The audiologists frown on your taking out your aids because there should be a number of hours that your brain needs to have the stimulation of hearing from the sounds around you. If you don't have that stimulation, your brain actually atrophies and this is the research they have found that leads to dementia and alzheimers. A certain amount of hearing and discerning sounds, noises and voices to determine what and where they are coming from is needed to make sure all parts of your cortex/brain are working functionally. Your senses need to be on top of this as well - when you hearing is not all there, the other senses pick up to bridge the deficit. The norm for the day for like me is 7-10 hours of hearing. If I have a migraine, it may be less but then I put on my white noise or tinnitus noise and take a nap which usually goes away with my 'triptan' meds in less than an a half an hour. To keep my ears from getting itchy, I put my hearing aids in a cleaning machine at night, since our ears can collect bacteria and other things from the air. The Global Dry & Store uses a dry block and blue light to clean my hearing aids, extends the batteries life and makes sure the little domes are disinfected. No more itching ears for me. I even have one of them for my traveling.

As to reading with quiet, I have a program for my tinnitus that helps me keep things quiet, since I NEVER have quiet anytime. This tinnitus program on my hearing aids always has a background white noise close to my tinnitus noise that is soothing to listen to and so I have it on most of the time. If not that one, I can put on another tinnitus app that has many other sounds that I can choose from to listen to when I want to at anytime - just like music streaming although its without voices. My app came with the Resound Hearing Aids and it always changes with new sounds. Check out your hearing aids manufacturers and see what they offer - or ask your audiologist for assistance in this issue so that you help your brain stay elastic and functional. It will thank you years down the line.

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