Went to the pub for the first time since the ear fixing and ended up shoving toilet roll in my ears because holy shit things are ~loud~ now
— ohlookbirdies.bsky.social (@ohlookbirdies.bsky.social) December 24, 2024 at 4:13 PM
One of the most peaceful and pleasant times of my life is when I caught a bad case of the flu (no, not Covid; this was in 2016) and it clogged my ears so completely that for weeks I could barely hear anything. I slept incredibly well, for me. Human noises were nearly-completely removed from my experience and it was amazing.
I wouldn’t want to be deaf permanently, but it was an extremely refreshing holiday from din and distraction. It was great.
Do you use noise cancelling headphones regularly when working? For years, I used to put earplugs in my ears to fall asleep, not because it was actually loud but because I’d get too distracted to sleep. It really sucked in the summertime.
Weirdly, I had casual hearing tests done at the same place a decade apart and they said I had no age related hearing loss, even though I can’t really hear Brownian humming anymore (that faint high pitched noise when a house is completely quiet) or that mosquito noise some retailers would play to drive away kids at the mall.
Strangely, I don’t use headphones when working, nose-canceling or otherwise, unless I am in a Zoom/Slack meeting. Even though I work from home I don’t like the idea of not being able to hear my surroundings. And I can’t really do ambient background music.
How did you get used to having earplugs in? I don’t think I could sleep like that. I do use a white noise machine by the bed and that works fairly well.
Nice about no hearing degradation. I’ve lost some hearing in the high range too and have hearing loss in my right ear particularly from explosions and such in the army.
I used the cheap foam ones and those would fall out sometime during the night — which didn’t matter so much because the key for me was tuning out the noises while falling asleep. I was near a tourist area and also the tv was placed right on the other side of my bedroom wall and was also going at the same time I’d try to fall asleep. I don’t really use them now because I live in a quieter area and am not fighting my circadian rhythms but I use them on planes and if I share a room with someone who snores.
It sounds like your hearing loss is fairly minimal, because you’ve said you prefer the lower noisiness of the country before. One thing which definitely will fuck up your hearing is having an infection like the flu and not having access to antibiotics. I don’t think people appreciate how not having vaccines or antibiotics will set you up for later health problems.
Yeah, it’s 40% in the right ear and normal in the left ear. I only really notice the deficit when someone is talking on my right side and I can’t hear them quite as well.
About antibiotics and vaccination, those still cowering from Covid are correct. Though they’ve over-exaggerated their claims greatly, with more infection comes more risk. If there hadn’t been antibiotics when I was a kid, I would’ve been far worse off and maybe dead.