Extremely Noisy and Incredibly Loud
How we are causing our own hearing loss
The construction next door to me is still going on, it’s been going on for about 4 months now. They begin every morning at around eight.
There’s also some birds chirping, cars passing by the house, the fridge is running, and the lights are buzzing.
I like to think that I can block these out but the brain has a funny way of letting you know you are terribly wrong about things. By about mid-day I storm out of the house in a rage in search for some quiet.
Much has been said about the benefits of some amount of noise for productivity, but what happens when there’s too much of it?
The noises we hear everyday can be annoying sure, but harmful?
While you may think you are blocking out noise and other sounds, that’s really only your brain playing some tricks on you. Your cardiovascular system and sympathetic nervous system respond to noises and sounds whether you are concisely aware of them or not.
Noise, or unwanted sound, has been shown to raise your heart rate, even while you are asleep. That’s because noise awakens the bodies fight or flight response. This takes you out of your natural sleep cycle, which can cause you to feel more stress and fatigue during the day.
The same responses occur in your body during the day, like when you are stuck in traffic. Studies that looked at individuals physiological responses during traffic showed an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. This kind of repeated exposure can lead to cardiovascular disease.
“For every 10 decibel increase in noise exposure (either at the time of the attack or over the five years preceding it) there was a 12% increased risk.”—European Society of Cardiology
A decibel (dB) is a unit of measurement used to determine the intensity of a sound. Here are some common sounds on the decibel scale to give you some idea:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends that you don’t exceed exposure to sounds over 85 dB for more than 8 hours per day. That’s to safeguard against hearing loss or damage. The louder the sound is, the less time you can spend exposed to it.
How exactly does this hearing loss or damage occur?
Please don’t let someone jackhammer this close to your ear.
Long term exposure can cause a breakdown in the hair cells of the cochlea. This would impair your ability to interrupt the vibrations that are striking your ear drum, you wouldn’t be able to pass along the necessary information to the brain.
It’s also a fairly common to experience ringing in the ears or tinnitus. Even without damaged hair cells, you can still lose some of your auditory capabilities. This happens when the nerve cells that carry the sound waves to your brain are damaged. When this occurs the brain will not be able to translate the electrical impulses into sound.
We’re causing our own hearing loss
I used to crank up my music everyday on the train in order to drown out the sound of other people.
The sound waves your earbuds blast into your eardrum is on par with that of a jet taking off.
The New York Times reports that 12-15% of school-age children already suffer from permanent hearing loss due to everyday noise.
Consider this…
Most public transit systems already operate near the recommended limit of sound exposure of 70-81 dB’s. Any additional sound you add on top of that just puts you further over that threshold.
One study (though there are many out there) found that 9 out of 10 city dwellers were regularly exposed to sound levels that could cause hearing loss or damage (most of it from activities like listening to music).
“I do think it’s a serious problem, there aren’t really any other experiences where we would tolerate having nine out of 10 people exposed at a level we know is hazardous.”—Rick Neitzel (Assistant Professor, University of Michigan)
Okay, it’s not all doom and gloom. Here are three simple things you can do to protect your hearing.
Give your ears a break
You probably know what fatigue in your body feels like and make adjustments through out the day to accommodate these feelings. With your ears, it can be a little more difficult. So, how can you tell when your ears need a break?
- when you feel the need to raise your voice
- when you can’t hear someone 3 feet away from you
- when speech seems muffled or dull
- pain or ringing in your ears
Once exposed to loud noise, the sensitivity of your ears is reduced, this is to protect your auditory system from becoming over-stimulated. The common rule is that if you experience sound in excess of 100 dBs (like at a club) it is recommended that you give your ears at least 16-hours worth of rest. For city-dwellers finding quiet locations can be especially difficult, but it’s really important to find respite from everyday noise (like at a library).
60:60:60 Rule
I understand I run the risk of sounding like everyone’s parents here, but I had no idea how much minuscule changes in volume can impact our hearing. An increase of just 3dB represents a doubling of sound energy.
The 60:60:60 rule tells you to listen to music for 60 minutes at 60% of the max volume. Follow this with taking a break for at least 60 minutes. This gives your auditory system a chance to relax.
If you can’t live without listening to music during the day, try to find some noise-canceling earbuds. When you drown out extraneous noise from your surroundings, you’ll find you don’t need to turn the volume up as much.
Most devices allow you set a limit for volume. The general rule of thumb for volume is that you should still be able to carry on a conversation without raising your voice.
Hearing loss now affects 20% of people ages 12-19, that’s an increase of 5% over the last 15 years. You can absolutely prevent this from happening by just reducing the amount of time you listen to music and by setting volume limits at a safe level.
Earplugs / Earmuffs
Vanity is a small price to pay when it comes to protecting your ears.
Earplugs can reduce the sound levels by as much as 35 dBs. This can go a long way towards protecting your hearing. All earplugs come with a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR). Protective ear equipment is required by law to indicate their NRR. This rating will help you determine the level of sound reeducation that is right for you.
Say you have earplugs that have an NRR of 27, to figure out that actual amount of decibels that would reduce, you have to subtract seven and then divide by two.
27 - 7 / 2 = 10
Your actual noise reduction would be 10 dB, not 27. That’s the difference between hearing a jet fly over your head or a car passing you on the street.
Earplugs and earmuffs can help mitigate some unwanted noise from our environment. Given that my environment consists largely of construction and cars, I don’t think I’ll be missing anything.
I won’t lie, I’ve known about a lot of these rules but have I ever followed them? Rarely,
That being said…
I have very little interest in suffering a heart attack because I listen to old Soundgarden songs too loud. So, I suppose maybe it’s time to finally give some of these tips a try.
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This post originally appeared on the crew blog.
