Why noise cancelling headphones hurt ears

You might even liken the sensation to airplane ear or ear barotrauma, which you might have experienced when traveling by air. However, atmospheric density is not responsible for causing painful sensations. Ear barotrauma occurs when the air pressure in your environment is different from the air pressure in your middle ear.

When you are at a high altitude for example, inside an ascending airplane , your middle ear wants to release air. However, when you are closer to gravity, your ears need more air. Headaches and ear pain are not the only factors telling the brain about changes in atmospheric pressure. Ear vibrations are also good indicators. When you are inside an ascending airplane, and the air density in your middle ear is higher than the air pressure outside, the ear does not vibrate much, which leads to reduced low-frequency hearing.

As a result, the brain perceives decreased low-frequency hearing as a sign of changes in atmospheric pressure. As we discussed above, noise-canceling headphones are designed to cancel out low-frequency sound waves. When that happens, the brain automatically assumes that there is a change in air pressure and produces the sensation of pressure or pain. However, since your headphones are purposefully eliminating low-frequency sound waves, popping your ears will not provide relief. Atmospheric pressure also called air pressure and barometric pressure is the force extended on a surface by its atmosphere.

Gravity from our Earth is constantly pulling atmosphere down, so the air in low altitude climates the bottom of the ocean is denser than high altitude climates a mountaintop or an airplane in flight. It also looks at how much your middle ear vibrates. When you first go up in an airplane, your ear has more air density than your environment. This lack of vibration results in decreased low-frequency hearing, so your brain tends to operate under the assumption that a loss in low-frequency hearing indicates a change in atmospheric pressure.

This is also the reason why you can hear better in a plane after popping your ears. Remember how ANC headphones aim to cancel out low-frequency ambient noises, like the sound of an engine? Sometimes, this can trick your brain into perceiving a change in air pressure. This is because your ears are still exposed to external noises. In fact, noise cancelling headphones could be beneficial for your ears as they block ambient noises, thus reducing the need to listen to music at high volumes.

They can also be great for focusing or if you work in super noisy environments such as construction sites or night bars where music is pumping loud for hours during the night. Isolating headphones would work better in that case though. Now that you know noise cancelling headphones are not bad for your ears, you can start looking into other ways to protect them.

But they also reduce external sounds, allowing you to enjoy music at lower volumes or simply be relaxed without hurting your ears over time.