Picture all the apps your computer might have running simultaneously and imagine each app is a window. That’s the experience for someone who ignores his or her loss of hearing, even if it’s just slightly, because the brain doesn’t know how to shut off any of those windows.
Most people believe that they hear through their ears but our ears are simply microphones collecting input. The actual processing happens in the brain.
When you start to lose some of the higher frequencies and consonant sounds, like sh, s or h, you’re essentially sending garbled data to headquarters. To compensate, your brain begins to use past memories and setting clues to fill in the gaps and clean up the signal so you can ‘hear’ what’s being said. You need a Hearing Test Near Me.
That takes a lot of energy. A study by the National Council on the Ageing found that listeners use about 30 per cent more concentration when listening to casual conversation when they have a hearing loss compared to normal-hearing listeners. No wonder you feel like taking a nap after a family dinner or a business lunch! While social exhaustion is often viewed as a form of brain fatigue related to a lack of interest or enjoyment, the exhaustion that comes from having hearing loss isn’t caused by boredom. For a Hearing Test Near Me, contact Imperial Hearing.
Rather, when so much mental bandwidth is devoted to listening, there’s less power available for other functions such as memory, attention and problem-solving.
The cure is a simple, painless test that’s not really an age test but a Windows Update – closing out all the browser windows your brain has been forced to keep open so it no longer has to work overtime to make sense of sound.
