Nowadays you’ve got a fully rechargeable, all-day battery, and in-the-ear-canal earbuds. Besides, these new devices get much louder and can play for much longer.
This is the reason osteopathic doctors have recommended the 60/60 rule as a great way to protect hearing while using earbuds. It simply states that:
You should listen at no more than 60% of maximum volume for no more than 60 minutes at a time.
Paying attention to the volume and time you are pumping music into your ears is more important than ever. In other words, monitor the volume bars on your device, and make sure they are never edging too far over the halfway mark.
After you must have done this for an hour, you should take a break for a while. Why is this important?
Our ears have tiny hairs inside. Like a Wi-fi connection sending data to a computer, these hairs relay sound messages between the ear and the brain. The brain then figures out what the sound is — a favorite song, for example, or a friend’s voice.
These tiny hairs are fragile and easily damaged by sound. When too many hairs get damaged, the ear-brain connection is lost. If this happens more in one ear than in the other, the person hears less (or nothing) in that ear.
So, after 60 minutes, take out your earbuds and give your ears a rest. Listening to music is like a workout for your ears — they need a “cool down” period after exercising just like you do. Hence, ears that get a break from loud, continuous noise or sound are less likely to suffer continuous damage.
But what if you are listening with only one earbud, should the volume be turned up to higher than 60% of maximum value?
For a fact, It’s actually not OK to turn up the volume beyond 60%, even if you only use one earbud. You can still damage your hearing because each ear has a separate hearing system. Switching a single earbud back and forth between your ears doesn’t help. If the sound is louder than 60% of maximum volume, all you are doing is giving both ears equal “damage time.”
Instead of sharing earbuds, get a splitter. This inexpensive little device plugs into the headphone jack on your music player and lets you connect two sets of earbuds (or, even better, headphones). You will protect your own hearing as well as your friend’s. You will also both enjoy a better listening experience because you will hear the sound as it was intended, through both ears!
In addition, earbuds in particular can be problematic because the sound is placed so much closer to the eardrum, and can actually get to very damaging levels. Ideally, the sound should be under 85 decibels, which is always safe — and about the same volume as city traffic.
It is also advisable to use over-the-ear, noise-canceling headphones because these reduce ambient sound which takes away the need to make the volume compete with the surroundings. Besides, the sound is so much better.
Unlike other medical problems, there is no fix for hearing loss. Once there’s damage, it’s permanent.
So, listen to the advice of experts while you still can
