Not having enough sleep can have a negative effect on your health and vitality. If you don’t get a complete, restful seven to eight hours of sleep, you get up cranky and groggy, an undesirable feeling that takes several cups of coffee to stave off. So when your hearing loss began causing insomnia, you were aghast.
And that’s understandable. Thankfully, there’s a little something that can be of assistance: a hearing aid. According to the most recent surveys and research, these little devices can likely help you sleep better.
How Does Hearing Loss Affect Sleep?
Even though you feel fatigued all day and are exhausted by bedtime, you still toss and turn and have a difficult time falling asleep. All of these problems started about the same time you also started to notice that your mobile phone, radio, and television were becoming difficult to hear.
Come to find out, you’re not imagining it. It’s well documented that people who have loss of hearing often have a difficult time falling asleep, but exactly why is not really recognized. There are, of course, a few theories:
- Loss of hearing is connected to depression, and your sleep cycle can be interrupted by chemical imbalances caused by depression. As a result of this, falling asleep and staying asleep becomes more difficult.
- Tinnitus can make you hear ringing, thumping, and humming and that noise can keep you awake at night. (It can become a vicious cycle because loss of sleep can worsen your tinnitus symptoms).
- Your brain, when you have loss of hearing, strains to get input where there isn’t any. If your brain is in high gear trying to hear while you’re drifting off to sleep, your entire cycle could be disrupted (It’s the typical problem of not being able to get the brain to stop).
Can Your Sleep be Improved by Using Hearing Aids?
According to one study, 59% of individuals who were hearing aid users noted feeling content with their sleep, compared to a 44% satisfaction rate in people who don’t use hearing aids. So are hearing aids a sleep aid or what?
well, not really. If you don’t suffer from hearing loss, a hearing aid can’t cure insomnia.
But if you suffer from hearing loss related insomnia, hearing aids might help in multiple crucial ways:
- Isolation: Your not so likely to feel isolated and depressed if you can connect with people in your social network when you’re out on the town. Hearing aids make building relationships smoother (sleep cycle issues that lead to “cabin fever” can also be reduced).
- Tinnitus: Depending on the nature and cause of your tinnitus, hearing aids may provide a practical means of managing that buzzing and ringing. This can help stop that vicious cycle and help you get to sleep.
- Strain: The damage on your brain will effectively decreased by using hearing aids. And your brain will be less likely to strain while sleeping if it isn’t straining all of the rest of the time.
Wearing Hearing Aids to Get a Better Quality Sleep
It’s not just the number of hours that’s important here. Depth of sleep is as important as the number of hours. Loss of hearing can work against that deep sleep, and hearing aids, as a result, can improve your ability to get restful sleep.
Using your hearing aids on the suggested daytime schedule will benefit your sleep but it’s worthwhile to note that hearing aids aren’t ordinarily designed to be worn at night. When you’re sleeping they won’t help you hear better (for instance, you won’t hear your alarm clock better). And your hearing aids can definitely wear out faster if you use them at night. It’s using them during the day that helps you achieve better sleep.
Go to Bed!
Getting a good night’s sleep is a valuable thing. Your stress level, your immune system, and your ability to think clearly will all be enhanced by sufficient sleep. A decreased risk of heart disease and diabetes have also been linked to healthy sleep habits.
When your sleep schedule is disrupted by your hearing loss, the problem becomes more than annoying, insomnia can frequently become a real health issue. Fortunately, most surveys document that people who use hearing aids have improved quality of sleep.