fatigue is what I was referring to, which is pretty much as important as your hearing.
Sorry but you are referring to flying for pleasure and NOT conducting revenue flights where fatigue is important. If you are fatigued then you should not be flying but resting.
You only have one set of ears and the damage is accumulative! I know having had audiograms for thirty years of military and commercial flying. At one stage the doctors could even tell the seat I occupied from the loss of tone on one side.
The purchase of a good headset to protect the hearing is a wise investment. It will no doubt be something you will need to change as you progress from from noisy light aircraft through turbo props to the front of a long jet well away from the engine noise. It is undoubtedly more pleasant (and better cross flight deck communication) to have just a single earpiece inserted than have even a lightweight headset clamped on one ear. However the choice of what you use is dictated by what you are flying!
HWB