You have likely experienced listening fatigue before. If you’ve ever felt especially tired after a work meeting, conversations on Zoom, or even listening to music or a podcast – this is listening fatigue. Listening fatigue refers to experiencing tiredness after listening to speech or sounds for an extended amount of time. This can cause the brain to communicate fatigue and needing a break from constantly absorbing and processing sound. Listening fatigue can be more common for people who experienced hearing challenges. Hearing loss already makes it challenging to hear and requires people to expend more energy processing sound. This coupled with listening for long periods of time can lead to serious fatigue. There are effective ways that listening fatigue can be alleviated, supporting people with having more energy.
Understanding How We Hear
To understand how fatigue and hearing are related, it is helpful to know about how we hear. The auditory system includes the ears and brain which work together to absorb and process sound. This process includes:
- Outer ear: absorbs soundwaves from the environment which travel down the ear canal before landing on the eardrum.
- Middle ear: vibrations from the eardrum activates the ossicles – three connected bones – which propel soundwaves further into the inner ear.
- Inner ear: hair cells in the cochlea help convert soundwaves into electrical signals that get sent to the brain.
The brain processes the auditory information it receives from the inner ear and assigns meaning to these signals which is how we are able to understand what we hear. Hearing loss disrupts this process and produces numerous symptoms including fatigue.
How Hearing Loss Causes Fatigue
Hearing can be caused by several factors – exposure to loud noise, aging, head injuries etc. These factors damage the hair cells in the inner ear, an integral component of the auditory system. This reduces their capacity to send auditory information to the brain, impacting the brain in several ways. The brain is forced to work harder in trying to receive and process sound.
There are specific areas of the brain that are responsible for processing auditory information. This includes the temporal lobe, broca’s area, and wernicke’s area which manage speech and language comprehension. These areas are strained by overworking to compensate for the lack of auditory input being received. This can produce cogigitve overload and fatigue as more energy is being used in trying to hear. People with hearing loss may use various strategies to try and hear during a conversation – lip reading to identify individual words, asking for clarification, paying attention to nonverbal cues to help follow a conversation etc. This extra effort to try and hear more clearly can be taxing, contributing to greater listening fatigue.
Tips to Alleviate Listening Fatigue
Listening fatigue can be exhausting to deal with. It can contribute to irritability, difficulty concentrating, exhaustion which takes a toll on one’s mood and daily wellness. Fortunately, there are several useful ways you can alleviate listening fatigue. A few tips includes the following:
- Reduce background noise: eliminating background noise as much as you can simply makes it easier to hear. It provides the brain with less noise to filter through, creating greater capacity and space to process the sounds that you actually want to hear. So turn off any household appliances you aren’t using, music in the background, close windows to avoid environmental noise etc.
- Take listening breaks: listening fatigue is a sign that your auditory system needs a break. Be preventative by taking listening breaks throughout the day. This gives your ears and brain time to rest from constantly absorbing and processing noise.
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- Reduce noise exposure: there are several ways to do this including:
- maintaining low volume settings on electronic devices like the Television, phone, speaker etc.
- wearing hearing protection – earbuds, headphones, earmuffs etc. – which provides a barrier for your ears, reducing the amount of loud noise you absorb.
- avoiding noiser settings like restaurants at peak hours. Opt for quieter spaces when having a conversation or meeting.
- Reduce noise exposure: there are several ways to do this including:
- Take a nap: when experiencing listening fatigue, take a 30 minute nap to boost your energy. This gives you and your auditory system time to rest and recuperate.
Integrating these strategies can help prevent or minimize listening fatigue. Contact us to learn more about how you can manage fatigue and prioritize your hearing health.