In recent days, NENU has launched online teaching for the needs of epidemic prevention and control. For the efficiency of their own learning and to create a good learning environment for others, most of the students choose to use headphones to have online courses. So do you know how to protect your hearing health during such frequent use of headphones?
Have a regular schedule: During the epidemic, many students changed their routine schedule. For example, they stayed up later at night. Many people found that their ears began to ring inside, which is called tinnitus. So far, the cause and pathogenesis of tinnitus is not particularly clear, but it is clearer that lack of sleep or emotional stress can lead to tinnitus. If tinnitus occurs, we must adjust our work and rest time as soon as possible to avoid staying up too late, because sleep deprivation may affect the microcirculation of the inner ear, resulting in tinnitus and even hearing loss.
Don’t clean the auditory meatus frequently: There is cerumen in the ear of normal people. The cerumen is very beneficial for normal people because it has a bactericidal effect and can protect the skin of the external auditory meatus. If you clear it frequently, it will damage the skin of the external auditory meatus, causing inflammationand fungal infection. Therefore, try not to clean the auditory meatus all the time, especially with unclean instruments or improper force, which is more likely to damage the skin of the external auditory meatus.
Do not wear headphones for a long time: wearing headphones for a long time is harmful to hearing. It should be noted that the use of headphones should follow the “60-60” principle, that is, the use time should not exceed 60 minutes, and the volume of music should not exceed 60% of the total volume. If you wear headphones for a long time, some people will experience tinnitus, earache or even ear congestion, and even some will have different degrees of hearing loss and other problems.
Do not wear headphones to listen to music while sleeping: If you listen to music during sleep, although the brain is in a resting state, the hair cells that sense the sound are still working. Prolonged sound stimulation will cause hair cells to fall off and die, resulting in hearing loss. Therefore, do not wear headphones and listen to music to fall asleep.
Try not to use earphones in a noisy environment: using earphones in a quiet environment only needs to output 60 decibels for comfortable listening, but in a noisy environment, you need to adjust the output intensity of the earphones to more than 80 decibels to hear clearly. Therefore, using headphones in noisy environment is more likely to damage the inner ear. If the work requires, it is recommended to use noise-cancelling headphones in a noisy environment. These headphones allow listeners to hear clearly at lower volume levels by reducing background noise. Compared with ordinary headphones, the lower volume of the sound reduces the damage to the inner ear and can play a protective role to a certain extent.
Use the standard-agreed earphones: The earphones we choose must be in line with industry standards, and poor-quality earphones may produce extra noise and cause hearing damage. Try to choose over-ear headphones because they are farther from the eardrum and can prevent outside noise from entering the ear, especially in noisy environments, which are safer than in-ear headphones.
During the epidemic prevention and control period, students should take good care, avoid excessive fatigue, adjust the emotions, use headphones scientifically, and protect our hearing at all times.
(From News Center, translated by Wei Jia, revised by Liu Lixin)