A consistent good night’s sleep is important to maintain all healthy body functions from brain and heart health to healthy hearing. Lack of quality sleep affects everything, and there is a link between the lack of good sleep and potential hearing loss.
Sleep restores and repairs cellular damage that accumulates daily. This includes repairing cellular functions within the ears. Inner ear structures, including the delicate hair cells responsible for sound detection, rely on nighttime repair cycles. Without adequate nighttime repair, you’re more vulnerable to such issues as increased sensitivity to loud sounds and tinnitus, internal ear sounds which only you may hear.
How Poor Sleep Affects Hearing
Poor or inadequate sleep can disrupt circulation, putting stress on your auditory system, and increasing the risk of long-term hearing problems. Lack of sleep can directly affect how your brain processes sound. The brain may struggle to interpret sounds as efficiently and may cause:
- Trouble following and participating in conversations
- Difficulty separating speech from background noise
- Trouble clearly hearing the TV or music
Without good sleep, your brain may experience cognitive overload, where you feel more tired from daily interactions. To understand speech, your brain must shift through and filter background sounds and process information. Your brain’s difficulty processing that information is when mental fatigue sets in.
More plaque in the arteries and reduced circulation has been tied to hearing loss. For your ear’s cochlear to work well, your arteries need to pump enough blood to this part of the ear. Reduced blood circulation from lack of sleep can account for cases of unexplained hearing loss. Over time, lack of restful sleep may contribute to hearing loss.
Ways to Improve Sleep and Protect Hearing
- If you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, treat it with appropriate medicate devices, such as a CPAP machine or the Inspire® device.
- Get help with tinnitus such as sound therapy, relaxation techniques, and professional counseling.
- Practice meditation, yoga, deep breathing, or other relaxation techniques around bedtime to help reduce stress.
- Get plenty of exercise during the day and eat a healthy, balanced diet.
- Set up an optimal sleep environment that includes a dark room set at a cool, comfortable temperature, and use a white noise device if it helps drown out other noises.
Not sleeping well can take its toll while experiencing hearing loss can be alarming. We can help. At Dr. Woods Hearing Center, our team provides expert hearing aid services for the people of Nashua and Londonderry.