Food & Drink
FinanceMaintain Healthy Hearing with Digital Music Players
I listen to headphones on average about 6 hours a day. I have done this for the better part of the last 15 years. The nature of my job allows me to have a headset on all day and this is typically the only way I can block out the noise of the office to concentrate on my work.
When I think of health I always think of diet and exercise first; the health of my hearing doesn’t even enter my thoughts. As I get older I start to worry more about my hearing and I start to question my headphone wearing even more.
Music and other loud noises cause hearing loss by damaging the hair cells in the cochlea. The cochlea is a part of your inner ear that helps transmit sound information to your brain. These hair cells can often recover from temporary damage but any prolonged exposure to high enough sound levels risk permanent hearing loss.
A hearing study by Cory Portnuff, a doctoral researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder indicates that damage to hearing occurs when a person is exposed to loud sounds over time. The risk of hearing loss increases as sound is played louder and for longer durations.
The study goes on to indicate the recommended maximum listening time per day based on the style of earphones used and the volume control settings on the player. For example, typical person can safely listen to an iPod for 1.2 hours per day at 80% volume using stock earphones.
What can a person do to prevent hearing loss and still enjoy your music player? Here are some tips to prevent hearing loss when using headphones:
- If you use earbuds that sit inside the ear, consider upgrading to sound isolating earphones that fit outside the ear (supra-aural). I recently purchased a set of supra-aural Sennheisers for myself. Keep in mind, these headphones aren’t nearly as stylish as earbuds. I had to endure a day or two if ridicule from my coworkers but my hearing is worth it.
- Consider purchasing noise-canceling earphones if you find yourself increasing the volume to cover background noise. The theoretical benefit of these headsets is that if you can’t hear any background noise then you won’t need to have the volume turned up so high to block out those sounds.
- Limit the amount of time your listen to your player.
- Keep the volume below 60% at all times.
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