How to manage listening fatigue
Photo credit, Alina Levkovich, Pexels. Blonde woman in orange dress and black shoes lying face down on orange sofa.
My worst experience of hearing fatigue was when I started my teacher training for mindfulness. Due to the pandemic, the training had been moved online. The course was fantastic, but after spending all day on a Zoom call, I’d retreat to bed, tired and stressed out, my head was throbbing and I was barely able to hold a conversation.
After a day’s rest I’d be back to normal, but I knew that I’d never finish the course if I didn’t find a better way to cope with it.
What is listening fatigue?
Anyone can suffer from listening (or hearing) fatigue. Its due to spending a long time focused on one source of sound . The brain and auditory system are constantly working together to process the sounds that we hear into intelligible speech.
Most of the time, for people with normal hearing, listening doesn’t take much mental energy, but they can still be affected by all day meetings or long lectures.
For people with hearing loss, who are already using all their focus to listen and make sense of conversation-all day, everyday, fatigue can set in much quicker.
Symptoms include low energy, finding it hard to concentrate and feeling increased levels of stress or having changes in mood. Hearing may seem worse than usual and the person may feel discomfort in their ear.
If left to continue it can cause high stress and anxiety, you may feel overwhelmed and find it difficult to complete tasks at work. Engaging with people becomes difficult and it’s harder to follow conversations.
People with listening fatigue can come across as irritated or confused and vague. Headaches are common, it can also trigger migraines.
Why does listening fatigue happen?
Listening takes more concentration if you have hearing loss so listening for a long time will make you tired.
Hearing loss can make you hypervigilant. You’re constantly focusing on what you can hear so you don’t miss out on sounds such as your name being called, the doorbell, the phone, the smoke alarm, or anything else that might need your attention. Maintaining this level of focus over long periods of time is exhausting.
Other causes can be wearing hearing aids for the first time – (which is mad because aids are supposed to improve things). Hearing aids can reduce the burden of tiredness and fatigue by making listening easier and making the person less reliant on lip reading or repetition.
But when you first have hearing aids your brain is suddenly getting more sound to process which can make you tired quicker. If you’ve been delaying getting hearing aids for a while, the auditory part of your brain will be used to not working very hard. Suddenly wearing hearing aids all day can be a shock to the system.
If this is affecting you, try wearing the hearing aids for a few hours at a time and then having a break. Gradually build up the time you’re wearing them to allow your brain time to adapt.
Does lipreading help?
Lipreading is hard work. It’s only around 30% accurate because most sounds in English are made at the back of the mouth. When someone is lipreading what they are really doing is working out some of the sounds of each word through your lip pattern. Adding in anything that they can hear. Remembering anything they already know about what you are saying. Putting it all together like a decoding an anagram with missing letters. Then guessing what the whole sentence was.
Lipreading for a long time, at a distance or on a computer screen is very tiring and can also cause your eyes to become tired, dry and itchy.
Dropping the struggle with fatigue
My own struggle with fatigue turned a corner after internet problems meant I had to join the training zoom call by phone using my sound streamer.
Without the visual cues I struggled immediately, my stress levels shot through the roof and my head started to pound. Ironically, we had been discussing sitting with difficulty.
Upset, I messaged one of the tutors who told me to do whatever I needed to support myself.
So, I put the phone away. Took my hearing aids off. Sat in the garden. Meditated. Rested. And started to feel better.
The following day I made a plan to ensure I was rested before a study day. I arranged to take short breaks from Zoom throughout the day and had plenty of healthy snacks on hand to keep my energy levels up.
Making people aware that I might need a break reduced my stress levels. Increasing my mindfulness skills made me more aware of the sensations of fatigue, like an early warning system, and I was able to fully engage in the course again.
How to manage your energy levels and avoid listening fatigue
Take regular breaks.
Do things throughout the day that give you energy, walking outside, reading, etc.
Getting enough sleep is essential for brain health. It’s well known that sleep deprivation reduces brain function, which would make it harder for core processing like listening. If you’re starting the day in a state of tiredness the fatigue from listening will continue to build throughout the day
Have a daytime nap, or lie down for 15 mins with a cold eye mask.
Eat healthy snacks throughout the day. Avoid sugary drinks and snacks that give you a sugar crash after an hour.
Stay hydrated. If you’re not sure whether you’re drinking enough water, then you’re not drinking enough water.
Plan your day – if you know you have a big meeting or event, arrange something relaxing before and afterwards. At an in person event, have an excuse planned for leaving the crowd for a few minutes so you can have a break – like checking something at reception or getting something from your car.
Reduce the amount of time in meetings/zoom calls. Some people book meetings when an email will do. Do you really need to attend every meeting you’re invited to? Ask for an agenda so you can decide whether you need to go.
Create boundaries. Make others aware that you need breaks and won’t be available.
Take a hearing aid break. Take them off and enjoy the quietness for a little while. It's like telling your brain it can stop struggling to make sense of every sound and rest.
Mindfulness can help you to be more aware of your energy levels and things that drain you. It can help you to step back and make choices throughout the day that support your wellbeing. For more information about mindfulness courses click here.