Your favourite music can rev you up or calm you down - but it’s important to listen to it safely.
Listening to music is lots of fun, but music that’s too loud can hurt your ears and damage your hearing.
You don’t have to be standing right next to speakers at a live concert to put your hearing in danger. You can also hurt your ears by listening to loud music through the headphones of your iPod or MP3 player, whether you use in-ear headphones or ones that sit over your ears.
And you might not realise that your MP3 music is being played too loudly because hearing is something that can be lost a tiny bit at a time and you don’t know you have hurt your ears until the damage has been done.
Here are a couple of good rules to follow when you use your headphones that will protect your hearing and keep it in tip-top condition.
Check the volume control
First, make sure you keep your volume to 80 per cent or less of your player’s full level. If you’re not sure where the 80 per cent mark is on your player, get an adult to show you. This is easiest to work out if your player has 10 volume levels - you make sure you always keep your level to number eight on the volume control, or under number eight.
Watch the time
The next thing to think about is: how long do you listen to your music every day? The longer you listen to loud music, or even to music at that 80 per cent level, the more chance you have of hurting your hearing.
So keep an eye on how much time you spend with headphones on. Once you reach an hour and a half each day - whether that’s all in one go, or in a few bursts - it’s best to put the headphones away and listen to music without them, or find something else to do.
What’s going on around you?
Also pay attention to the noise going on in the background when you have your headphones on. Trying to listen to music while on a train, in a noisy room or on a busy street means people turn up their volume control to hear the music better, and turning up the volume means they might be hurting their hearing.
Try this test
A great way to test if you’re music is too loud for your ears to handle as it comes through your headphones is to make sure you can hear someone talking to you in a normal voice when they are at arm’s length. Do this test with a friend when they have their headphones on and see if they can hear you - you might just help them save their hearing!
Remember, we all need our hearing and it’s very hard for doctors to help you get your hearing back once you’ve lost any of it, so it’s a fabulous idea to protect it.
Reference
Fligor B (2007) Hearing Loss and iPods: What happens when you turn them to 11? Hearing Journal, vol 60, issue 10: 10-16.
Related readings
Pain in the neck
Seven tips for safe cycling
