Safe Listening Tips for Headphones

If you think hearing loss only happens to the elderly, you may be surprised to discover that today 1 out of every 5 teens has some measure of hearing loss in the United States. In addition, the rate of hearing loss in teenagers is 30 percent higher than it was in the 1980s and 90s.

It should come as no surprise then that this has caught the notice of the World Health Organization, who in response released a report warning us that 1.1 billion teens and young adults worldwide are at risk for hearing loss from dangerous listening practices.

Those unsafe habits include attending loud sporting events and concerts without hearing protection, along with the unsafe use of headphones.

But it’s the use of headphones that may be the biggest threat.

Think about how frequently we all listen to music since it became transportable. We listen in the car, at work, at the gym, and at home. We listen while out for a stroll and even while drifting off to sleep. We can incorporate music into almost any aspect of our lives.

That quantity of exposure—if you’re not cautious—can slowly and silently steal your hearing at a young age, resulting in hearing aids in the future.

And given that no one’s prepared to abandon music, we have to find other ways to safeguard our hearing. Fortunately, there are simple precautions we can all adopt.

Here are three important safety tips you can make use of to protect your hearing without compromising your music.

1. Limit the Volume

Any sound louder than 85 decibels can cause permanent hearing loss, but you don’t need to invest in a sound meter to measure the decibel level of your music.

Instead, an effective general guideline is to keep your music player volume at no higher than 60 percent of the maximum volume. Any higher and you’ll likely be above the 85-decibel threshold.

In fact, at their loudest, MP3 players can pump out more than 105 decibels. And given that the decibel scale, like the Richter scale, is logarithmic, 105 decibels is about 100 times as intense as 85.

An additional tip: normal conversation registers at about 60 decibels. Therefore, if when listening to music you have to raise your voice when speaking to someone, that’s a good sign that you should turn the volume down.

2. Limit Time

Hearing damage is not only a function of volume; it’s also a function of time. The longer you subject your ears to loud sounds, the more substantial the injury can be.

Which brings us to the next rule of thumb: the 60/60 rule. We previously recommended that you keep your MP3 player volume at 60 percent of its maximum volume. The other component is making sure that you limit the listening time to under 60 minutes a day at this volume. And bear in mind that lower volumes can handle longer listening times.

Taking regular rest breaks from the sound is also crucial, as 60 decibels without interruption for two hours can be a lot more damaging than four half-hour intervals spread throughout the day.

3. Choose the Right Headphones

The reason the majority of us have a hard time keeping our music player volume at under 60 percent of its max is due to background noise. As surrounding noise increases, like in a busy fitness center, we have to compensate by increasing the music volume.

The solution to this is the usage of noise-cancelling headphones. If background noise is lessened, sound volume can be limited, and high-quality music can be experienced at lower volumes.

Low-quality earbuds, on the other hand, have the double disadvantage of being closer to your eardrum and being incapable of limiting background noise. The quality of sound is diminished as well, and coupled with the distracting environmental sound, increasing the volume is the only method to compensate.

The bottom line: it’s well worth the money to invest in a pair of high quality headphones, preferably ones that have noise-cancelling capability. That way, you can adhere to the 60/60 rule without compromising the quality of your music and, more importantly, your hearing down the road.