About 30 Hours of Flying Coming Up — What Precautions Should I Take with Tinnitus & Hyperacusis?

JohnAdams

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Jul 21, 2018
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Aspirin Toxicity/Possibly Noise
I'm about to take a huge trip which there and back is about 30 hours. I have HF tinnitus and HF hyperacusis.

I have some nice noise cancelling headphones and I can use ear plugs. Is that good enough? What other precautions should I take?

I'll be on an airplane for like 15 hours at a time.
 
I have some nice noise cancelling headphones and I can use ear plugs. Is that good enough?
In my experience, that should be good enough.

You might want to make sure that your seat is towards the front of the plane, and away from the windows.
I'll be on an airplane for like 15 hours at a time.
Don't worry about it.

If it is an Airbus plane, you will be surprised how quiet it is. Even if it is a Boeing plane, you ought to be ok, as long as you have earplugs underneath your noise cancelling headphones (as some people get T after wearing noise cancelling headphones (with no earplugs underneath) for a long time). Don't forget to have plenty of spare batteries for your noise cancelling headphones.

Enjoy your trip!!
 
I'm about to take a huge trip which there and back is about 30 hours. I have HF tinnitus and HF hyperacusis.

I have some nice noise cancelling headphones and I can use ear plugs. Is that good enough? What other precautions should I take?

I'll be on an airplane for like 15 hours at a time.

Where you going?

To tag onto what Bill said I think you should look into some Passive noise canceling headphone because noise canceling headphones play tones to block out noise. Passive noise canceling looks like ear muffs but also act as headphones.
 
Passive noise canceling headphone because noise canceling headphones play tones to block out noise
The tones are designed to cancel out the incoming sounds. As a result, the user doesn't hear any tones. Bose noise cancelling headphones (and probably most other active noise cancelling headphones) are tailor-made to cancel out the hum of the airplane (and a car on a highway). I recommend active noise cancelling (worn over earplugs), because they work so well for aircraft noise. I am also concerned about those headphones doing damage, but I figure that one ought to be safe if one wears them over earplugs.
 
A pair of Peltors?
I would bring that, in case the noise cancelling headphones stop working. It would not be easy (although not impossible) to wear Peltor muffs for 15 hours straight. They are not nearly as comfortable as the noise cancelling headphones.
 
The tones are designed to cancel out the incoming sounds. As a result, the user doesn't hear any tones.

But the sound waves (initial ones + cancelling ones) are still here and hit the ear don't they? I thought it worked this way:

images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQzKsabWrs2PmufjeTySdToNWoOeInVBCRnznkIvhmvJXIJ0wR1.jpg
 
I would bring that, in case the noise cancelling headphones stop working. It would not be easy (although not impossible) to wear Peltor muffs for 15 hours straight. They are not nearly as comfortable as the noise cancelling headphones.

I think they're quite comfy.
 

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But the sound waves (initial ones + cancelling ones) are still here and hit the ear don't they? I thought it worked this way:

View attachment 24921
This is indeed how it works. The point is that the new wave on the right (the viewer's right) of the image is a straight/flat line. In other words, right now what you see on the right of the image are two waves. When they add up, the high of the green wave cancels out the low of the yellow wave. A flat wave, ought to be equivalent to the absence of a wave.
 
I think they're quite comfy.
Those are X4A, and in my experience they are less comfortable than X5A (that I was talking about). Basically, they are fine/comfy for the first hour or two. I wore them for longer than two hours, on multiple occasions. Eventually you begin feeling like your head is in a vice. Of course, I would prefer spending 10 hours feeling like my head is in a vice to a T spike lasting months, so I am not complaining.
 
Definitely sit towards the front of the plane if you can... I usually wear EarPlanes but even with them the plane is still really loud, so you'd want to combine them with some powerful earmuffs/noise canceling headphones.

You're going to South Korea right? That sounds about 15 hours away.
 
Those are X4A, and in my experience they are less comfortable than X5A (that I was talking about). Basically, they are fine/comfy for the first hour or two. I wore them for longer than two hours, on multiple occasions. Eventually you begin feeling like your head is in a vice. Of course, I would prefer spending 10 hours feeling like my head is in a vice to a T spike lasting months, so I am not complaining.

Ah. I just bought those because they were the most expensive and most comfortable available at Bunnings. They didn't have an X5A.
 
Ah. I just bought those because they were the most expensive and most comfortable available at Bunnings. They didn't have an X5A.
It sounds like you haven't seen X5A. I have both - X5A are literally Twice as wide as X4A. X4A are great when you have to be out in public. I have worn X5A in public, with no problems, but it certainly doesn't feel good. I remember wearing them as I was exiting a supermarket (I didn't want to be near the place where people return their metal carts without protection - it gets noisy there) on Halloween last year. A small child became wide-eyed and couldn't stop looking at me (and my X5A). It was hilarious how she was not interested in all of the people around us who had been wearing silly Halloween costumes.
 
It sounds like you haven't seen X5A. I have both - X5A are literally Twice as wide as X4A. X4A are great when you have to be out in public. I have worn X5A in public, with no problems, but it certainly doesn't feel good. I remember wearing them as I was exiting a supermarket (I didn't want to be near the place where people return their metal carts without protection - it gets noisy there) on Halloween last year. A small child became wide-eyed and couldn't stop looking at me (and my X5A). It was hilarious how she was not interested in all of the people around us who had been wearing silly Halloween costumes.

Most people would probably just think you're a hipster wearing chunky 1970s headphones. Like the ones Dr Jacoby wore in Twin Peaks while he was listening to his Laura Palmer psyche session tapes.
TwinPeaksS1Ep1d-640x480.jpg
 
Why not some 3m peltor tactical muffs? All of the protection of peltors, with the ability to listen to music, sounds, or voice if you want. When the battery dies, they just become standard peltors.
 
Where would you go if you were me?

Personally I would take a trip to a weird South Korean strip mall to have my ears injected with an unidentifiable cocktail of god only knows what by a little Asian man whose medical credentials are nearly as dubious as Michael Leigh's tinnitus expertise......But thats just me.
 
Personally I would take a trip to a weird South Korean strip mall to have my ears injected with an unidentifiable cocktail of god only knows what by a little Asian man whose medical credentials are nearly as dubious as Michael Leigh's tinnitus expertise......But thats just me.
Why?
 
Personally I would take a trip to a weird South Korean strip mall to have my ears injected with an unidentifiable cocktail of god only knows what by a little Asian man whose medical credentials are nearly as dubious as Michael Leigh's tinnitus expertise......But thats just me.

I would be lying if I didn't laugh out loud.
 



John please watch, I only care about your safety and want to challenge your judgement.
 

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