Using new hearing aids for the first time—whether it’s your first pair or an upgrade—comes with an adjustment period. This adjustment period can last anywhere from a few days to weeks, and it can be challenging for a while. Let’s discuss some expectations of the adjustment period, specifically regarding a phenomenon known as “listening fatigue.”
What Changed When You Got New Hearing Aids
If your hearing loss has been developing untreated for a while and this is your first set of hearing aids, your auditory processing organs—the ear and the brain—go through a massive change. Studies indicate that, on average, patients seek treatment for hearing loss seven to ten years after they first begin to suspect they have it. During that period, the auditory processing centers of the brain become accustomed to processing smaller amounts of sound information. The sudden increase when you get hearing aids requires you to work hard to relearn how to process that much sound.
If you have recently upgraded your hearing aids to a different prescription and/or more sophisticated technology, you may find the same thing occurs, but not quite as dramatically. Many hearing aid users report that they undergo another round of adjustment after a leap in hearing aid capability upon getting a new set.
Whether you’re new to hearing aids or are getting an upgrade, in both cases, the brain becomes overstimulated due to the influx of new sound information.
What Happens When Your Brain Is Overstimulated
The brain has a big task load with sound information: it needs to identify background noise and filter it out, it needs to identify primary sounds and where they are coming from and it needs to comprehend the sounds, which is especially taxing when listening to speech in a conversation. All of these tasks require energy. Your brain, like any other organ, requires energy to function, and energy isn’t an unlimited resource. As it spends more energy on hearing, you will tire out faster. This is listening fatigue.
Tips to Minimize Listening Fatigue
- Expect listening fatigue. Knowing in advance that you’re going to get tired can help immensely with managing your expectations. When you start to feel tired after wearing your new hearing aids for a while, acknowledge to yourself that you’re experiencing listening fatigue and take a break. Give yourself grace.
- It will get better. Remember, the fatigue will go away the more you wear your hearing aids. The longer you wear your hearing aids, the faster your brain will adjust.
- Build up. Gradually increase your wear time over the first few days. Allow rests and don’t wear them too long at first to build up your strength. But also challenge yourself to wear them a little longer every day until you build up naturally to being able to wear them all day.
- Start at home. Similarly, don’t overwhelm yourself right away by testing out your new hearing aids in noisy environments. Wear them at home in the beginning, where stimuli are less frequent.
- Practice. Read out loud to yourself or talk to your pet. Converse with family members. Get used to the sounds of your normal environment and the sound of your voice.
- Talk to your audiologist. Bring up concerns about listening fatigue and the adjustment period at your follow-up fitting appointment, or call them beforehand if you need advice sooner than that.
Contact PDX ENT if you require assistance with the adjustment period or have any questions about the performance of your new hearing aids. We’re happy to give you more information about the adjustment period.
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