Sleepless nights aren’t any fun. Particularly when it occurs regularly. You lie awake tossing and turning, checking the time again and again, and worrying about how exhausted you will be tomorrow. Medical professionals call this kind of chronic sleeplessness “insomnia”. Over time, the effects of chronic insomnia will compound, negatively impacting your general health.
And, perhaps not surprisingly, “your overall health” includes the health of your hearing. Yup, your hearing can be negatively affected by insomnia! Though the relationship between hearing loss and insomnia may not be a cause-and-effect situation, there’s still a link there.
Can your hearing be impacted by lack of sleep?
How could loss of sleep possibly impact your hearing? There’s a considerable amount of research that suggests 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 don’t get the restorative power of a good night’s sleep.
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 is that connected to hearing loss? Your ears work because they’re filled with fragile little hairs called stereocilia. When sound waves vibrate these little hairs, signals are sent to your brain which translates these signals into sound.
When your circulatory system isn’t working correctly, these hairs have a difficult time thriving. These hairs can, in some cases, be permanently damaged. Damage of this kind is permanent. Permanent hearing loss can be the consequences, and the longer the circulation issues persist, the more significant the damage will be.
Is the reverse true?
If insomnia can affect your hearing health, can hearing loss stop you from sleeping? It’s certainly possible. Hearing loss can make the world very quiet, and some people like a little bit of noise when they try to sleep. For individuals in this category, that amount of silence can make it very difficult to get a quality night’s sleep. Any kind of hearing loss stress (for instance, if you’re worried about losing your hearing) can have a similar impact.
So how can you get a good night’s sleep when you have hearing loss? Wearing your hearing aids every day can help lessen stress on your brain at night (when you aren’t wearing them). It can also help if you follow some other sleep-health tips.
How to get a quality night’s sleep
- Keep your bedroom for sleeping (mostly): Your bedroom is for sleeping in, so try to maintain that habit. Working in your bedroom is not a very good plan.
- Before bed, refrain from drinking alcohol: This will simply interrupt your existing sleep cycle.
- Exercise regularly: Your body needs to keep moving, and if you aren’t moving, you might end up going to bed with a bit of excess energy. Being active every day can be helpful.
- Find ways to relieve stress: It might not be possible to eliminate every stressor from your life, but giving yourself time to unwind is crucial. Do something relaxing before you go to bed.
- For at least 2 hours before you go to bed, try to abstain from liquids: Every time you need to get up and go to the bathroom, you initiate the wake up process. So, sleeping through the night is much better.
- Don’t drink caffeine after lunch.: Even if you drink decaf, it still has enough caffeine to give you problems sleeping. This includes soda also.
- For at least 60 minutes, abstain from looking at screens: (Really, the longer the better.) Your brain tends to be stimulated by looking at screens.
Pay attention to the health of your hearing
Even if you have experienced some insomnia-related symptoms before, and have some hearing loss, your symptoms can still be controlled.
If you’re concerned about your hearing, schedule an appointment with us today.