Hello lovely person,
This video has potentially been sent to you by someone who wants to tell you that:
They’re just too tired to listen to you!
Hi, I’m Jessica, I’m deaf and I’m here today to explain what ‘listening fatigue’
is and why no, people aren’t being lazy when they tell you they’re too tired to
have a conversation or their eyes glaze over or… they start yawning uncontrollably…
- okay, wait. I take that back. I don’t know you.
You might be incredibly boring.
[beat sfx]
Hopefully not!
Anyway, subscribe for more fun and educational videos about deafness, disabilities and chronic
illness, with an added sprinkle of vintage gayness!
And if you are already subscribed then consider clicking the join button and becoming part
of the Kellgren-Fozard Club where you’ll be able to support the channel AND receive
access to behind the scenes goodies!
- (lots of sneak peaks will be coming over the vlogmas period especially... [bell sfx])
Speaking of which! Starting today and for the next week there will be a special 20%
off everything in my merch store when you use the code PREXMAS20 as we’re preparing
for something very exciting that will be coming out just in time for Christmas… gasp!
What could it be?!
But back to the utter exhaustion of listening:
WHAT IS LISTENING FATIGUE
Hearing loss means that not enough audio information is reaching the brain for it to work out what
is being said and thus the poor brain is working harder to process the information and fill
in the gaps. This stresses your brain as it needs to allocate a large amount of cognitive
resources and thus leads to exhaustion.
This is known as Listening Fatigue.
And it’s not just being a little tired!
Oh no.
A study published in the American Journal of Audiology in March 2014 found that deaf
and hard of hearing children experience more fatigue than children with cancer, rheumatoid
arthritis, diabetes and obesity.
When you think about it, there is sense in that: your brain controls everything in your
body and when you stress it there is going to be a knock on effect to the rest of you.
Cognitive resources (otherwise known as ‘brain power’) are not unlimited and using more
of it to listen leaves fewer resources for other tasks.
As you might expect, the brain plays an important role in our ability to hear, understand and
speak. Cells in the inner ear translate the noise the outer ear gathers into electrical
signals, which they send along the auditory nerve to the brain. Each little hair cell
is responsible for translating a specific pitch or frequency and if even one of them
is damaged you’ll loose the ability to translate that frequency and your brain will have to
fill in the gaps.
To give you an example. If my wife says to me, completely out of context:
“Did you see the package I left by the front door?”
My brain may pick up:
“Can you … -age … ... the floor”
[crickets sfx]
- Don’t ask me why ‘did’ and ‘can’ are apparently the same thing in my mind…
it just loves to group short words together.
Then in double quick time, before she moves to the next sentence I have to work out what
she’s saying!
So then my brain has to replace ‘-age’: badge, madge, flage, kage, lage- these aren’t
words!
Go for something longer:
savage, cabbage, adage, clavage, manage, baggage, package-
package! That makes sense!
There is a package on the floor! But there are spaces? And what does she want me to do
with the package?
“Can you blah package blah blah the floor?”
Pick, see, choose, loose, leave, set, sit, off, on, throw, be, it, and, the, on, off,
leave, grab, grow, take-
Leave it! Move on! We don’t have time!
“Can you blah package blah blah the floor?”
pick up, lift up, set down, leave on, turn over, let down, through, throw, in, on, oh
my god, whatever!
There’s a package on the floor and that’s it! All I can say is “yes darling!” and
hope that it’s the right answer!
- Are you tired? I’m tired.
If you’re watching this and thinking ‘oh jeepers, that sounds like me!’ then it might
be time to get your hearing checked!
It’s not only people with hearing loss who are affected by listening fatigue however:
auditory processing disorder, a condition where the brain is unable to process sounds,
is made much worse by exhaustion and if you’ve ever tried to learn another language you’ll
know that being tired makes you much, much worse!
But what can make it better? Well, depending upon the type and severity of the loss, hearing
aids or cochlear implants can improve listening and speech comprehension and effectively decrease
listening fatigue.
But...
Here are a few quick tips for coping with listening fatigue whether you have hearing
loss or not:
3. Eliminate background noise. If your brain is struggling to distinguish speech and can’t
tell words apart then adding background noise is just going to make it work doubly hard
as now it will be attempting to distinguish the speech sounds themselves from the jumble
of whatever else is going on.
2. Take a nap. Easier said than done but naps are a great reboot for your system. A 20-30
minute nap will improve your alertness and… gives your brain a bit of much needed quiet
time!
1. Meditate.
- I’m not telling you meditation will ‘cure’ your medical condition. That's...
Meditating, shutting out the rest of the world, letting your mind go blank and giving your
ears a break from attempting to understand the sounds around it, can be a great stress
reliever. You don’t have to sit on the floor and do the traditional forms of meditating,
you can also just take a walk or sit in your car and hide for a bit. Release the stress
of trying to understand people and let your blood pressure get back down to normal.
If you wear hearing aids, take them out at lunch time and give your ears a break. If
you spend your working or school days speaking a foreign language then watch a video in your
native tongue at lunch time. And if you don’t have hearing loss but still get tired: read
a book or the newspaper rather than attempting to converse and give your brain a midday boost
by letting it rest its auditory processing functions.
If you were irritated that a person didn’t want to converse with you and instead sent
you this video: They’re probably trying to tell you that they’re just taking a rest
right now and don’t mean to be rude but they just
can’t cope with your voice right NOW
- Also: Maybe work on being a little more sensitive.
Thanks,
[slurp sfx]
Please remember that in addition to listening fatigue, untreated hearing loss can put you
at risk for developing dementia, depression, anxiety and social isolation. Your auditory
nerve shouldn’t work too hard… but you also shouldn’t let it get away with not
doing enough. So if you think you have a problem, please get your hearing checked.
A special shout out to Sara Miller, known online as ‘@adventuresindeafed’ who inspired
this video, and a special thanks to Dona for sending me the water bottle that has kept
me hydrated throughout this video! I love receiving things through my P.O.Box but sadly
I’m going to have to close this particular one at the start of the new year as it doesn’t
deliver to my new house and I’m thus paying double every month to have it rerouted!
- Thanks for your lack of help on this one Royal Mail(!)
That means if you want to send me a lovely Christmas card or gifts like these adorable
bookmarks from Yu Ting (they are so cute!)
then you need to make sure they arrive before the end of 2019. And
that address is:
Jessica Out Of the Closet PO Box 5458
BRIGHTON BN50 8LQ
Thanks again to everyone who sends things, I really treasure them. Would you like to
see another P.O. Box opening video this year? I LOVED doing that with Claud last year.
I’ll try and work out something better in the new year...
for the whole Royal Mail situation...
For now see you in my next video!
[kiss]