How to use headphones correctly

How to use headphones right?

It may sound like a funny question because every one of us knows how to use headphones. But, the question is “are we using the headphones right?”

Scientists investigated the effects of different types of headphones on human health. They studied three types of headphones.

1. Earbuds
2. Sound-Isolating Headphones
3. Over the ear headphones.

According to the CBS report, the first scientific research on headphones and hearing loss has been conducted by audiology doctoral candidate, Cory Portnuff.  Cory’s and his team’s major goal was to test how long people can safely listen to music on iPods and other similar devices using headphones.

The core finding of the research suggests that people should limit their headphone usage depending on the volume.

Here are the guidelines on how to use headphones:

1. If you are listening to music between 10 to 50 percent of the total volume, you are fine. You can listen as much as you want. If you do not know which volume is between 10 and 50 percent, simply look at your volume bar and set it right in the middle or below.
2. If you are listening to music at 70 percent volume, you have to limit your listening time to 3.4 hours a day ( sound-isolating headphones), 6 hours a day (earbud) and 4.6 hours a day (stock earphones)
3. If you like to listen to music in full blast or even 80 percent level, you need to follow this guideline to prevent the hearing loss:

 

• If you are using earbuds, you should limit your listening time to 1.5 hours a day.
• You should listen only 50 minutes a day with sound –isolating headphones
• If you are using over the ear headphones, you should listen 5 hours a day.

Here is the complete table that shows how to use headphones in each volume level.

 

It is very important to take preventative measures before losing your hearing according to the researchers. Portnuff and his colleagues wrote: “hearing loss occurs slowly and is often not noticed until it is quite extensive, so early prevention is the key.”

Another research was conducted by Brian Fligor of Harvard Medical School. According to his research, people are most likely to listen to music in risky volume in the noisy environment. Therefore it is not recommended to listen to music whenever you are in a noisy environment. For instance, if you are listening to music in a metro, a roar of the trains in conjunction with the music at full volume create a strong burden on the eardrums and auditory nerves. If this pressure is a daily, a person runs the risk of deafness, according to some scientists.

A recent report by World Health Organization suggests that 1.1 billion are at risk of hearing loss.

Keep your volume down when you are listening to music, so you can hear every beautiful music forever. That is our suggestion. Do not forget to share with your close ones!