Sweet dreams: Whether to wear a hearing aid while asleep

When it comes to adjusting to life with hearing aids, there is no hard and fast rule that everyone must follow.

Obviously there are things that make sense and areas where we would strongly recommend patients do certain things to protect their aids or improve their hearing further, but everyone is different.

One area where we see a few discrepancies is the issue of wearing aids at night. Some prefer to take theirs off, while others keep theirs on so they can hear things during the night.

There really is no right or wrong to this and it is entirely down to personal preference.

For those people who prefer to take their hearing aids off, there are benefits such as allowing your ears to breathe and giving yourself a break from wearing them.

When you consider that they are worn all day, it's easy to see why people choose to get rid overnight, with some saying it can be quite uncomfortable to sleep with them in.

Also, you can save on the batteries by taking them out and turning them off, while for restless sleepers removing aids can also make a lot of sense.

These are nifty pieces of kit and if you toss and turn while asleep you could risk doing some damage.

On the other side is having the ability to hear if anything is amiss during the night and also the necessity to be woken up by an alarm in the morning.

If you have to be up at a certain time and rely on your alarm clock to coax you out of your slumber, having your aid in is essential for this.

As we said earlier, it's very much a case of what works for you.

Our audiologists can offer you advice on more pros and cons to sleeping with your hearing aids and assist you as you gradually get used to them.