Earplugs, or a change in style or brand if you already use them
Do you know anything about long term effects of nightly earplug use on your ears?
I heard once one a unreliable source that it might be unhealthy to rely on them for long periods of time. I wouldn't trust the source but hearing it is enough for me to want to know whether someone else looked into the long term issues of using them.
http://www.fitsugar.com/Can-Prolonged-Earplug-Use-Cause-Damage-Ears-8872394 would be a website I found with quick googling that explains some of the concerns.
I do wear Earplugs when I'm at loud Salsa clubs where I expect the soudn would damage my ears if I would expose them to it. I brought expensive ones for 200€ that just downregulated the loudness overall but that keep relative difference the same which means that you can still hear all the details in the music.
I'd be interested in seeing some reliable evidence about this.
I sleep fairly poorly, and consequently I've used earplugs nearly every night for 5+ years now. I do have bad tinnitus (it is congenital), but it has not become worse from this. I have not had any ear infections in this period. I've had my hearing checked twice over the past 5 years, and it is stable at all frequencies.
It's worth noting that most earplugs will fall out after an hour or so, or at least the ones I've been using will. I buy a ton of cheap foam ones and rotate them periodically.
The ...
(Cross-posted from my personal site.)
Several months ago I began a list of "things to try," which I share at the bottom of this post. It suggests many mundane, trivial-to-medium-cost changes to lifestyle and routine. Now that I've spent some time with most of them and pursued at least as many more personal items in the same spirit, I'll suggest you do something similar. Why?
I removed the terribly personal items from my list, but what remains is still somewhat tailored to my own situation and habits. These are not recommendations; they are just things that struck me as having enough potential value to try for a week or two. The list isn't not remotely comprehensive, even as far as mundane self-experiments are concerned, but it's left as an exercise to the reader to find and fill the gaps. Take this list as an example or as a starting point, and brainstorm ideas of your own in the comments. The usual recommendation applies against going overboard in domains where you're currently impulsive or unreflective.
Related posts: Boring Advice Repository, Break your habits: Be more empirical, On saying the obvious, Value of Information: Four Examples, Spend money on ergonomics, Go try things, Don't fear failure, Just try it: Quantity trumps quality, No, seriously, just try it, etc.
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