Summer has a way of keeping us busy. Vacations, cookouts, outdoor concerts, family reunions, baseball games, evenings on the patio—the calendar fills up quickly. Then without warning, the days get a little shorter, the mornings feel cooler, and pumpkin-flavored everything starts appearing whether we're ready for it or not.
As summer winds down and we begin moving into fall, it's a good time to think about something you may not have paid much attention to over the past few months: How well were you hearing it all?
Summer puts our hearing to the test in ways we don't always realize. If you find yourself struggling to follow conversations, asking people to repeat themselves, or feeling left out when several people were talking at once, those experiences may be telling you something about your hearing.
Think Back to Your Summer
Consider some of the places you went this summer.
Were you at a crowded restaurant trying to hear the person across the table? Did you attend a graduation party, wedding, reunion, or neighborhood cookout? You spent time with grandchildren who have two volume settings—very quiet and somehow all talking at once.
How did you do?
One of the most common things I hear from patients is, "I can hear people. I just can't always understand them."
That's an important difference.
Hearing loss isn't always about the world becoming noticeably quieter. Sometimes certain parts of speech become less clear, particularly in environments with background noise. You hear the conversation happening, but individual words become harder to understand.
That can make a perfectly enjoyable dinner feel like a two-hour word puzzle.
We're Pretty Good at Adapting
Because hearing changes often happen gradually, many people adjust without realizing they're doing it.
Maybe you started sitting closer to the television. Perhaps your spouse has become your unofficial interpreter when you're out with friends. You might choose a quieter corner of a restaurant or watch someone's face more closely while they're talking.
None of those things automatically means you have hearing loss. But when several of them start happening regularly, it's worth paying attention.
The problem with gradual hearing changes is that your current level of hearing becomes your new normal. You may not realize how much you're missing because you've become accustomed to missing it.
Family members, on the other hand, usually aren't quite as subtle about noticing.
If you've heard, "The TV is too loud," "I already told you that," or the always popular "You need to get your hearing checked," there may be a reason.
You don't necessarily have to admit they were right. Just get your hearing checked. You can settle that argument later.
Summer Can Be Tough on Your Ears, Too
Summer isn't only filled with conversations. It's also filled with noise.
Concerts, festivals, fireworks, motorcycles, lawn equipment, power tools, sporting events, and other loud activities can expose our ears to potentially damaging sound levels.
Noise-induced hearing loss can happen gradually, and repeated exposure matters. Protecting your hearing around loud sounds is one of the simplest things you can do to help preserve the hearing you have.
Keep hearing protection handy when you know you'll be around loud noise and give your ears a break when possible.
Earplugs may not be the most exciting summer accessory. Nobody has ever looked at a pair and said, "Those really pull the outfit together." But your ears will appreciate them.
A New Season Is a Good Time for a Fresh Start
The transition from summer to fall naturally changes our routines. Vacations wind down, kids head back to school, schedules become more predictable, and we start looking ahead to the holidays.
That's one reason this is a great time to check your hearing.
If summer exposed some situations where conversations weren't as easy as they used to be, a professional hearing evaluation can help you understand why. Even if your hearing is within a healthy range, establishing a baseline gives you something to compare against in the future.
And if hearing loss is identified, today's hearing technology is very different from what many people remember.
Modern hearing aids aren't simply designed to make everything louder. Today's technology can help emphasize speech, manage distracting background noise, automatically adjust to different listening environments, and connect directly with phones and other devices.
The goal is simple: help you stay connected without having to work so hard to hear.
Don't Wait Until the Holiday Table
Fall has plenty of its own sounds waiting for us—leaves crunching underfoot, football games, cooler evenings outside, fall festivals and conversations around the dinner table.
Then comes Thanksgiving and the holidays, when kitchens, dining rooms and living rooms fill with people talking at the same time.
If you noticed hearing difficulty of hearing this summer, don't wait until you're sitting around the holiday table struggling to keep up with the conversation.
Take a moment now to find out where your hearing stands.
Schedule a complimentary hearing evaluation at your local Beltone Hearing Care Center and see whether anything has changed.
Summer may be coming to an end, but there are plenty of conversations—and seasons—ahead worth hearing clearly.