Do you ever feel absolutely exhausted at the end of the day? If you suffer from hearing loss or are in the beginning stages of hearing loss, the tiredness you’re experiencing could be listening fatigue (also sometimes called listener fatigue). You may not realize it, but hearing is tiring, causing physical exhaustion and brain fog.
How Does Hearing Loss Contribute to Listening Fatigue?
Brain power is not an unlimited resource. Using more of your cognitive ability (or brain power) on the tasks of listening and understanding means you have less energy to do other things. This tires you out faster.
With hearing loss, sound information from the ear has trouble reaching the brain, meaning the brain must work harder to process it. It takes energy to receive the incomplete signals and decipher their meaning, to filter out background noise, to fill in the gaps of what you hear and to formulate a response. The brain must compensate for the loss and work harder to process less information.
What Are the Impacts of Listening Fatigue?
Fatigue is hard to power through, so its effects can be felt in many areas of life:
- Sleepiness
- Difficulty focusing
- Memory issues
- Headaches
- Irritability
- Withdrawing from family and friends
- Decreased energy for/interest in hobbies
- Diminished work performance
- Poor physical health
How Can I Reduce Listening Fatigue?
Here are some strategies to make listening less strenuous for your brain:
- Eliminate background noise if possible. This decreases the amount of sound information you’re sending to the brain and can help clarify the sounds you do want to process.
- Take a break. If you feel yourself tiring out, excuse yourself and take a quiet break to give your brain a chance to relax a bit.
- Take a nap. A quick nap can improve alertness and give your energy levels a boost, as well as give your brain a break while you sleep.
- Prioritize a healthy sleep schedule. If you’re not getting enough sleep, or if your sleep isn’t very restful, it can compound with listening fatigue and make the problem worse. Get the rest you need at night to get the energy you need during the day.
Hearing Aids
One of the most successful ways to combat listening fatigue is to treat your hearing loss and wear hearing aids. They will increase the amount of sound information that gets sent to the brain, and many have background noise suppression. Both of these aspects help the brain process sound information that you need to hear. Call Beneficial Hearing Aid Center today to learn more about hearing aids and make an appointment.