Listening to the music can be relaxing, it can reduce our daily stress and make us enjoy our activities. Some people are listening to the classics, the others may listen to the RnB, rock n roll, pop, hard rock, and many more. But the kind of music never bring bad effect on our ears, the problem is the loudness.
Our ears have limitations of the lowest and the maximum volume they are able to hear. To help you know the bad effects of hearing the loud music, you can pay attention to the average loudness of sound we may hear everyday (it is in decibel levels) .
- The lowest sound is 20 dB.
- The normal loudness when we are talking is 40 dB to 60 dB.
- Maximum volume of headphone is 105 dB.
- The music at night club is 110 dB.
- The noise of city streets are 70 dB.
- The music in a rock concert is 110 dB to 120 dB, but if you are right in front of the speakers, the sound may up to 140 dB.
So what is the connection with hurting your ears?
The professionals agree that a sound at 85 dB or more can damage hearing and any level above 90 dB can lead to a long-term damage. So hearing to the music at a night club, a rock concert and others have a high risk of hearing problem.
Why and how does it happen?
It is related to the hearing process. Our ears have tinny hair cells inside, which function is to transmit every sound around us in the form of electric signals to the brain. Then our brain recognizes it as a sound.
While you are hearing the loud music, those hair cells get flattened. It is true that those hair cells are possible to spring back to their normal place, but if the damage happens for a long time, there is also a possibility for those hair cell to snap. The worst possibility is that those hairs do not grow anymore and cause permanent damage.
What happen if you hurt your ears?
Tinnitus
Your ears may hear some sounds that the other people do not hear , such as : ringing, chirping, clicking, screeching, static, roaring, pulsing or buzzing. The other symptom of tinnitus is your ears feel full. If you do not stop to damage your ears by hearing such a loud music over and over, the tinnitus will never stop.
A temporary or short-term hearing loss
This kind of hearing problem is as the result of hearing loud music for some duration. The function of your hearing cannot be as normal as usual. It will be gone after you sleep, but if you hear the loud music again, the hearing problem also will occur again.
A permanent hearing loss
This kind of hearing problem is as the result of hearing loud music regularly, for example you hear it every day or even worse is every time. The function of your hearing cannot be as normal as usual and it lasts forever. You may lose all of your ability to hear, or you can still hear something but the quality will never be the same as when your ears was in normal condition, or you may have tinnitus for all of the time.
What to do to prevent you hurt your ears?
- Do not damage your ear by listening to the non-stop music at a loud volume. Let your hair cells have time to recover. if your occupations make you have to work with the loud music around, try to have at least 10 minutes in a quiet or silent situation or use the high quality earplugs. If you are in a rock concert or a night club, closing your ears with hands or wipes almost same as do nothing with the loud music.
- Control your music volume. The best way to avoid the hurt on your ears because of the loud music is by setting the volume to the safe level. Especially if you are the one who listen to the music with headphones, if your gadget or iPod maximum volume is 100%, so the loudest volume you are recommended to hear is about 80% or less.