The music you love could end up making you deaf. More specifically, the way you listen to the music you love could be making you deaf faster.

The problem is headphones. In the past, we played music out into the air. Then earmuff-style headphones were invented, and we were able to play music much closer to our ears. Now we have earbuds, and people are starting to get worried. Many doctors think earbuds are worse than older headphones because they play music directly into the ears. Also, earbuds are not as good at blocking outside noise, so people who use them may turn the volume up to dangerous levels.

What's a dangerous noise level? Well, it depends on how long you're going to listen to the noise. This is the next problem. Very, very loud sounds can be dangerous to your hearing even if you only listen to them for a few minutes. But the scary truth is that even normal seeming noise can be dangerous if you listen to it all the time. People, especially young people, wear headphones all day long nowadays. Even if your music isn't blasting, listening to it for many hours this way can damage your hearing.

Noise-induced hearing loss—the kind that headphones cause—happens when tiny hairs in your ear canal become overstressed and die. Guess what? Playing loud music only millimeters away from these tiny hairs can stress them out! And once these hairs die, they may not come back. Hearing loss is usually permanent.

Think for a minute about how long you spend listening to headphones and other loud noises every day. Then, do some research. There are resources online to tell you what volumes are safe and for how long. Don't take your hearing for granted.

你喜歡聽的音樂最後可能會使你耳聾。講得清楚一點的話，就是你享受喜愛音樂的方式可能會使你更快耳聾。

問題出在耳機。過去我們習慣把音樂放出來聽，但是像耳罩一樣的頭戴式耳機被發明了，因此我們就可以讓音樂更接近耳朵。現在我們有耳道式耳機，而這開始讓人憂心。很多醫師認為耳道式耳機比以前的頭戴式耳機更糟，因為音樂會直接進入耳朵。此外，耳道式耳機無法完全隔絕外界聲音，所以我們會把聲音調高到危險的音量。

什麼是危險的噪音等級呢？這個嘛，和你聽音樂時間的長短有關，這就是下一個問題。即使你只聽幾分鐘，非常大的聲音也會危及你的聽力。但可怕的事實是，如果你無時無刻都在聽，那麼就連一般的音量也可能很危險。一般人，尤其是年輕的一輩，現在總是成天戴著耳機，僅管你的音樂並不是震耳欲聾，一直這樣聽上好幾個小時也可能對聽力造成危害。

耳機造成的噪音性耳聾之所以會發生，就是因為外耳道中的纖毛承受過度的壓力而死亡。你知道嗎？在離纖毛僅幾公釐處播放嘈雜的音樂都會造成壓力。一旦這些纖毛死亡，就可能再也長不回來，聽力喪失通常都是永久性的。

花個一分鐘想一下，你戴著耳機聽音樂和身處其他噪音環境的時間有多長，然後上網搜尋一下。網路上的資料會告訴你收聽音量多大、時間多久才安全，不要將你的聽力視為理所當然。