Aiden enjoys music. While he’s out running, he listens to Pandora, while working it’s Spotify, and he has a playlist for everything he does: gaming, cooking, gym time, and everything else. His entire life has a soundtrack and it’s playing on his headphones. But the very thing that Aiden enjoys, the loud, immersive music, could be causing permanent harm to his hearing.
As far as your ears are concerned, there are healthy ways to listen to music and dangerous ways to listen to music. But the more hazardous listening choice is frequently the one most of us choose.
How can hearing loss be the result of listening to music?
Over time, loud noises can cause degeneration of your hearing abilities. We’re accustomed to thinking of hearing loss as an issue related to aging, but more and more research suggests that it’s actually the accumulation of noise-induced damage that is the problem here and not anything intrinsic to the process of aging.
It also turns out that younger ears are especially vulnerable to noise-induced damage (they’re still developing, after all). And yet, the long-term harm from high volume is more likely to be dismissed by young adults. So because of extensive high volume headphone usage, there has become an epidemic of hearing loss in young individuals.
Is there a safe way to listen to music?
Unlimited max volume is obviously the “dangerous” way to enjoy music. But merely turning down the volume is a safer way to listen. The general recommendations for safe volumes are:
- For adults: 40 hours or less of weekly listening on a device and keep the volume lower than 80dB.
- For teens and young children: You can still listen for 40 hours, but the volume should still be below 75dB.
About five hours and forty minutes per day will give you about forty hours every week. Though that may seem like a while, it can feel like it passes rather quickly. Even still, most people have a fairly sound concept of keeping track of time, it’s something we’re taught to do effectively from a really young age.
Keeping track of volume is a little less intuitive. On most smart devices, computers, and televisions, volume isn’t calculated in decibels. Each device has its own arbitrary scale. Perhaps it’s 1-100. Or it might be 1-10. You might not have any idea how close to max volume you are or even what max volume on your device is.
How can you listen to tunes while monitoring your volume?
There are some non-intrusive, easy ways to figure out just how loud the volume on your music actually is, because it’s not very easy for us to conceptualize exactly what 80dB sounds like. It’s even harder to understand the difference between 80 and 75dB.
So utilizing one of the many noise free monitoring apps is greatly suggested. Real-time volumes of the noise around you will be available from both iPhone and Android apps. In this way, you can make real-time alterations while monitoring your actual dB level. Or, while listening to music, you can also modify your configurations in your smartphone which will efficiently let you know that your volume is too high.
As loud as a garbage disposal
Typically, 80 dB is about as noisy as your garbage disposal or your dishwasher. So, it’s loud, but it’s not too loud. Your ears will start to take damage at volumes above this threshold so it’s an important observation.
So you’ll want to be more mindful of those times at which you’re moving beyond that decibel threshold. And minimize your exposure if you do listen to music above 80dB. Maybe listen to your favorite song at full volume instead of the entire album.
Listening to music at a higher volume can and will cause you to have hearing problems over the long term. You can develop hearing loss and tinnitus. The more you can be conscious of when your ears are going into the danger zone, the more informed your decision-making will be. And safer listening will ideally be part of those decisions.
Still have questions about safe listening? Call us to go over more options.