Sleepless nights are no fun. And when it occurs on a regular basis, it’s especially vexing. You lie awake tossing and turning, looking at the time over and over, and worrying about how exhausted you will be tomorrow. When these types of sleepless nights persistently occur, medical professionals tend to use the term “insomnia”. With insomnia, the negatives of not sleeping will then start to add up and can, over time, have a negative impact on your general health.
And the health of your hearing, not surprisingly, is part of your overall health. That’s correct, insomnia can have an affect on your ability to hear. Though the relationship between hearing loss and insomnia might not be a cause-and-effect situation, there’s still a connection there.
Can your hearing be affected by lack of sleep?
What could the connection between hearing loss and sleep be? There’s a substantial amount of research that indicates insomnia, over a long enough period, can affect your cardiovascular system. Without the nightly regenerative power of sleep, it’s more difficult for your blood to get everywhere it needs to be.
Insomnia also means an increase in anxiety and stress. 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. When waves of sound 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. In some instances, poor circulation can damage these hairs, permanently. And once that happens, your hearing will be irrevocably damaged. Permanent hearing loss can be the result, and the longer the circulation issues continue, the worse the damage will be.
Is the opposite true?
If insomnia can impact your hearing health, can hearing loss stop you from getting a good night’s sleep? Yes, it can! Many individuals prefer a little background sound when they try to sleep and hearing loss can make the world very quiet. For individuals in this group, that amount of silence can make it very hard to get a good night’s sleep. Any amount of hearing loss anxiety (for instance, if you’re stressed about losing your hearing) can have a similar effect.
If you have hearing loss, what can you do to get a quality night’s sleep? Wearing your hearing aids every day can help reduce stress on your brain at night (when you aren’t wearing them). Following other sleep-health tips can also be helpful.
How to get a quality night’s sleep
- Refrain from drinking alcohol before you go to bed: This will simply interrupt your natural sleep cycle.
- Maintain your bedroom for sleeping (mostly): Try to minimize the amount of things you utilize your bedroom for. For example, don’t work in your bedroom.
- Steer clear of screens for at least an hour before bed: (Even longer if you can!) Your brain has a tendency to be stimulated by looking at screens.
- Stop drinking caffeine after noon: Even if you drink decaf, it still has enough caffeine to give you problems sleeping. Soda also fits into this category.
- Try to de-stress as much as possible: It might not be possible to remove every stressor from your life, but giving yourself time to unwind is critical. Do something relaxing before you go to bed.
- Get some exercise regularly: Your body needs to move, and if you aren’t moving, you may end up going to bed with a bit of extra energy. Getting enough exercise daily will really be helpful.
- Avoid drinking 2 hours before you go to bed: 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.
Care for your hearing health
You can still manage your symptoms even if you have hearing loss along with some insomnia.
Make an appointment for a hearing exam today!
