If you wear headphones or earbuds overnight often because you are listening to your favorite soothing music that will help you fall asleep, you may find that your ears are irritated and itchy. The same applies to earplugs. However, you may need to wear them if you have a snoring spouse in your bed. The problem is that if you are keeping something in your ears for a prolonged time, then you will end up with a lot of wax build-up.
Sure, you can always flush out excess wax from your ears if they begin to become too uncomfortable. However, you may not be able to prevent an infection from happening even if you do that.
Therefore, the one important reason you want to limit your use of wearing earphones or earbuds (or earplugs) is that it does not allow your ears to breathe. If your ears cannot breathe, then the wax build-up in them will harbor bacteria which increases the chances of you developing an infection. Ear infections are painful at best and can be potentially fatal at worst if the infection leads to your brain. Now you know what the consequences can be if you leave anything in your ears for prolonged periods. Let’s talk about what happens to your ears when you keep anything inside of them.
What Happens To Your Ears When You Leave Anything Inside For A Long Time Such As Earphones?
If you leave anything in your ears for prolonged periods, then that disrupts the self-cleaning balance of your ears in addition to removing earwax. Earwax is important for your ears to develop and it is just as important for your ears to purge once there is enough of it. The purpose of this earwax is to keep your skin moist and the production of it is by the sweat and sebaceous glands. Not only does it help keep the area moist, but it also traps bacteria, debris, dead skin cells, and dust.
Once there is enough earwax produced and there is enough of it that has done its job by trapping those particles and bacteria, then it moves outwards the outer ear which is how your ears purge it. Because the last thing you want is that old earwax that has plenty of bacteria and other particles in it to stay in your ears for prolonged periods. When you have something inside of your ears for prolonged periods, then that will block the progression of your ears purging the wax which keeps the old wax inside of your ear canal.
That is where the problem arises when it comes to keeping earphones or anything else in your ears for prolonged periods. There is another problem when it comes to keeping anything in your ears for prolonged periods and that is by blocking the airflow.
Leaving Anything In Your Ears For Prolonged Periods Will Disrupt The Airflow
If anything is blocking the ear canal, then you will know that no air can get into it either which will prevent the earwax which being wet from drying and crumbling. Therefore, that alone causes your ears to be more likely to develop infections because of that too. Does this mean never using earphones? Not at all. You can use them but you will want to clean your ears well by flushing out the wax if you use them for more than five or six hours. The same goes for using earplugs if you sleep with a snoring spouse. If you are able to keep your ears clean and flush the wax out, then you will be okay, but ensure you allow your ears to breathe for the rest of the day.
