Music is a major part of Aiden’s life. He listens to Spotify while at work, switches to Pandora when jogging, and he has a playlist for everything: gaming, gym time, cooking, and everything else. His headphones are pretty much always on, his life a completely soundtracked affair. But lasting hearing damage might be happening due to the very loud immersive music he enjoys.
For your ears, there are healthy ways to listen to music and unsafe ways to listen to music. But the more hazardous listening option is frequently the one most of us choose.
How can hearing loss be caused by listening to music?
As time passes, loud noises can cause degeneration of your hearing abilities. Typically, we think of aging as the main cause of hearing loss, but more recent research is revealing that hearing loss isn’t an intrinsic part of aging but is instead, the outcome of accumulated noise damage.
Younger ears that are still growing are, as it turns out, more susceptible to noise-related damage. And yet, young adults are more inclined to be dismissive of the long-term dangers of high volume. So there’s an epidemic of younger individuals with hearing loss thanks, in part, to high volume headphone use.
Can you listen to music safely?
Unrestricted max volume is obviously the “dangerous” way to listen to music. But simply turning down the volume is a less dangerous way to listen. Here are a couple of general guidelines:
- For adults: Keep the volume at less than 80dB and for no more than 40 hours a week..
- For teens and young children: 40 hours is still okay but reduce the volume to 75dB.
Forty hours every week is roughly five hours and forty minutes per day. That seems like a lot, but it can go by fairly rapidly. But we’re taught to monitor time our entire lives so most of us are pretty good at it.
Keeping track of volume is a little less user-friendly. Volume isn’t gauged in decibels on most smart devices like TVs, computers, and smartphones. Each device has its own arbitrary scale. It could be 1-100. Or it could be 1-10. You might have no clue what the max volume is on your device, or how close to the max you are.
How can you track the volume of your tunes?
There are a few non-intrusive, simple ways to determine just how loud the volume on your music really is, because it’s not very easy for us to contemplate exactly what 80dB sounds like. It’s even harder to determine the difference between 80 and 75dB.
That’s why it’s highly suggested you use one of numerous free noise monitoring apps. Real-time volumes of the noise around you will be obtainable from both iPhone and Android apps. That way you can monitor the dB level of your music in real-time and make adjustments. Your smartphone will, with the proper settings, let you know when the volume gets too loud.
As loud as a garbage disposal
Typically, 80 dB is about as loud as your garbage disposal or your dishwasher. So, it’s loud, but it’s not too loud. It’s an important observation because 80dB is about as loud as your ears can take without damage.
So you’ll want to be more mindful of those times when you’re going beyond that decibel threshold. If you do listen to some music above 80dB, don’t forget to minimize your exposure. Maybe limit loud listening to a song rather than an album.
Listening to music at a higher volume can and will cause you to have hearing problems over the long term. Hearing loss and tinnitus can be the result. The more you can be conscious of when your ears are entering the danger zone, the more educated your decision-making can be. And ideally, those decisions lean towards safer listening.
Still have questions about safe listening? Give us a call to go over more options.