Thanks to smartphones, music has never been more accessible. You just fire up your favorite music app, and off you go – you have thousands of songs at your disposal.
Music, though, isn’t as innocuous as it first appears. While it’s okay to listen to it at low volume, most people don’t. Instead, they crank up the sound level, giving them a fuller, richer experience, especially in a loud environment.
Headphones, however, are deceptively loud. Because they sit so close to the eardrum, they can deliver a vast amount of energy to the cells in the ear. Short-term exposure is okay, but over the long-haul, damage can accumulate, and often, it is irreversible.
Music fans, however, rarely notice what’s going on. The sounds coming through their ears are often so enjoyable that damage goes unnoticed. The volume remains high regardless.
Headphones are different from conventional sources of noise in the environment for a couple of reasons. First, the volume they deliver is consistent over a long period. Passing trains and power tools often fluctuate in the noise they produce, giving the ears time to recover. But the same is not correct when listening to music through a device. Sound levels remain elevated consistently, thereby increasing the chance of damage to the ears. Second, headphones deliver more enjoyable sounds than other sources of loud noises, like airports or building sites. Thus, people actively want to listen to the sounds they make instead of avoiding them.
Listening to loud music through headphones a couple of times a month probably won’t cause a great deal of damage to the ear’s machinery. But if your listening habits are excessive day in, day out, you’ll start noticing problems. High-energy sound waves can damage the eardrum as well as the tiny sound-sensing hairs that line the middle ear. Eventually, they become less sensitive, affecting your ability to hear regular noises in your environment, like speech.
If you think you might have hearing loss because of listening to loud music through headphones, you should get a hearing test. Catching the condition early is the best way to prevent it from progressing and developing into something more severe. Retraining the ear with a hearing aid can help restore your ability to hear while preventing secondary conditions, like tinnitus.
Listening to loud music can be an enjoyable experience, but ideally, you need to avoid it. You can listen to sounds up to 85 decibels safely for an extended period. But any louder than that, and damage to your ears becomes likely. The greater the volume of the noise, the less exposure you can tolerate. Sounds over 120 decibels can damage the ears permanently and instantly, so be very careful.
If you regularly listen to music in loud environments, choose noise-canceling headphones. These block out external sounds, allowing you to get the same enjoyment from your music, even if you keep the volume low.
Your hearing is essential to your wellbeing. Do whatever you can to look after it. Think about your listening habits.
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