It’s not fun when you’re unable to sleep at night. And when it occurs frequnetly, it’s especially vexing. You toss and turn and probably stare at the clock (or your phone) and worry about just how tired you’ll be the next day. Medical professionals call this sort of chronic sleeplessness “insomnia”. With insomnia, the negatives of not sleeping will then start to add up and can, over time, have a negative impact on your overall health.
And the health of your hearing, not surprisingly, is part of your overall health. Yup, your hearing can be negatively affected by insomnia! Though the relationship between hearing loss and insomnia may not be a cause-and-effect scenario, there’s still a link there.
Can lack of sleep affect your hearing?
How could loss of sleep possibly affect your hearing? There’s a significant amount of research that suggests insomnia, over time, can impact your cardiovascular system. Without the nightly recuperative power of sleep, it’s harder 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 is that connected to hearing loss? There are tiny hairs inside of your ears called stereocilia. These delicate hairs vibrate when sound happens and the information gets transmitted to your brain, which then converts those vibrations into sounds.
When your circulatory system is not working correctly, these hairs have a hard time thriving. These hairs can, in some cases, be irreversibly damaged. Damage of this kind is permanent. Permanent hearing loss can be the consequences, and the longer the circulation issues persist, the worse the damage will be.
Does it also work the other way around?
If insomnia can affect your hearing health, can hearing loss stop you from sleeping? Yes, it can! Many individuals prefer a little background sound 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. Any amount of hearing loss stress (for instance, if you’re worried about losing your hearing) can have a similar impact.
So how do you get a quality night’s sleep with hearing loss? Wearing your hearing aids during the day can help lessen stress on your brain at night (when you’re not wearing them). It can also be helpful if you implement some other sleep-health tips.
How to get a good night’s sleep
- Before you go to bed, avoid drinking alcohol: This will simply interrupt your natural sleep cycle.
- Try to avoid drinking a couple of hours before you go to bed: Having to get up and go to the bathroom can begin the “wake up” process in your brain. It’s much better to sleep right through the night.
- Avoid screens for at least 1 hour before going to bed: (Even longer if you can!) Your brain has a tendency to be stimulated by looking at screens.
- Try not to use your bedroom for other activities besides sleeping: Your bedroom is for sleeping in, so try to maintain that habit. Working in your bedroom isn’t a great plan.
- Don’t drink caffeine after midday.: Even if you drink decaf, it still has enough caffeine to give you problems sleeping. This includes soda too.
- Exercise regularly: Your body needs to move, and if you aren’t moving, you could end up going to bed with a bit of extra energy. Getting enough exercise daily can be really helpful.
- Try to de-stress as much as possible: It might not be possible to eliminate every stressor from your life, but giving yourself time to de-stress is essential. Do something relaxing before you go to bed.
Take care of your hearing health
Even if you have experienced some insomnia-related symptoms in the past, and have some hearing loss, your symptoms can still be managed.
Make an appointment for a hearing test today!
