Traveling by Train — Should I?

Hello friends,

For a while I have been planning on visiting my grandfather in another city. However, I have constantly been delaying it because I would have to travel by train for about 6-7 hours. I am worried that it might aggravate my tinnitus (which I believe has gotten a little better the last week or so).

So my question is; What are your experiences traveling by train with tinnitus? Did it get worse like I'm worried about?

Also, my tinnitus was caused from an acoustic trauma. I was sitting in a car with someone who played way to loud music and I did not have the courage to ask them to turn down the music. (Yes, I feel very stupid about it). I think it has gotten better now, but I am not sure if its because the actual volume has gone down or if I'm more used to it now and less anxious.

I look forward to your answer.

 

@ludvi - I would make the trip, personally. I recommend buying Peltor earmuffs (maybe X5A or X4A) and using those the entire train ride. That should provide you enough comfort for the long trip and enough ear protection where you'll be fine.

I'd also download a decibel measuring app to monitor how loud the train is. It's quite possible that the train isn't as loud as you'd expect and might not need the muffs most of the ride, except for when the train stops/starts.

 

I’ve travelled by train alot since tinnitus started. It is not dangerously loud, why are you worried?

 

@housemzk Thank you for your tips!
I don't think those earmuffs are available in my country, but I will make sure to bring a regular pair!

 

@Sam Bridge I guess I'm just kind of worried over things that I think 'might potentially' make my ears worse. Especially now since I think they are getting better (although some days I am not so sure) and I feel so stupid about them getting hurt in the first place. I kinda want to make sure I do everything I can for them to heal, you know.

 

Are you sure this is not the reason why you still have T?

You are doing the right thing.

If you can't find X5A muffs, could buy Bose 25 noise cancelling headphones. You might also try taking a shorter train ride (15 minutes one-way trip, for a total of 30 minute exposure), to see what impact this has on your body.

Trains tend to use their horn when they pass through towns. You might want to be away from that...

 

@Bill Bauer - Do you know what the NRR is for Bose headphones while powered off?

 

I wore both X5A and Bose 25 in an airplane, and Bose 25 seemed to be as good, and possibly better...

 

I somehow doubt that but thank you for your concern.

 

Keep in mind that Bose noise cancelling headphones will probably not work for sudden noises like fireworks going off, whereas X5A would provide some protection.

 

My tinnitus is fairly mild anyway. Also I have to get a train to work everyday, but it's not loud at all, maybe your trains in the US are different?

 

I read somewhere that subways in New York are incredibly loud. I thought you were saying that the trains are loud, but as long as the noise is quieter than a rock concert, one doesn't have to worry about it. Now I see that you were saying that the trains are actually not that loud. I apologize for this misunderstanding.

 

I want to use the Bose (powered off of course) for the subway ride to and from work only. As we've previously discussed here in the past, the X5A and X4A standout like a sore thumb. But I've been using them everyday for 5 months now and mentally ready to give the Bose a chance again. I'm finding conflicted information on the NRR though. I found anywhere from 15dB to 25dB powered off.

 

When you say "powered off", do you mean they won't be playing music (while still being turned On and cancelling noise), or are you saying that you will be turning them completely off?

 

Completely off, as in the battery is dead. I should have mentioned I have the Bose QC 35 wireless headphones.

 

I don't think they provide any noise reduction when they are completely off. After reading stories here posted by people who suspect their T got worse after wearing NC headphones, I am also uneasy about wearing them while not protecting my ears. What I do is insert earplugs about half a centimeter/one quarter of an inch into my ear canal, and then wear my Bose 25 headphones (that don't play any music, but that have noise cancelling turned on) over that.

 

The reason I hadn't inserted the earplugs all the way is because I had been trying to give my ears a rest from the earplugs. You can always insert them all the way in, and then you will get even more noise reduction, while not having to worry about your headphones hurting you.

 

I tried urbanista headphones powered off + 3M classic earplugs on an airplane trip (silly for the earplugs I know now -- I don't advise you to put earplugs on a plane and sit in the back nor while driving on a hill -- I had some ET issues and ear pressure after those events). The airplane trip was 5 hours and it really changed my T to more low pitched machine like noise. I advise you to make shorter trips first. The Urbanista had 5 dBA /12 dB reduction and 3M 1/4 in ear had 5 dBA /12 dB. I'm talking about completely turned off headphones no music no noise canceling. I use earplugs less frequently now because they gave me recurrent outer ear infections (four outer ear infections since March from the earplugs). Headphones are good for blocking low frequencies and 3M classics are good for blocking high frequencies. Had an occlusion effect while wearing both of them. It's really worth it to try noise cancelling headphones though.

 

The worst of it is the screeching brakes when the train pulls into a station. This is mainly experienced by passengers waiting on the platform, not people in the cars. Inside the cars the main problem is the ridiculously loud tinny sound of the announcements.

 

I don't understand noise cancelling headphones. Isn't it just using one noise to drown out another noise? So twice the noise?

 

No. When you invert the wave of incoming sound and play it at the same time the two sounds cancel each other out. Musicians have been doing this in studios for decades to varying degrees of phase.

 

You are referring to the first panel in the image below. What those headphones do is described in the second panel. What matters is the amplitude of the wave when it hits your eardrum. When the waves cancel each other out, theoretically the resulting wave has almost no amplitude