Sleep Your Way to Better Hearing
Article is from the Healthy Hearing Staff Writer
7/7/2008

This article reprinted with permission.

Article Source: http://www.healthyhearing.com/hearing_library/article_content.asp?article_id=844

There is no scientific evidence to suggest that missing an occasional night’s sleep is going to have a lasting adverse effect on our physical and emotional well-being.

But things get complicated for people who suffer from chronic insomnia or prolonged periods of sleeplessness. Beyond feeling tired, groggy, irritable, and just generally “out of it,” sleep disorders can have potentially serious consequences on our health and, yes, even on our ability to hear.

And, like a lot of other ailments, this particular one also starts in the brain.

Mind matters

Many people may not realize that we actually hear in our brains, not our ears.

The fact that the brain serves many vital functions is, well, a no-brainer. Not only does it control the five senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste, but also our thoughts, memory and speech, arm and leg movements, and the function of many organs within the body that are essential for our survival.

The part of the brainstem called the pons is an important “control center” coordinating eye and facial movements, facial sensation, hearing and balance. Therefore, if the brain function is diminished, the domino effect is going to impact any or all of these functions.

Various studies suggest that sleep depravation alters brain activity, diminishing its ability to function normally and even causing it, in some cases, to “shut down,” severely compromising its ability to process information.

The tired brain

A few years ago a team of researchers from the UCSD School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in San Diego used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to monitor activity in the brains of sleep-deprived people performing simple verbal learning tasks.

Thirteen healthy subjects were first evaluated in a sleep laboratory to determine that their sleep patterns were normal. They were then kept awake and monitored over a period of about 35 hours. During this experiment, they were given various cognitive tasks to perform. The fMRI images reveal both increased and decreased activation of specific regions of the brain in each subject from a rested state through various stages of sleep deprivation.

This letter was sent by Cindy J. Helms, Executive Director of International Hearing Society. Please helps us get the hearing aid tax credit through.

With the focus on healthcare in Washington, DC, this is perhaps the best time to make our voice heard in support of tax credits for hearing aids. The Hearing Aid Tax Credit legislation (HR1646) now before Congress provides up to $1,000 for two hearing aids for dependents and adults 55 years and over. According to research done by Sergei Kochkin of the Better Hearing Institute, one in four households in America has at least one person with a hearing loss and two-thirds cannot afford hearing health care.

Let’s make our voices heard! If we all wrote to our e-mail, Facebook, and discussion forum contacts, we could make a difference. We need 500,000 letters to Congress. Think we can do it? Yes we can. That’s only 167,000 people (two letters to your senators and one letter to your member in Congress). So let’s tap into our social networks and make this happen.

Make your voice heard at http://www.hearingaidtaxcredit.org/.
Cindy J. Helms
Executive Director

The Society advocates and supports the highest standards of professional competency, business integrity and excellence in serving the hearing impaired. We respect your privacy and therefore if you wish to opt-out of future emails, please send a reply with subject “Unsubscribe.”

I was on my way to deliver new hearing instruments to a man named Jim whom I have never met before. I was thumbing through his file to get to know him and found out that he had gotten hearing instruments about a month ago and returned. He went to a popular retail hearing aid chain and decided that he wasn’t hearing any better with his new instruments.

I noticed that his word recognition was about 20%. Wow! I thought this will be a huge challenge. Upon arrival I was trying to have a conversation with Jim and you could tell he wasn’t hearing what what was said. He was very somber, but who wouldn’t be, he couldn’t participate in anything that was said.

Well, he was fit with the Phonak Naida V’s and even though I have had such great luck with these, I was scared. When I turned them on and started to talk with him he could answer everything I said. I started walking around the room and from 15ft away with his back to me he could answer my questions. I was floored, but he wasn’t! His wife talked to him behind his back and he could answer every question she asked, but still no reaction. I told him that I was happier then he was. His wife said ” he has been so disappointed with hearing aids that we can’t get excited anymore.” So, on that note I hoped and prayed that he would do well.

I went for his followup about four days later and when I walked in he was smiling. He sat down and said, ” I think I am going to keep these.” I asked him what made him come to this conclusion. He said, ” I can hear my wife and I can hear my dinner guests, but this was the first time I have heard the preacher at church in years.” Whoaaaa, he blew me away!

His word recognition was 20%, but after four days later and using some word exercises his recognition went up to 80%. Amazing!
What else can I say. “What a day!”