Listening Fatigue and Hearing Loss

When you have a busy work schedule and an active social life, at the end of some days your brain can feel like it has run a marathon. If you feel more exhausted than normal, especially if you are in good health otherwise, you may want to have your hearing checked. You could be suffering from listening fatigue, a condition caused by the brain’s increased effort to listen and interpret and is often a result of untreated hearing loss.

Hearing and Your Brain

Hearing is not a job solely for the ears: we also hear with our brains. Noise collected in the ear canal is turned into electrical signals that are then carried along the auditory nerve to the brain. That information is translated into recognizable sound and speech. When hearing is impaired, or any part of the system of hearing organs is damaged, the brain receives only part of the information.

When the auditory system is functioning normally, there are three areas of the brain that interpret sound and speech:

• The temporal lobe—This is located behind your ears, extending to both sides of the brain. The primary auditory cortex, which receives sensory information from the inner ear, is located her
• Wernicke’s Area—This is located in the left side of the brain in the temporal lobe and is responsible for speech comprehension.
• Broca’s Area—This is located in the lower part of the left frontal lobe and is responsible for speech production.

When someone has disabling hearing loss, the brain has to work harder to decipher the information it receives from the inner ear, which, in turn, can be mentally exhausting.

Let Hearing Aids Help 

As the brain plays a significant role in hearing and comprehension, when it has to work harder to transcribe information it can cause mental fatigue and lead to things like migraines or physical exhaustion. Hearing aids can help by filtering and focusing sound into the ear canal to be sent to the brain via the cochlear nerve. Hearing loss has a connection to not only listening fatigue, but also depression, social isolation, balance, and anxiety. Yet, many people choose not get their hearing checked for fear of needing a hearing aid and the social stigma associated with it.

In 2011 at Vanderbilt University, researchers conducted a study to test 16 adults with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss, ages 47-69, to how hearing aids would affect listening effort and mental fatigue. Researchers tested word recognition, word recall, and visual reaction time with and without hearing aids. The study found that participants had better word recall, and that their reaction times were noticeably faster with hearing aids than without.

Dealing with Listening Fatigue

Listening fatigue is something that people with or without a hearing loss can experience. Here are some tips for dealing with listening fatigue from day to day, for people with hearing loss and normal hearing people alike:

• Quiet Time

Take a break from the noise throughout the day. If you wear hearing aids, take them out for a few minutes each day. If you do not wear hearing aids, enjoy a quiet walk in nature or find a spot to close your eyes and rest for ten minutes. Finding quiet places to have your lunch or reading a book instead of watching a screen can also give your brain a listening break.

• Breathe Deeply

Focusing on your breath is always a great way to regain focus, calm anxious nerves, and clear your mind. Deep breathing can also reduce stress and blood pressure.

• Quell Environmental Noise

Whenever possible try to eliminate unnecessary background noise. It is often difficult for people with hearing loss to discern environmental noise from speech. When your brain and ears have to process less information, the risk for listening fatigue is also less.

Better Hearing Health Can Prevent Fatigue

With over 48 million American living with disabling hearing loss, it is the third most common medical condition of adults18 and over. According to the Hearing Loss Association of America, untreated hearing loss can cause listening fatigue and also put you at greater risk for developing depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s, as well as social isolation and anxiety.

If you think you have a hearing loss and are experiencing fatigue throughout the day as you never have before, contact your hearing healthcare professional for a hearing exam. You can get a referral from your doctor or find an audiologist online. For the sake of your mental and hearing health, get your hearing checked and do not ignore listening fatigue.