be activated by looking at screens.
- Try not to use your bedroom for other activities other than sleeping: Try to limit the amount of things you use your bedroom for. Working in your bedroom is not a very good idea.
Be aware of the health of your hearing
Even if you’ve experienced some insomnia-related symptoms before, and have some hearing loss, your symptoms can still be controlled.
If you’re worried about your hearing, make an appointment with us today.