While listening to music is a pleasure for many, you should not overuse it to protect your hearing. This is the time not to be exceeded.
In the car, on public transport, at the gym, at home, music is part of the daily life of many French people. According to a Ipsos study for the National Music Centercarried out on 4,035 people in May 2023, the French listen to music on average 2 hours 11 minutes per day, 78% of them exceed one hour per day and 25% enjoy it for more than three hours daily.
If listening to music has many benefits, such as its relaxing abilities, you must pay attention to certain parameters when listening to avoid damaging your hearing. Listening to music too loudly and for too long is not without risk. The damage to your ears can even be significant. Warning signs include ringing in the ears and difficulty holding a conversation at a distance of one meter. Listening for too long and at relatively high volume can lead to tinnitus or slight hearing loss, and beyond a certain level, there is a significant risk of long-term hearing damage.
There are actually three factors to take into account: the volume and proximity of the sound, as well as the listening time. For noise level, the risk starts from 80 decibels (dB). L’WHO ensures that you can still safely listen to up to 40 hours of music per week, or approximately 5.5 hours per day, of music at this intensity. From 85 dB, you have to be more careful: this drops to 12.5 hours per week, or less than two hours per day. For 90 dB, the proven dangerous threshold, 4 hours per week maximum are still recommended, at 95 dB, it’s 1 hour 15 minutes and 100 dB is equivalent to 20 minutes of risk-free listening. Above 120 dB, the damage can be irreversible within a few minutes.
Exceeding these recommendations may therefore pose a risk to hearing. However, the volume of personal audio devices can vary between 75 and 136 dB, except for the headphones directly supplied with the associated devices which are limited to 100 dB. For the volume of music in earphones or headsets, the WHO advises staying at a maximum of 60% of the sound level possible with the device. Some also include options to limit decibels.
Taking breaks when listening is also important to limit the risks; it is recommended to take 15 minutes every 45 minutes. It is also recommended to alternate the listening modes by switching for example from headphones, to the speaker, to the radio… This also allows you to not always have the music directly in your ears and to sometimes listen at distance.