AFAIK there is some inflammation potential if earplugs are used all night everyday.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/advice-wearing-ea...
AFAIK there is some inflammation potential if earplugs are used all night everyday.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/advice-wearing-ea...
Trash night (early morning) is once a week in my area. You can use the ear plugs strategically.
I've been using them for decades without issue, FWIW.
You are either a scientific anomaly or a single data point. Or both.
Well, then I am another anomaly and data point. I'm using ear plugs for 30 years at least 95% of nights. Never ever had an ear infection.
I am also a scientific anomaly. Seems there are a lot of us!
Me too, 20 years without a single ear infection and without a single day without ear plugs
I have found it depends on how comfortable the earplugs are. If I feel they are uncomfortable in the ear, there is a good chance I'll get an infection/inflammation in the next few days.
ime finding the right earplugs is the key. there are lots of options a of diameter, density and material to try out. getting the right one made a big difference for me
Foam: cheap, scratchy, ineffective. This one will give you abrasions sometimes.
Silicone: expensive, effective, fussy.
Wax: cheap, effective, disposable. (Needs warming up, slight drawback.)
I have like 20 brands of foam earplugs in my drawer, 5 different pairs of custom silicone airplugs, unusual earplugs from Kickstarter like [1], and so on. What I'm saying is I know my way around the earplug block. Here's what I'd write for your categories:
Foam: The most effective, by far. I suspect many people wear them incorrectly and do not insert them far enough. You can use lube (they make special ear lube for stuff like hearing aids, although I think anything medical grade will do) if you have difficulty doing so. I have unusually small ear canals; the most comfortable and best I've found by a mile are Mack's Ultra Soft Foam Earplugs. These are much more comfortable than slim fit alternatives and also have very high attenuation.
Silicone: expensive (but they're reusable and last years), but the least fussy once you get them. They are moulded to your goddamn ear---it's a perfect, pressure-free fit every time and they go right in. Drawbacks include lesser attenuation and attenuation that isn't immediately at 100%---it takes a while for it to "seal". I abadoned these once moisture started to accumulate between my ear canal and the plug and I'd hear it as I moved and it became very annoying.
Wax: joke attenuations compared to foam, and bad compared to silicone. The most expensive long-term unless you're serious about reuse. Somewhat fussy and may fall out. Very comfortable (little insertion).
Foam + wax: this is what you really want if you care about maximum attenuation. My ear canals are slightly too short to comfortably insert an entire Mack's earplug, so I snip the ends off mine, lube them up, and insert them completely flush into my ear canal. Then, I take a wax plug and mould it on top. It's perfectly comfortable and it performs better than any other option I'm aware of. I tend to also wear a Bluetooth sleep mask and play rain sounds on 100% volume and it just comes through the double earplug situation to mask any very loud/spurious noise. To remove the flush-inserted earplugs, I use a pair of blunt tweezers.
When I used slim fit foam earplugs I'd routinely get ear infections. Switching to silicone fixed that, but suffered from the aforementioned issues. With the ultra soft earplugs + wax method I never get ear infections. I make sure to always insert a fresh pair (but I reuse the wax ones for a few days) and to always do so with clean hands. I think the infections are due to friction between the plug and the canal during insertion as well as plugs that are too large/exert too much pressure once expanded---the lube and very soft plug addresses those issues.
[1] https://paxauris.com/
Oh well lube would make a huge difference, it's true. Some places require me to wear foam ones for health and safety reasons, and I always put water on them, for softness and a good seal. By calling the silicone ones fussy I just meant that they need washing, really (I am lazy). I buy big boxes of wax ones, they cost approximately nothing and come with a little storage container, and then I throw the current pair away after a week or two, mainly because they start to look gross (I suspect bacteria don't actually find paraffin wax hospitable).
I have the same experience with foam being best at noise blocking. The brand makes a big difference. 3M ear plugs are terrible. Best brand is Oropax.
Foam are indeed the best, but there's a lot of variation in sound blocking quality and ear comfort. Experimentation is needed to find what works for you.
White noise also helps without the need for ear plugs. Depends how loud the disturbances are.
> they make special ear lube
huh, potentially a game-changer. Thank you!
That's bad, because I suffer from pulse-synchronous tinnitus and they help. Can't find a cause though, on some days it's gone completely.
yeah my wife has some custom made silicon ones. She frequently gets external otitis from wearing them too many nights in a row.
I guess it depends on the person because I've been wearing them every night for years with no side effects. I use those laser lite ones and use a new pair every night (they're very cheap).
The only downside is you get used to the quiet and it means when I don't sleep with them I get a worse night sleep than I used to. (But I still get a better night sleep with them than when I didn't use them.)