Life hack is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as: “A strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one’s time and daily activities in a more efficient way.” Life hacks can save you both money and time, and some are so easy you’ll ask yourself why you hadn’t previously thought of them.
Inventive but simple life-hacks include rotating your toaster sideways to make a grilled cheese sandwich, using the sticky region of sticky notes to clean between the keys of a keyboard, and using duct tape to open jars.
Life-hacks can also apply to the body: examples include scratching your ear to alleviate an itch in your throat, lying on your left side to ease acid reflux, and forcing your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth to relieve brain freeze from ice cream.
But what about your hearing? Are there any life-hacks we can use to allow us to hear better or easier? It turns out that there are several—here are our selections for the top 7.
1. Assess your hearing using the internet
You can quickly check for hearing loss with one of the several apps accessible online, or by completing the online hearing test on our website. If the findings suggest hearing loss, you can subsequently book a professional hearing test with your community hearing care provider.
2. Use white noise to sleep better
Research suggests that using white noise can help you sleep better as it helps to establish a bedtime habit, keeps the room quiet, and helps “power down” your busy brain.
3. Use custom earplugs to avoid hearing loss
Extended and recurring exposure to any sound higher than 85 decibels can induce irreversible hearing loss (rock concerts can get to over 100 decibels). Wearing custom earplugs is an easy way to prevent hearing damage, and the most current earplugs can safeguard sound quality while limiting volume. Contact your local hearing care provider for more information.
4. Safeguard your hearing with the inverse square law
This law of physics could save your hearing. The inverse square law states that as you double the distance from the origin of sound the strength of the sound drops by 75 percent. So, in lieu of standing front row at a rock concert, increase your distance from the speakers as much as you can (while maintaining a good view).
5. Use the 60/60 rule when listening to music
If you listen to a portable music player with headphones, maintain the volume at 60 percent of the maximum volume for no more than 60 minutes per day to avoid hearing loss.
6. Favor your right ear for conversations
A study conducted over the course of six years by researchers at UCLA and the University of Arizona found that the right ear is better designed for speech and the left ear for music. So the next time you’re having issues understanding a conversation, turn your right ear towards the speaker.
7. Regulate your hearing environment
Wearing hearing aids is probably not thought of as a life-hack, but it is the only way to appropriately improve hearing in the presence of hearing loss—and the things you can do with modern day hearing aids are truly extraordinary.
As an example, some hearing aids are wireless and can be operated with mobile phones or digital watches. That means the individual can discreetly adjust volume and settings for each scenario—in essence, the user can literally control the sound environment. We can’t think of any other life-hack cooler or more useful than that.
What did we miss? What are your preferred life-hacks (health-related or in general)?