It’s no fun when you can’t sleep at night. And when it happens frequnetly, it’s especially vexing. You toss and turn and probably stare at the clock (or your phone) and stress about just how tired you’ll be the next day. When these types of sleepless nights persistently occur, medical professionals tend to use the label “insomnia”. With insomnia, the drawbacks of not sleeping will then start to compound and can, over time, have a negative affect on your general health.
And the health of your hearing, not surprisingly, is part of your overall health. Yup, your hearing can be negatively affected by insomnia! This isn’t generally a cause-and-effect relationship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no link between hearing loss and insomnia.
Can lack of sleep affect your hearing?
What could the link between hearing loss and sleep be? According to substantial research, your cardiovascular system can be influenced by insomnia over a long time period. Without the nightly recuperative power of sleep, it’s harder for your blood to get everywhere it needs to be.
Anxiety and stress also increase with insomnia. Feeling anxious and stressed 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 little hairs, signals are transmitted to your brain which translates these signals into sound.
When your circulatory system isn’t functioning properly, these hairs have a difficult time thriving. These hairs can, in some instances, be irreversibly damaged. And once that takes place, your hearing will be irrevocably damaged. This can result in permanent hearing loss, especially the longer it persists.
Is the opposite true?
If insomnia can impact your hearing health, can hearing loss stop you from sleeping? It’s certainly possible. Many individuals favor 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 in some cases prevent normal sleeping. Another way that hearing loss may cost you some sleep is if you find yourself stressed about losing your hearing.
So how can you get a good night’s sleep with hearing loss? Wearing your hearing aids every day can help minimize stress on your brain at night (when you aren’t wearing them). Following other sleep-health tips can also be helpful.
Some guidelines for a good night’s sleep
- For at least 1 hour, abstain from looking at screens: (Really, the longer the better.) Your brain tends to be activated by looking at screens.
- Try not to use your bedroom for other activities besides sleeping: Your bedroom is for sleeping in, so try to keep it that way. Working in your bedroom is not a very good idea.
- Stop drinking caffeine after midday: Even if you drink decaf, it still has enough caffeine to give you problems sleeping. This includes soda as well.
- Find ways to relieve stress: It may not be possible to eliminate every stressor from your life, but giving yourself time to de-stress is critical. Do something relaxing before you go to bed.
- For at least 2 hours before you go to bed, try to abstain from liquids: Having to get up and go to the bathroom can begin the “wake up” process in your brain. It’s better to sleep right through the night.
- Get some exercise regularly: You might go to bed with some excess energy if you don’t get enough exercise. Getting enough exercise every day will be really helpful.
- Before bed, refrain from drinking alcohol: This will simply disrupt your natural sleep cycle.
Take care of your hearing health
You can still control your symptoms even if you have hearing loss along with some insomnia.
If you’re worried about your hearing, set up an appointment with us today.