Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Hearing Loss


FYI, I have had sleep apnea which I did not have treated for several years.  I struggled with using the CPAP machine, and continue to do so.  I'm not overweight, and walk and swim, and was in big time denial.  Unfortunately, I recently developed unilateral high frequency hearing loss (everything from upper midrange on up), and tinnitus on that side. The loss is irreversible; I'm hoping the tinnitus will diminish. My guess is the repeated lack of oxygen damaged the hearing apparatus.  Needless to say, it's upsetting, since my retirement plan (in 3-5 years) was to sit home and play guitar, buy a new turntable (maybe a Rega 6 or 8), speakers (maybe something like the Buchardts or update my Vandersteen 2s), integrated amp, transport and DAC; clean all the used lps I've bought in used record stores over the years (I live near Revilla Records and The Princeton Record Exchange in NJ); and listen to my collection of 5-6 thousand carefully curated CDs and LPs that I've aquired over a lifetime. (I kept all my original lps, plus many recent Blue Note, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc. reissues, and 40 years of collecting rock/jazz/americana/folk/blues/country/broadway/vocal/classical cds, including many early ones from Germany and many signed by the artist at small and medium sized concert venues).  So, best to get proper treatment if you have this disorder!

kb54

Showing 1 response by david12

Sorry to hear about the Sleep Apnoea and hearing problems. I suspect the two are not connected, but who knows. I suffer from tinnitus as most of us getting older are prone to. Usually you can just ignore it, as if it is constant, the brain just tunes out non varying inputs, but I know some people can't do his and it can drive you crazy.

There are some treatments for tinnitus, but I never found much of benefit, things may have changed since I retired.

All I would emphasise is avoiding noise exposure, like a loud concert. It will worsen established tinnitus and make it more likely you will get it. If you experience temporary tinnitus after a gig, you have permanently degraded your hearing.

As for getting older, I've just had my first bout of gout. If I was a horse, they'd put me down. I'm sure my family are tempted by the thought.