We are all spending more time at home than we would normally due to COVID-19. Social distancing has created different ways of connecting with our friends and family through online and virtual platforms. In our quieter lifestyles, one may ask whether hearing aids are really necessary. One could reason, while at home, there isn’t a need to hear everything, and you may find it more comfortable that way. However, the need for hearing aids is similar to the need for glasses. Just because you are at home, doesn’t mean you don’t need to see as well.
Top 5 Reasons To Wear Your Hearing Aids at Home
1. Reduce Fatigue – Cognitive fatigue stems from the effort required to listen closely to conversation. Hard of hearing people not only use sounds, but also lip movement, facial expression, gestures and situational and linguistic context to fully understand conversation. Identifying, following and understanding each of these cues demands concentration that can be quite taxing on the brain. Fatigue related to hearing difficulties can trigger negative emotions such as frustration, embarrassment and sadness. The combination of cognitive, physical and emotional fatigue can lead to social withdrawal and isolation.
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2. Speed Up Acclimatization – Whether you are being fit with your first pair or your fifth pair of hearing aids, changes in amplification can sound very strange and even uncomfortable at first. This is similar to putting on a new pair of prescription glasses, it takes some time to adjust to the new changes. Our ears are extremely delicate and sensitive organs. Even the slightest amplification through hearing aids will create a substantial change in the way you hear. As a result, it can take up to two weeks to fully adjust.
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3. Better Localization of Sound – Like many, spending time outdoors keeping busy with projects and hobbies has kept us busy and distracted from COVID-19, hearing aids are important to wear when you’re in the house, or outside working. They help to identify where sounds are coming from.
4. Improve Speech Understanding – High frequency sounds of speech are often lost or muffled while low frequency sounds remain full and clear. Common complaints from an individual with hearing loss are that others are mumbling, when really their clarity of speech understanding has diminished since they are missing a large portion of important speech signals. This loss of clarity extends to audible signals such as TV, radio, and telephone calls.
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5. Enjoy Listening to the Birds – With quieter neighbourhoods, road noise, downtown areas, birds and other wildlife are more audible. What birds or wildlife have you spotted recently?
