Are Headphones and Earbuds Damaging My Hearing?

Between college campuses, gyms and office parks across southwest Ohio, earbuds are part of a lot of daily routines. They’re at the rec center, on walking trails and at desks during the workday.

They come along for grocery runs and dog walks too. You may not think you listen that much. But add up the morning podcast, afternoon playlist and everything in between, and those hours can accumulate quickly.

Headphones and earbuds aren’t harmful on their own. Volume and listening time both determine how much sound your ears are exposed to.

The trouble is that neither is always easy to judge. You might turn up the volume when noise competes with what you’re hearing.

Listening time can also accumulate through several shorter sessions across the day. Looking at both gives you a more accurate sense of how much sound your ears are getting.

What Happens Inside Your Ears When Using Headphones or Earbuds

Headphones and earbuds both send sound directly toward your ears, but the path is a little different. Earbuds sit at or inside the ear canal, so the sound source is very close to the eardrum.

Over-ear headphones keep the speakers farther away, with sound traveling through the space inside the ear cup first. In either case, the eardrum vibrates and passes that movement through the middle ear to the cochlea.

Inside the cochlea, tiny hair cells turn those vibrations into signals the brain can recognize as speech, music or other sound. How much work those cells do depends on the volume and how long you keep listening.

How Different Headphone and Earbud Styles Can Affect Hearing Health

Different headphone designs change more than where the speaker sits. In-ear models can create a seal inside the ear canal, and ear tip size affects how consistently that seal holds.

Over-ear headphones surround the outer ear, so cup depth and padding impact how the sound is contained. Open-back headphones intentionally let some sound escape, while closed-back models keep more of it inside the ear cups.

Some earbuds also use venting to reduce the plugged-up sensation that can happen when the ear canal is sealed.

Comfort matters because pressure, heat or irritation may change how often you reposition or remove what you’re wearing. These design differences are worth considering alongside hearing health when choosing a style you’ll use regularly.

How Volume and Listening Time Affect Your Hearing

A half-hour of loud music and three hours of quieter listening don’t put the same amount of sound into your ears. As the volume goes up, your ears can tolerate it safely for less time.

That difference becomes easy to miss when headphones come on and off throughout the day. You might listen during a workout, take them off and put them back on later for a podcast.

Music at work adds another hour or two. None of those sessions seems especially long, but they all count toward the sound your ears have handled that day. And if you’re somewhere noisy, you may turn the volume up simply because your usual level is harder to hear.

Safe Volume Levels and Time Limits for Headphone Use

You don’t need to listen at the lowest setting to protect your hearing, but the volume does change how long you can safely listen. Around 70 decibels is generally comfortable for longer periods, while listening time should get shorter as the sound gets louder.

At 85 decibels, for example, several hours of listening may be possible. Raise that level into the 90s, and the recommended time drops considerably.

This is because a small increase in decibels represents a much larger increase in sound energy than the numbers suggest.

Your phone may already track headphone levels and warn you when your listening has been louder for too long. Checking that information occasionally can tell you more than simply keeping the volume bar below a certain percentage.

Early Signs of Hearing Loss from Headphones

Changes in your hearing aren’t always obvious right away, especially when they happen slowly. You may first pick up on small differences after taking your headphones off or while talking with someone later.

A few signs to watch for include:

• • Ringing or buzzing after a listening session.
  • Sounds seeming muffled when you remove your headphones.
  • Turning the volume higher than you used to.
  • Having a harder time following conversation with other noise around.
  • Missing certain voices or higher-pitched sounds.
  • Asking people to repeat themselves more often.

Reasons Teens and Children Face Higher Risks When Using Headphones

They may also have trouble judging how long they’ve been listening when several activities happen on the same device. Schoolwork adds more headphone time through online lessons, educational videos and independent assignments.

That time may come on top of music or gaming later in the day. Children also have more years of listening ahead of them, so habits developed early may continue well into adulthood.

Parents can check device volume limits and talk with younger listeners about turning the sound down when they don’t need it as loud.

Why Taking Breaks from Earbuds Matter

Taking your earbuds out for a while gives your ears some time without continuous sound, even when you aren’t listening at a high volume. This becomes more relevant when music, podcasts, calls and videos add up across several hours.

A break cuts down your total listening time for the day without requiring you to stop using earbuds altogether. It also gives the skin inside your ear canals time without ear tips pressing against it.

Heat and moisture can collect around earbuds, especially during workouts or on warm days. Leaving them out for a while lets that moisture dry before you put them back in.

You don’t need to follow a strict schedule or set a timer for every break. The end of a podcast, album or workout can be an easy point to take your earbuds out for a bit.

How Noise-Canceling Headphones Can Reduce the Need for Higher Volume

Think about what usually happens when you put on headphones somewhere noisy. You turn the volume up until the music or podcast is easier to hear over everything around you.

Noise-canceling changes that by reducing some of the outside sound before it reaches your ears.

It works especially well with steady noise, like an airplane engine or the hum inside a busy building. With less noise competing for your attention, you may be comfortable listening at a lower setting.

How to Set Safe Volume Limits on Phones and Music Players

Most phones and music players have settings that let you limit how loud headphones can get. The 60/60 rule is another simple guide: listen at no more than 60% volume for about 60 minutes before taking a break.

You can also:

• • Set a maximum headphone volume in your phone’s sound settings.
  • Turn on headphone exposure or loud-volume notifications when available.
  • Check your recent headphone audio levels to see how loud you’ve been listening.
  • Lower the volume before putting your headphones or earbuds on.
  • Use parental controls to set volume restrictions on a child’s device.
  • Recheck these settings after software updates or when switching devices.

When to Reach Out to an Audiologist About Headphone Usage

A hearing test can check whether any frequencies have changed and give you a baseline for future comparison.

You can also ask about the volume levels you usually use, how long you listen and whether your current routine makes sense for your ears. If you use headphones every day for work, school or exercise, that conversation can be useful even when you aren’t noticing a major problem.

Protecting Your Hearing While Enjoying Headphones and Earbuds

Your phone may already be tracking more of your listening than you realize. Both iPhones and Android devices can show headphone volume and listening time.

Checking those numbers gives you a look at what your listening actually adds up to across the day. From there, you might turn the volume down a little or use noise-canceling instead of raising it around background noise.

You may also realize that a podcast or playlist has kept your headphones on much longer than you thought. You can still enjoy the audio that’s part of your day while being more aware of how you listen.

A hearing test gives you a record of where your hearing stands now. That gives your audiologist something to compare with future results if your hearing changes later.

Hear All Hearing Center can talk with you about safe listening levels when wearing earbuds. Call our Dayton location at 937-502-4241 or our Mason location at 513-342-0949 to make an appointment.