I never even thought of that, tbh it's getting harder for me to hear certain sounds. My gf talks very softly so I definitely know what you mean & I am constantly mistaking what she's saying.
I think mine is from my years of being a sound guy, I used to install studio setups, snakes, mixers, wireless microphone setups, & did consulting for play or band p.a.'s & I guess it's taken its toll on my ears. I also keep the TV on when I sleep it seems to be OK as long as there is some kind of background noise but it gets louder & more annoying the quieter it is, so I can't sleep like that... I've actually started using one of these bose Bluetooth ear plugs in one ear for when I'm out of the house & it helps, I just play podcasts or music on it at a low volume.
The right one is much worse than the other so I keep it plugged onto that ear. Its actually gotten pretty bad recently since (my uncle is in a band) I had set up his p.a. as a favor, & I got called back over there as another favor for an issue with the wireless mics while they were having practice... & the stupid bass guy just would not stop while I was trying to troubleshoot it, literally with my head right next to the speakers at times & I felt my right ear pop. It was pretty rediculous, I told my uncle I won't be helping him anymore if that guy's there I kept telling him "can you stop? nobody else is playing..." even when I had everything on the p.a. off, his amp alone was still so loud that the windows were vibrating.
If the loss is in one ear and not too bad I'd really think about seeing a ear, nose and throat doctor, I'm sure they would want a sound test done. It's simple, they put head phones on you, put you in a sound proof room and play tones in your ears in all the ranges, they'll do one ear then the other without you knowing which ear and when it's playing, when you hear a tone you raise a finger next to that ear. Then they'll print out a graph showing just what your hearing at what ranges and what you lost, for each ear. If not to far gone, they may have meds that can help, in my case it was too far gone for too long and no meds helped. They also suggested no caffeine for a week, they said that can make it worse, being a big coffee drinker after three days I had a splitting headache that wouldn't stop, they warned me that could happen if I drank a lot of caffeine. At break time I called the doc and told him my head was splitting and I couldn't take four more days like that, he told me
OK, go drink some coffee, if your not seeing any difference at all after three days then any more isn't going to make a difference.
Taking Another suggestion I started wear those foam ear plugs at work, a few weeks later I was under a car I had up on the lift cutting an exhaust pipe off with a torch, I heard some muffled yelling but with all the
shop noises that go on I ignored it. Suddenly I felt someone was beating on my ankle, a spark dropped and set my new boots on fire and it was climbing to my pant leg, I had sprayed my new winter work boots that morning with silicone to water proof them, the guys were yelling at me from across the
shop and I couldn't hear them yelling
Your foot is on fire! I quit wearing them after that just for safety sake. I went and had molded musician ear plugs made that cut the harmful noise but had baffles which will still let you hear enough so if someone yelled I could understand them, cost me $125 back then but it was worth not loosing any more hearing. I've also heard those expensive noise cancelling head phones can help some people? I don't know if that's true, I can't understand how they could work with the noise coming from the ear and not from an outside source, maybe they could help, but I never tried them.
Now they have fancy ear plugs and muffs that electronically cut load noises then go back to normal, they were first made for hunters so you can hear normal sounds of the woods but protect you when you fire a shot, they aren't cheap but have come down in price now. When they first came out it was around $225 a pair, Walker brand I think. They now have them with amplification so you can crank up the normal volume and hear twigs snap from game walking through the woods yet still cut out the harmful levels like a gunshot or hammering. I go the cheaper route, when I shoot I use the foam plugs and these muffs over the plugs,
Amazon.com: Peltor Sport Bull's Eye 9 Hearing Protector: Home Improvement I use to shoot a lot of Bullseye pistol matches at indoor ranges, with that combo my ears are well protected but I can still hear the range officer's commands of when to load and make ready to fire.