How Loud Is Too Loud for Your Ears?

Noise damages hearing by dose: how loud it is and for how long. A level that’s harmless for an hour can damage your hearing over a working week. The usual rules are 85 dBA for 8 hours at work, and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 80 dB for 40 hours a week for personal listening, with the safe time halving for every 3 dB louder. Noise-induced hearing loss is permanent but preventable.

This article is general information, not medical advice.

Decibels and Doses

Sound level is measured in decibels (dB), usually A-weighted (dBA) to match how the ear hears. The scale is logarithmic: every 3 dB more is twice the sound energy. So if 85 dBA is safe for 8 hours, 88 dBA is safe for 4 hours, 91 dBA for 2, and 100 dBA for about 15 minutes.

The Limits

• At work. The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends exposure of no more than 85 dBA averaged over 8 hours, with the safe time halving for each 3 dB above it.
• Personal listening. The WHO and the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) standard for safe listening devices sets a weekly “sound allowance” of 80 dB for 40 hours a week for adults, and 75 dB for 40 hours a week for children. Listening at 89 dB, a loud volume on many headphones, uses up that allowance in about 5 hours.
• Venues. The WHO’s global standard for safe listening venues and events recommends that a venue’s average sound level not exceed 100 dB over any 15 minutes.

Signs You’ve Had Too Much

Ringing in the ears (tinnitus) or muffled hearing after loud noise is a sign of temporary damage. Repeated, it can become permanent. Hearing loss from noise usually starts at high pitches, so you may not notice it until it’s advanced; see What Does a Dip at 4,000 Hz on Your Audiogram Mean?

Protecting Your Hearing

• Turn headphones down, to a level where you can still hear someone speaking near you, and use noise-cancelling headphones in noisy places so you don’t turn the volume up to drown the noise out.
• Take breaks from loud places, and keep away from speakers.
• Wear earplugs at concerts and when using loud tools.

Following It in Kaizora

Kaizora keeps three sound metrics apart: Environmental Sound Level, the sound around you as a watch or phone measured it; Headphone Sound Level, what reached your ears through headphones; and Environmental Sound Level (Air Quality Monitor), the sound level an air quality monitor measured where you were. Apple Health’s export brings in the first two. On their charts, the daily maximum shows your loudest stretches, and a reference range at 80 dB flags days with loud exposure. Kaizora averages each chart’s bucket of decibel readings simply; averaging by sound energy (LAeq) and a weekly noise dose are planned.

The Short Version

• Safe listening is a dose: loudness and time together.
• 85 dBA for 8 hours at work, or 80 dB for 40 hours a week for personal listening.
• Every 3 dB louder halves the safe time.
• Ringing or muffled hearing after noise is a warning sign.

Sources

• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Noise Exposure (1998).
• World Health Organization and International Telecommunication Union, Safe listening devices and systems: a WHO-ITU standard (2019).
• World Health Organization, WHO global standard for safe listening venues and events (2022).