The Safe Way to Avoid Your Hearing Damaging

Many of us spend time each day with earbuds blasting sound into our ears, whether it's grooving out during a workout or getting the day started with a podcast. These tiny acoustic feeding tubes can provide us with pleasing noises that can help us feel better, but they can also harm our hearing. But you can stop it from happening with a little awareness and work.

Balancing volume with length of listening

To avoid noise-induced (or sound-induced) hearing impairment via headphones or earbuds, volume level and listening time must be balanced. The typical recommendation is to listen for up to 90 minutes at 80% volume.The level should be lowered if you want to listen for more than 90 minutes, so that it gets progressively quieter the longer you listen.

Types of devices

In addition to volume and duration, the kind of listening gadget you're using might also have an impact. There are three different kinds of ear-listening devices, each with advantages and disadvantages.

Over-the-ear headphones cover your ears and are frequently more effective at blocking out background sounds. You may listen at a lower volume due to the higher sound quality. They are less lightweight and easier to stow than earbuds, though. If you're outside, close to traffic, or in close proximity to other people, earbuds may make you feel safer since they let more outside sounds into your ear.

However, in environments with a lot of background noise, people frequently turn up the volume to hazardous levels. Rubber earbud tips on isolating earbuds seal the ear canal. They are effective in reducing outside noise, but they present a risk to bikers and runners who need to be aware of their surroundings.

No matter the design, we shouldn't be reluctant to spend a bit more on higher-quality earphones. You are less likely to rely on loudness to improve the integrity of the music when using higher-quality headphones or earbuds.

The reality of hearing loss

The fact that many gadgets enable outputs to exceed 85 decibels (dBs) might be problematic since many listeners, especially younger ones, are unaware of the long-term negative impacts.Inner ear damage from early, repetitive exposure to loud noises is irreversible and may not manifest until much later in life, by which time it is too late to avoid it.

17% of people in the United States between the ages of 20 and 69 have hearing loss that may have resulted from exposure to loud noises, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Repeatedly harmful noises can hasten ear aging by 50%. As a result, by the time you are 50 years old, you could have the hearing of an 80-year-old.

To be safe, it's too loud if you have to raise your voice to speak to someone while you're listening to something or if someone standing an arm's length away can hear the music coming from your headphones or earbuds.