Is my hearing becoming extraordinary?

The most unusual thing happened to me yesterday and now today. I got off work around 11pm without noticing anything unusual but then when I got home, I made a phone call to my girlfriend who was at a bar at the time. Upon answering her phone, I noticed that her end of the conversation was unusually loud - I mean really loud. I could not discern the words she was saying. I asked her if it was busy there and she replied, no that there were only like 4 people there and it was outside of the bar at a table. I didn't think too much of it as it was on a cell phone and thought that maybe for some reason the phone was picking up extra amplification or something.....

.......fast forward to day 2. I wake up today and notice that everything seems louder than normal. I can hear exceptionally well - almost like the loudness you'd expect at a rock concert, but it isn't painful loud. I'm driving home and notice that it isn't loud at all, but that I can hear all the background noise around me that is usually tuned out. I thought, that's interesting, but why?

I then pulled up upon two motorcycles and payed attention to when I could hear their engines (and I mean, I can hear the internal noise, not just the exhaust) - it's around 20 ft out, I can now hear all the ambient noise that I could not hear before. It's in both ears and I didn't have them cleaned. My ear canals are small so I am used to not hearing this well.

Any ideas from ATS as to what has caused my hearing to suddenly be much more sensitive?

[edit on 27-9-2008 by ben91069]

In looking for reasons for my tinnitus one of the best ieads given by a doctor was hyperacoustia possibly comming from hyperacoustic shock (same as accoustic shock - but steaming from sound that is outside your normal hearing range).

I had a quick on google under hyperacoustia, not much on the surface but i'm sure you could dig up something. I just know my hearing gets on my nerves - just this morning at 4am I thought god I can hear that train from a long way away, untill in my sleepy mind I realised it must be activity at the new gas power station they are building round here, probably a generator or something for the crews.

Maybe aliens cleaned the wax out of your ears for you??

reply to post by rangersdad




I think you've just solved the issue of why the aliens would want to kidnap people! They eat earwax!

EDIT: sorry OP, I don't mean to make light of your situation. I imagine that suddenly amplified hearing would be really annoying, and even could be hard to cope with. But that totally cracked me up

[edit on 9/27/08 by americandingbat]

I wish my hearing was that good...but when I was in my mid late 20's I had a hearing test done and both ears have lost 25% hearing..so if aliens eat earwax and earwax only, they can have mine...

reply to post by rangersdad


That's another thing. Hearing loss is usually a long term deal, unless a grenade explodes next to your head. I've pretty much worked in noisy environments my whole life and I am sure my hearing isn't as good as it was when I was little. For that reason, everything used to seem quiet and muffled but now it sounds like I am standing next to a busy street in some big city.

I've always had problems with my ears since I was born, at 2 I had tubes put in my ears then taken out later because of excessive wax buildup.
Sometimes though, the wax subsides and its like I can instantly hear 10x better, so much to the point that the background noise is overpowering and its hard to make out what I'm trying to hear. Could be a logical reason for it but who knows with all the weird stuff going on nowdays.

Hi there,

thought i might be able to pitch in an alternative view for you here

Part of my job as a composer sometimes involves making backing tracks for karaoke machines. One of the things you obviously have to get sorted to do this, is to learn the songs so you can re-record them.

But, you have to learn EVERY detail of the song. I'm talking, the shakers that are quiet in the song, to every note of every harmony and so.

To do this, I didn't wake up one day and have super human hearing, I instead spent a few days learning to listen. It's not something that's easy to teach, but in the example of a song, it'd be like 'just listening to the drums' or 'just listening to the vocals'.

Anyway, it's the same with ambient noise isn't it? How many times has someone said, "Hey.. can you hear that hum from the T.V." only for you to actually sit there and listen and realise there is a hum.. purely because you focused on what you were listening to. (and more annoyingly, the notice the hum every time from then on!)

But yes, my point is you likely have just learned to listen properly. It's such an irritating thing to realise you can do, but everyone can. I'm a good example (and anyone else who transcribes music can vouch for me) of someone who's learnt the powers of 'extraordinary hearing'

Glad I could give you a different spin,
Bigmoose

..and might I add, my actual hearing quality isn't all that great (to many loud rock gigs at a young age). All the more reasoning of the power of focusing on what you're listening to!

Bigmoose

A couple of people have referred already to the earwax issue. This happened to me once. If I hadn't had the experience I wouldn't have thought it possible.

I remember thinking that I was losing my hearing until the doctor cleaned the earwax out. That day when I went home my hearing was greatly enhanced. I remember when I put the key in the lock on my apartment door, it sounded like two railroad cars coupling. It took a couple of days for my hearing to get back to normal.