Is Listening Fatigue Real?

Whenever something requires a lot of effort for a sustained period of time, people tend to burn out. They can only exert so much effort for a limited time before feeling the strain. It’s easy to think of fatigue or burnout in relation to a workout or a stressful job, but, unfortunately, it can happen to people with a hearing impairment as well. After a while, constantly trying to listen and understand conversations can leave a person with hearing loss feeling drained and even physically incapable of listening. 

Although not yet clinically recognized, listening fatigue is a real condition for many. In a paper published in the International Journal of Audiology, researchers looked at the difference between the idea of listening and fatigue to provide helpful definitions. They defined listening as the mental energy needed to register, process and understand sounds and speech. Fatigue refers to feelings of tiredness as a result of exertion, mental or physical. 

Why Does Fatigue Occur?

When there is no hearing loss, a person doesn’t usually experience this type of fatigue. The auditory system functions as it should and the brain processes the information easily. When hearing loss is present, the brain has to compensate for the loss and work harder than before to process the same information, causing stress on the brain and finally fatigue.

However, at the Audio Engineering Society Convention in 2011, researchers presented another explanation for listening fatigue. Although the study focused on fatigue related to earbud use, it may also give some insight into why listening fatigue happens with some hearing aids. Researchers found that fatigue occurs when the ear canal is sealed off. When the ear canal is sealed, it acts as a pressure chamber, increasing sound pressure in the waves that enter. When the sound pressure is too great, the eardrum shakes excessively in a response called acoustic reflex. During this process, the brain attempts to turn down the volume by decreasing the sound that reaches the cochlea by up to 50 dB. Unfortunately, it’s only a coping mechanism so the eardrum keeps shaking uncomfortably. 

How to Prevent Fatigue

Here are a few ways you can prevent listening fatigue: 

• Take listening breaks by turning off your hearing aid
• Practice deep breathing
• Eliminate the background noises you have control of
• Don’t eat in noisy places
• Read instead of watching TV
• Take a nap

The same researchers, who found that increased sound pressure in blocked eardrums causes fatigue, also found that it’s possible to use a false membrane similar to the eardrum that can be used with the in-ear listening device. This polymer membrane attached to the earphone can absorb the excess pressure to prevent the acoustic reflex. While these false membranes were developed specifically for devices that were used to listen to music, the study and solution could give insights to hearing fatigue and how to prevent the fatigue caused by hearing aids.