Your ears?

My readings have found that this alone can be the cause of ear troubles or magnify the underlying cause. I think the noise blocking headphones are probably better than the physical pressure/contact in the ear but reducing exposure to normal level natural sounds has been shown to bring on a level of hypersensitivity.

Of course, we’re all different but when I go to a gathering of more than 10 people, 30+ is worse in a room with poor acoustics it hurts my ears. I can hear and understand people just fine but the pressure seems to build up and I burn energy trying to counter it. I find myself very tired after longer social events.

I’ve spent the past 10 days without ear plugs and I’ve had a few ups and downs but am sleeping well with my better half sleeping in another room while I adjust.

Pink noise or a babbling brook or rainstorm playing at very low dB near me while I sleep seems to help significantly.

And during the day listening to hifi does too, thankfully.

http://onlinetonegenerator.com/noise.html


Some say all pink noise isn’t the same, I would agree, use to taste.

Thank you!

I did not know about this and appreciate the opportunity to learn. I’ll do some digging on the topic.

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So speaking of earplugs, looking back, the reduction in hearing I’m experiencing seems to coincide with when I started wearing earplugs to sleep. I did it because I hear EVERY darn thing and it wakes me up. I’m ditching the earplugs and will have to train myself to sleep with noise. Or perhaps use pink noise as suggested above. I think the earplugs may have blocked normal flow of earwax and created a blockage. Hopefully after a trip to the ENT for a good clean, my hearing will come back.

I hope so, my ears are clear and my hearing ‘tests’ normal with rather good high frequency response for my age. Don’t let it freak you out, lots of things start changing ~40 like the need for reading glasses

I just ordered these to try: https://soundoffsleep.com

I’ll post my impressions once I’ve used them for a week or so

Couple of thoughts on earplugs and noise cancelling HP’s: Earplugs and in-ear 'phones can end up pushing (by pressure or vacuum) excess wax further down into your ear canal, or simply close over the normally tiny hole in the usual amount of wax, which can have the effect of reducing response in one ear or the other.

I personally don’t like noise-cancelling HPs (I realize you specified “blocking”, Elk) as they create sound pressure on your eardrums equivalent to whatever is being cancelled. The pressure is physically uncomfortable to me, and at least as fatiguing as not wearing them (on a plane, for example). I like in-ears for blocking on the plane - sometimes I leave them in even when not listening to music, so they double as earplugs.

Interesting take on the noise cancelling HPs. I have only demo’ed them and found there were highly effective in removing noise, but only tried them for a few seconds. I was wanted to get a pair for when I sit on my lawnmower for 3 hours vs. wearing earplugs as those get tiring and painful after awhile.

I have the same experience with noise canceling headphones. They are amazing at first and then tiring.

I too use in-ear for the reasons you mention, plus the player and in-ears fit in my pocket and are easy to carry on to the plane. Full size headphones are a pain.

I will go further… Bose noise cancelling headphones are torture to me. That phasy sound is awful. To me, it is like listening to old Beatles records “re-processed” for stereo through headphones.

I had two different people offer to give me their Bose noise cancelling headphones… both said something like “They are great, I just don;t use them”. They don;t use them because they are awful.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

Agreed. Bose sound cancelling is very good on its own, but the music playback part is bad.