Catching up with friends and family whom you may not otherwise have time to see is the best part about the social season. Unfortunately, for the more than 10% of people with hearing loss in the United States, the social season may also lead to the dreaded communication fatigue.1
Why Does Hearing Loss Increase Fatigue?
When you have hearing loss, your brain has to work a little harder to understand speech. Over the course of a heavy-communication day, all that extra effort can leave you feeling mentally exhausted.2
As the social season starts, it’s crucial to watch out for the signs of communication fatigue, including but not limited to:
- Difficulty concentrating on work or conversations
- Poor memory recall from conversations
- Skipping social events
- Tension in the head, neck or shoulders
While communication fatigue can be frustrating, there are a few ways to reduce your risk, even with a packed social calendar.
Tips To Prevent Communication Fatigue
There are two effective ways to minimize communication fatigue. The first is hearing aids.
Hearing aids collect and amplify speech sounds, making it easier for you to process them. Think of them like a close friend helping you carry a heavy box up a hill. When you have someone to carry the load, you’ll be less tired when you reach the top. Hearing aids work like your close friend; they take on some of the heavy communication load and let you conserve your energy for the next big social event.
The second way to reduce fatigue is actually a bundle of techniques collectively called communication strategies. A few helpful techniques include:
- Talk in quiet, well-lit places as much as possible (i.e., days in Green Street Park instead of noisy restaurants)
- Face the speaker
- Watch lip movements and body language for context
- Ask the speaker to rephrase themselves or add context, rather than just repeating the same sentence
- Sit in the center in big groups
- Sit next to the people you want to interact with most
- Take five to 10-minute listening breaks throughout the day
- Focus on what the speaker is saying and avoid distractions like your phone or things around the room
If you already wear hearing aids, get ready for the social season with a service & repair appointment at Gary D. Schwartzberg, Au.D., Doctor of Audiology. We’ll clean your devices and check that their programming still matches your needs. If you don’t have hearing aids yet, call us for a hearing test and treatment consultation.
Sources:
1 Cleveland Clinic. (2023, August 24). Hearing loss: Types, symptoms, causes & treatment. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17673-hearing-loss
2 Hornsby B. W. (2013). The effects of hearing aid use on listening effort and mental fatigue associated with sustained speech processing demands. Ear and hearing, 34(5), 523–534. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0b013e31828003d8