Using earphones for THIS long can lead to hearing loss

Whether it is commuting to work or sweating it out in the gym, music makes everything bearable, if not better. As a result, earphones have become an inevitable part of our life and most of us spend a considerable chunk of our day with music blasting in our ears.
Regardless of how enjoyable they make even the most mundane tasks, have you ever paused to wonder about the repercussions of having earbuds stuffed so near your eardrums? Probably not.Listening to music on earphones at high volume can result in partial to complete hearing loss.
So, if you are someone who cannot spend a day without his/her earphones, you may be subjecting your ears to severe risks. Some of them are:
1.Pain in the ears
2.Irritation in the ears
3.Ear infections due to dirty or sharing of earphones
4.Complete or partial hearing loss
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the increase in usage of earphones and headphones has resulted in the prevalence of hearing loss in young adults.
Here is how you can safeguard your ears without giving up on listening to music via earphones altogether.
What should be the volume?
According to the experts, you should keep the volume between 60 and 85 decibels. The volume level and length of listening are two very important factors in determining the hearing damage. Did you know that if you listen to any sound at around 100 decibels for more than 15 minutes, you might be putting yourself at the risk of hearing loss?
Being very close to the eardrums, earphones can produce very high volumes of sound which causes the eardrums to vibrate. This vibration travels to your inner ear and reaches a fluid-filled chamber inside your ear named as the cochlea. This chamber has thousands of tiny hairs which move when the fluid inside it vibrates.
When your ears are exposed to very high volumes of sound for very long, these tiny hair cells bend or fold, momentary losing their sensitivity.
The louder the sound, the stronger the vibrations and the more these hair cells are forced to move. These cells take time to restore their sensitivity after being exposed to high volumes of sound. Sometimes they never recover, resulting in permanent hearing damage.
What can be done?
First things first, you should never cross 60 per cent of the volume of your device. In fact, to be on the safer side keep the volume below the halfway mark. Also, try and remove your earphones after every 30 minutes.
If you have become habitual of using earphones and you do not realise how much time has passed since you started, start setting reminders on your smartphones. Also, start using headphones over earphones. Earphones are closer to the eardrum, hence they tend to do a bigger damage to your ears when used for a longer duration of time.
Always be on a lookout for signs of hearing loss which includes buzzing or ringing in the ears, difficulty in hearing at low volume and a need to keep the volume up.
Another easy way to keep the sound level at check is to ask someone if they can hear the sound through your earphones while sitting next to you. If they can, it is time to lower down the volume.