It it a good idea to take breaks from wearing the aids? Say, half a day every few days? I feel like my brain is dependent on sound from them?
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking a break, but it won’t make your brain less dependent on them. Good reasons to take a break: they’re irritating your ears, you’re finding sounds irritating and are tired, just because. However, it’s a good idea to wear them most of the time so your brain continues to hear a wide range of sounds.
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I said that I am taking a break from wearing hearing aids 20 years ago… stopped wearing them after that. I only started wearing them recently as my hearing loss has got significantly worse. I doubt you would be that extreme but I suppose if you are at home and it is silent/not missing much, then there is no harm in it.
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Your brain more than likely IS dependent on sound from them. While it is most beneficial to wear them all the time (even when it is quiet at home), I don’t see any drawbacks with taking a short break from them now and then.
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LOL!!! Let me just submit: THAT’S THE POINT!
Ah, you probably don’t have cinderblock ears like ME, cuz if I wanted to just “take a break for half a day every few days” I’d be in a car wreck DAY 1; run over by a bicyclist DAY 2; bang into a pedestrian coming up from behind DAY 3; step in the path of a fire truck roaring to its destination DAY 4; get mugged at the ATM cuz I didn’t hear anyone coming up from behind DAY 5; leave my wallet at Starbuck counter cuz I didn’t hear the clerk SHOUTING after me DAY 6; have a shark bite my leg off cuz I couldn’t hear the lifeguard on a bullhorn DAY 7.
And there goes the week.
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@1Bluejay: What an excellent post! So excellent, in fact, that I’m going to LAMINATE IT AND TAPE IT TO THE SHOWER STALL as one of my HEALING WATER MEDITATIONS!
(I may even SACRIFICE THE OCCASIONAL CHINA-MADE TRANSISTOR RADIO OR RECHARGEABLE HEADLAMP to the Antilectronic Water Gods come Vernal Equinox, or something!)
Ya never know!
(BTW: @1Bluejay will probably end up being the inventress of the first Hydraulic Hearing Aids 
)
[Addendum: Just to ne clear - I think it’s a bad idea ro “take a break” from HAs. The auditory cortex needs the constant stimulation to remember what its job is, and how to do it.]
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I typically spend a lot of time at home alone doing work that doesn’t require accurate hearing and where I want as few distractions as possible. During those times I much prefer to not be wearing aids.
This morning I ran out of the house at 6:15 am for a CT appointment. At this time of the morning my brain is still in sleep mode! I got to Maccas to get my caffeine fix and I literally couldn’t “hear” the voice coming out of the drive through speaker. My “ears” as I call them were still in my dry box! 
UGH!! Fortunately I could hear the voice coming out of the CT scanner.
You are very lucky to be able to hear without your aids… Enjoy your break from using them.
I have taken a break from wearing mine sometimes, and other times they’re just not charged like I thought they were and the “break” is forced upon me. I have to admit, it’s harder to go without them than it was when I was younger; especially trying to understand speech through a COVID mask.
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Agree with blue Jay. The reason we get HAs is because we can’t here well. But if seems wearing them is making understanding worse or your brain lazy, I don’t think that’s the case. I think we get used to hearing better and that’s the goal. As we age our hearing generally declines, but that happens whether we wear HAs or not.
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I’m 100% with @SpudGunner here. Your brain has learnt to hear again (yes, it’s your brain that hears for you) and when you go back to your HAs after taking a break your brain will have the irksome task of having to relearn (it’ll do it faster than the first time, but it will still take time).
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I m very curious about this. I wear hearing protection when I play certain instruments. When I first put them on, either when I first got the plugs or if I spend time playing without the plugs for a while, everything is tiny, muffled, hard to hear. After I acclimate to using them, I have no issues to hearing with them on. I am thus, more sensitive, to sound. Above a certain attenuation level (15-20db), this ceases to be the case; the muffled never gets better and I can’t acclimate to that level.
Wouldn’t using HAs sort of be the opposite and decrease sensitivity? Maybe this sensitivity is around 5db (making up a number) rather than a large difference and negligible to most people but I’m really curious about the brain science…
I love this post.
Your week sounds like mine!
The forum suggested I read it. I’m glad that I did.
DaveL
Toronto