How Loud and How Long Should You Wear Your Headphones? Experts recommend keeping sound levels at somewhere between 60 and 85 decibels to minimize the damage your ears are exposed to. If you are listening to music at around 100 decibels, restrict your usage to within 15 mins.
Check the volume control
If you find it creeping up to over two-thirds of the volume control or over 60%, then it is too much for your ears. “At 60% volume, you can still very clearly hear your music, and with good quality headphones, you'll be able to vibe along to every beat.
Sounds at or below 70 dB are considered safe for our hearing. That's the sound of a normal conversation between two people. Sounds above 70 dB will damage hearing over time.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend maintaining environmental noises below 70 dBA over 24-hours (75 dBA over 8-hours) to prevent noise-induced hearing loss.
80 decibels is fairly loud. It's equivalent to the noise of a busy downtown street. Being loud, it is a noise level that may harm your hearing if you are exposed to it for longer periods (more than 8-10 hours/day).
How much noise is too much? 85 Decibels (dB) - the "Action Level" where hearing protection is required. 90 dB - the OSHA, 8 hour average exposure limit. 100 dB - exposures longer than 15 minutes are not recommended.
The higher the level of sound and longer the duration, the greater the risk of hearing loss. For example, you can safely listen to a sound level of 80dB for up to 40 hours a week. If the sound level is 90dB, the safe listening time reduces to four hours per week.
Sounds at 85 dBA can lead to hearing loss if you listen to them for more than 8 hours at a time. Sounds over 85 dBa can damage your hearing faster. The safe listening time is cut in half for every 3-dB rise in noise levels over 85 dBA. For example, you can listen to sounds at 85 dBA for up to 8 hours.
Safe listening levels
The WHO's safe listening times are: 85 dB - the level of noise inside a car - eight hours. 90 dB - lawn mower - two hours 30 minutes. 95 dB - an average motorcycle - 47 minutes.
85 decibels is a noise or sound level equivalent to that of a food blender, heavy traffic while you are in the car, a noisy restaurant, or a cinema. As you can see, there are plenty of situations in everyday life when we are exposed to high noise levels.
How Loud and How Long Should You Wear Your Headphones? Experts recommend keeping sound levels at somewhere between 60 and 85 decibels to minimize the damage your ears are exposed to. If you are listening to music at around 100 decibels, restrict your usage to within 15 mins.
At 85 decibels, the maximum recommended exposure time is 8 hours. By 100 decibels, the noise exposure limit drops to 15 minutes, and at 10 decibels more (110 dB), the risk exposure time plummets to just one minute. Exposure to sound levels for longer than that could result in permanent hearing loss.
Average Decibel Level of Human Speech
A whisper is between 20-30 dB. On the other hand, a human scream can reach decibel levels between 80 and 125 dB.
Do noise-cancelling headphones damage your hearing? The short answer to this is no! Some people have reported they hear a low hissing sound, to begin with, but that soon passes and certainly doesn't harm your hearing. However, it is important to remember to keep a check on your volume and make sure it isn't too high.
“As a rule of thumb, you should only use MP3 devices at levels up to 60% of maximum volume for a total of 60 minutes a day,” says Dr. Foy. “The louder the volume, the shorter your duration should be. At maximum volume, you should listen for only about five minutes a day.”
Experts and audiologists suggest keeping the sound levels at somewhere between 60-85dBs to minimize the risk of causing hearing loss by damaging your ears. If you are listening to music that is around 100dBs, restrict your usage to about fifteen minutes.
Normal hearing usually returns within a few hours to a few days. This is because the hair cells, similar to blades of grass, will bend more if the sound is louder. But they will become straight again after a recovery period. However, if loud noise damaged too many of the hair cells, some of them will die.
Sounds at or below 70 A-weighted decibels (dBA), even after long exposure, are unlikely to cause hearing loss. However, long or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 dBA can cause hearing loss.
When you're exposed to overly loud sounds, it can bend the stereocilia. They can remain this way for several days or even weeks, which is why it takes some time to regain your full sense of hearing. The louder the noise and the longer the exposure, the longer it will take to recover.
If you are wearing your AirPods, you should see a meter that indicates how loud your headphones are in dB. Stay in the 60s or 70s for safe listening.
Keeping the volume reasonable—preferably below 80dB (decibels) is essential to prevent hearing damage when using noise-canceling headphones. If you're unsure how loud that is, try keeping the volume no higher than 70% of the maximum headphone volume.
Best Headphones for Noise Reduction
Look for headphones that offer an NRR between 22 and 33. The highest NRR rating is 33, and it's ideal for people who work in extremely loud environments, like shooting ranges.
It's a design flaw that's common in all earbuds. Unlike over-the-ear headphones, earbuds tend to create a seal around the ear canal. This means that there's nowhere for sound to go but directly into the ear. Consider also that any sound over 85 decibels (dB) in volume can damage our hearing, even if briefly exposed.
The average noise volume at a concert or festival is around 100 decibels.
On average, rock concert decibel levels are between 90 and 120 dB. This decibel level is concerning as it can threaten your hearing health. Sounds above 85 dB are considered harmful to human hearing. For this reason, you should treat exposure to such high decibel levels with caution.