Our world is full of sounds, from the sublime to the downright intrusive. They may calm us or rouse us, sometimes intentionally, such as alarms that don’t just get us up for work but can save our lives in the case of smoke or fire. So what alternative is there if you can’t hear calming music or be woken by a shrill fire alarm?
This is when other senses have to come into their own; in particular our sight. Light plays a vital role in a whole range of products that allow deaf or hard of hearing people to live a normal, safe life. It may also offer a useful role in reducing tinnitus.
Brian Grover, principle technology officer at RNID, which offers a wide range of products in its online shop, explains why light is vital: “In the field of alerting, if you still have some hearing left then amplified sound is useful, but for people with greater degrees of deafness the two obvious things to try are light and vibration. There are products that provide either or both options, depending on the nature of the product.”
Smoke alarms, for example, may have flashing lights and vibration options. These have different purposes. “The greatest risk of dying from fire is when you are asleep in the middle of the night,” points out Grover. “If someone is in bed then the most reliable way to wake them is by vibration, such as using a vibrating pad. However, during the daytime as you move around the house that’s not going to be very helpful, so you are more likely to be attracted by a flashing light. So for safety critical products, a combination of alerts, including light, is the place to start from.”
Other products in the RNID range that incorporate light as an alert include baby monitors, doorbells, telephone alerts, alarm clocks and timers.
Light also features on the RNID’s Nature Sounds Pyramid, sold as a relaxation aid for those with tinnitus. “Tinnitus is the name given to any noise heard in your ears or your head that doesn’t come from an external source. So the noise might sound like ringing, buzzing, whirring or rushing,” explains Crystal Rolfe, an audiologist at RNID.
According to the RNID, around one percent of the population have, at some point, had tinnitus that severely affects their quality of life. “It can be caused by a number of different things and usually it’s nothing to worry about,” notes Rolfe. “But it has a very close connection with stress, although it might not be stress that is causing the tinnitus.”
“If you are a very calm person you might ignore your tinnitus. But if you are stressed for any reason, you may focus on the noise. What our brain tends to do is that if we attach a meaning to something, we focus on it more. And the more you listen to the sound, the louder it seems, and so the more your brain will focus on it and you will get more stressed, and so it sounds even louder…it becomes a vicious circle.”
“So lots of tinnitus coping strategies involves relaxation, including listening to relaxing sounds. These sounds give you something else to focus on,” explains Rolfe, as she describes why the Nature Sounds Pyramid may help some tinnitus sufferers. “Having a light on the product is another way of relaxing. So having a product with the right sounds makes you feel calmer, and if it has a nice light that changes colour it may also calm you down and make you feel more relaxed.
“By relaxing you get less stressed, and if you are less stressed you listen to your tinnitus less, and therefore your tinnitus will seem to get quieter as your brain focuses on it less. It’s all about breaking the vicious circle.”