You’ve waited so long to be with people. But if you are exhausted at the end of the day, it may be that your hearing needs to adjust to being social again.
Why is hearing in social situations tiring?
Visiting with friends, returning to your favourite coffee shop, and group conversation in background noise all make your ears and brain work harder to process sound.
Because you’ve become used to one-on-one conversation, it can be harder to hear people who interrupt or speaking over each other in a larger group. Add a mask on top of those communication dynamics and it’s no wonder hearing can be more tiring now!
Being social again will take extra energy so give yourself some time to adapt.
Hearing loss takes extra energy
If you or a loved one has untreated hearing loss, your brain is already working harder than someone without hearing loss.
Here are 5 reasons untreated hearing loss takes more energy:
- It’s harder for the brain to interpret the signals from the inner ear.
- Your brain is constructing meaning from missed sounds.
- Energy spent guessing at what’s been said.
- Figuring out context for missed words.
- Reading lips and concentrating on facial gestures and body language.
All that extra effort can leave you feeling drained by the end of the day. And because the energy spent offsetting hearing loss is diverted from other parts of the brain, cognitive functions like problem-solving and memory can also suffer.
Wait, did you know you hear with your brain?
Your ears deliver sound signals to the parts of the brain that process auditory (relating to the sense of hearing) signals. The brain makes sense of incoming signals by turning noise into speech or sounds. This is called auditory processing.
3 parts of the brain work together to enable hearing:
- Broca’s Area: speech production (ideas & thoughts become words)
- Temporal Lobe: auditory processing
- Wernicke’s Area: understanding speech
Hearing loss is the reduced ability to hear sounds. It’s like an incomplete delivery of information to the brain. The parts of the brain involved in hearing have to work harder and that is why overcoming hearing loss when you’re being social is tiring.
How can an Audiologist make your hearing “social-ready” again?
An Audiologist can ensure your hearing is ready for social situations. The first step is a Hearing Evaluation so the Audiologist can make an appropriate recommendation for your hearing.
Take our Online Hearing Check to find out how well you’re hearing.
Hearing aids can reduce social fatigue
If hearing aids are recommended, they will ease listening effort in social situations.
Hearing aids isolate the sounds you want to hear and put the sounds you don’t want to hear in the background. While it’s not possible to restore lost hearing completely, hearing aids help fill in the gaps for your brain that hearing loss creates.
Hearing aids assist by:
- Making it easier to hear sounds and speech in different listening environments.
- Amplifying sounds you want to hear.
- Reducing background noise.
- Mask Mode apps boost sound in the frequencies that a mask muffles.
*To find out more about communicating with masks and Mask Mode on hearing aids watch Audiologist Nina Perisic’s Communicating with Masks video.
If you already have hearing aids
It’s important that you don’t “make do” with your current hearing aid settings if they’re not working optimally in this listening environment. Simple actions can be taken that will help you hear better.
An Audiologist will:
- Adjust hearing aid settings for an increase in background noise.
- Set your hearing aids to Mask Mode, if available.
- Change the volume setting – for a temporary volume boost.
- Show you accessories such as remote microphones that pair to your hearing aids and help you hear a single speaker in a noisy environment like a coffee shop.
- Set up Bluetooth™-enabled hearing aids to stream calls, TV, and music.
These are still unusual times
You are still working harder communicating with masks on top of hearing loss and that takes extra energy whether you have hearing loss or not. If you need help during this transition time, please do reach out to our Audiologists.
Call us or request an appointment online to schedule an appointment: Broadmead Hearing Clinic: 250-479-2969 or Oak Bay Hearing Clinic: 250-479-2921.
Photo by Kevin Curtis, Unsplash