Do you ever feel tired, frustrated, or overwhelmed after listening for a long time? Or maybe you sometimes zone out, lose focus, or miss important details during conversations? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be experiencing listening fatigue.
Listening fatigue: What it is, how to recognize and manage it.
Listening fatigue is commonly reported by recipients. It happens when the brain gets tired from focusing on listening, especially in difficult situations such as noisy places, group conversations, or virtual meetings.
Beyond making you feel tired, listening fatigue can affect your mood, concentration, productivity, and social interactions. That’s why it’s important to recognize the signs and learn ways to cope with it.
Nomiki, a Cochlear™ hearing implant recipient is also a mentor for Hear For You, an Australian organization that helps teenagers with hearing loss connect with deaf mentors.
Here are her tips:
1. Know your triggers
One of the challenges of listening fatigue is identifying your triggers. Think about what situations cause you to feel fatigued and how can you manage them?
2. Filter out background noise
A top cause of listening fatigue is background noise, which makes it harder to hear and understand speech.
Nomiki suggests changing your sound processor settings. She uses Nucleus® Smart App1
to adjust the settings to help with certain listening environments.
You can download the Nucleus Smart App, Osia® Smart App2 and Baha® Smart App3 for Android™4 from the Google Play5 Store, or if you have an iPhone®6 you can download from the App Store6.
“I change the settings on the app by having it on ‘Restaurant’ mode and also use ForwardFocus7 to reduce as much background noise as possible. This can reduce fatigue as you don’t need to exert that effort to filter speech from noise.”
Talk to your clinician to find out if ForwardFocus is right for you.
3. Know where to sit in restaurants and cafes
“Another tip at restaurants would be to sit with your back against the crowd, rather than sitting against the wall. This is a tip from my audiologist as the sound processors will be picking noises from the front. Also, moving to a quieter part of the room (even outside) can help significantly, with the bonus of fresh air.”
4. Let others know
Sometimes the stress or anxiety of trying to understand what new people are saying can cause listening fatigue, especially if they have unfamiliar accents, speak fast, or mumble. Nomiki explains her situation and ask for clarification or repetition if needed.
“It’s completely up to you whether you want to disclose it, she says. “Sometimes, I like to explain, especially if I am really struggling to understand the person, so it prevents any misunderstandings.
“Group situations can be tricky. Having someone you trust helps in that they can relay the information to you afterwards.”
5. Take breaks
Virtual calls and meetings can be exhausting as they require a lot of concentration and attention.
“Some of my friends like to take breaks in between meetings. For me personally, I prefer to take 2-5 minutes (if permitting) in between meetings, and I like them to be in a block (say, all meetings in the afternoon).Then I can have a proper 30-minute break, where I can relax my mind and refocus onto the next thing.
“I either lie down and decompress, go outside and play with my dog or take a walk. It’s amazing how much fresh air can help. I also like to take off my [sound processors], so it’s all peace and quiet.”
6. Look after your physical and mental health
“Coming from a deaf or hard-of-hearing perspective, we exert more effort and can tire out quickly throughout the day,” Nomiki says.
She recommends doing something you enjoy and find therapeutic. “For me it’s going for a swim, where I can switch off. Getting exercise in the morning has helped me so much. By getting some movement in first thing in the morning, it boosts my mood and energy level.”
7. Connect with support groups
Finally, one of the best ways to deal with listening fatigue is to connect with the deaf community and support groups where you have the chance to share experiences, tips and learn from each other.
“I joined Hear for You as a mentor to give back to the community. Little did I know how impactful it was to my own life even. I made friends with the mentors and we love to share tips and tricks to going about things. For me, it’s so much more fun to help others, and be on this journey together.”
Click here for more information on hearing rehabilitation resources.
- The Cochlear Nucleus Smart App is available on App Store and Google Play. For compatibility information visit www.cochlear.com/compatibility
- The Cochlear Osia Smart App is available on App Store and Google Play. For compatibility information visit www.cochlear.com/compatibility
- The Cochlear Baha® Smart App Smart App is available on App Store and Google Play. For compatibility information, visit www.cochlear.com/compatibility.
- Android is a trademark of Google LLC.
- ©2024 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google Play is a trademark of Google Inc.
- Apple, the Apple logo, Apple Watch, FaceTime, Made for iPad logo, Made for iPhone logo, Made for iPod logo, iPhone, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
- ForwardFocus can only be enabled by a hearing implant specialist. It should only be activated for users 12 years and older who are able to reliably provide feedback on sound quality and understand how to use the feature when moving to different or changing environments. It may be possible to have decreased speech understanding when using ForwardFocus in a quiet environment.
