So, you’ve just bought yourself a new pair of Airpods Pro or another set of wireless earbuds, and you love them! In fact, they’re so comfortable to use that you want to listen to them while you sleep. But can you use Airpods Pro while you’re in bed? Is it safe? What are the risks?
You can wear Airpods Pro before falling asleep without much risk involved. If the volume is low enough and you’re not putting pressure on your ears, they may be safe. However, due to potential long-term risks, prolonged use is not advisable. It can also negatively affect the quality of your sleep.
In the past, sleeping with headphones in your ears was not a comfortable experience at all, as you half-choked yourself to death while getting tangled in the wires while you turn over.
However, with the advancements made in wireless technology, wireless earbuds like the Apple Airpods Pro fit seamlessly into your ear canal and give you the freedom you’ve always craved.
The freedom to listen to music, podcasts, and ambient sounds while you drift off to sleep. So what’s stopping you?
It’s only natural to be concerned about any risks to your health and your safety, and you should make a considered decision before taking your Airpods Pro to bed with you.
Can I Use Airpods Pro While Sleeping?
While sleeping with a set of wireless earbuds, such as the Airpods Pro, is better than sleeping with wired headphones that tangle easily; sleeping with them in your ears has the potential to be hazardous for your health.
In the short term, your main risks are ear infections, wax buildup, and sleep deprivation. If you want just grey noise and not music or podcasts then you should check out Bose Sleepbuds II also as a perfect sleep option.
Long-term effects such as permanent hearing loss are still being studied. We aren’t quite sure how it may affect us over several years due to a lack of medical research and considering how new the wireless technology is.
Apple insists that they follow strict safety protocols in the design process. Still, some doctors have warned that the radiation emissions from your Airpods Pro’s Bluetooth technology could cause cancer, although they cannot say with certainty.
They base this on the findings of research conducted on the effects of long-term exposure to similar forms of radiation.
But, if you aren’t put off by the potential long-term damage earbuds and Airpods Pro can do to your ears, there are plenty of short-term risks as well.
Firstly, there is the very unlikely possibility that you could swallow your Airpods Pro. A case of a man in Taiwan doing just that has been reported.
Fortunately, there were no complications, and it passed through his digestive system and came out fully functional!
But the risk of swallowing and choking on these magic devices is certainly there, despite the very, very low chances of it happening to you.
Secondly, the most likely short-term effect of sleeping with Airpods Pro is that you’ll experience a major buildup of earwax.
Regular use builds up wax in your ear, impairing your hearing and potentially leading to allergic reactions or inflammation. Cleaning your Airpods and your ears regularly could help solve this.
Ear infections are the worst of the moderate risks associated with sleeping with earbuds. They are incredibly unpleasant. Excessive earbud use can lead to wax buildup, which leads to a far higher risk of infection.
This is because our ears are naturally self-cleaning, and when you lodge a tight-fitting earbud and its airtight silicon cover into your ears, this process is disrupted.
Without the self-cleaning process, wax is not the only thing that will be building up in your ears.
Dirt, dead skin, and, worse, bacteria have a free pass to the inside of your ears and can cause a lot of painful damage that you’re going to want to avoid.
Again, cleaning your earbuds and ears can help avoid this common problem that Airpods users encounter. Limiting the time you spend using your Airpods can also help.
Therefore, sleeping with them for six to eight hours every day can be problematic, especially if you’re also working with them in your ears for eight hours a day.
You can also cause hearing loss in the long term if you’ve got your Airpods Pro blasting music into your ears for hours on end.
Anything close to your ear above 105-110 decibels (dB) can lead to hearing loss within as little as five minutes!
105-110 is roughly the same as the maximum volume level on most devices. You’re going to want to turn the volume down to avoid any damage.
Experts recommend that listening at 60% of the maximum volume for a maximum of 60 minutes is a good, cautious approach. So sleeping all night with your Airpods Pro in your ears could easily lead to some hearing damage.
Not to mention, there is also physical damage that Airpods Pro can cause if you’re listening to them while you sleep.
If you roll onto your earbuds at night, the most likely outcome is a mild discomfort caused by them pressing into your ears at awkward angles for hours on end.
Sustained, concentrated pressure like this runs the risk of necrosis (killing skin cells). Over time, your ears will become sore, and it may even hurt to continue wearing your Airpods Pro.
The final risks that we’ll cover are sleep deprivation and your inability to be alert to possible dangers.
Sleep deprivation is possible for people wearing Airpods Pro to bed because the sounds from whatever you’re listening to are constantly stimulating your brain, nervous system, and heart rate, pumping up your stress-related hormones.
This means that you’ll be unable to fall into the deep, REM sleep that you need for a full night’s rest because your brain is still very much active while you’re asleep.
Over and above this, by blocking out outside noises, you may be able to fall asleep with ease. But waking you up will not be easy, and you need to be alert at night.
Whether it’s crying babies, intruders, smoke alarms, or anything of that nature, sleeping with Airpods prevents you from being alert to imminent nighttime dangers, particularly if they have noise-canceling functionality.
Now, bear in mind that Airpods Pros haven’t been around for very long and it’s simply not feasible to run any long-term medical studies right now, so bear in mind that this could merely be the tip of the iceberg.
A lot of the effects mentioned here may not happen to you, but you must be aware that sleeping with Airpods is not risk-free, and you should be looking for better, more sustainable ways of falling asleep easily if you insist on taking the risk.
Though, there is one major drawback to sleeping with Airpods Pro that we’ll all experience no matter what…
How To Keep Airpods From Falling Out While Sleeping
If you’ve ever tried listening to Airpods or earbuds while you sleep, you’ll certainly have had them fall out of your ears.
Even when sitting at your desk while working, Airpods Pro and other earbuds have a propensity to slide out of your ear, even though the silicon covering seems to seal them into your ears.
As we mentioned earlier, you could end up swallowing your Airpods, but that’s highly unlikely. What’s worse is if they get damaged, and it’s just plain annoying.
So, if you want to prevent Airpods from falling out while sleeping, you first need to make sure that you’ve got the right fit and the right silicon tips to fit your ears.
The assistants at your nearest electronics store will help you pick out the right pair. Fortunately, the Airpods Pro are considered the best-fitting earbuds on the market, and the design is made to fit at least 90% of all their consumers.
If you’re in that unlucky 10% group, you may want to either buy a new pair of earbuds from a different brand (such as JBL) or get a pair of silicon tips that will help keep the Airpods in your ears.
Rather than make different sizes for different people, a range of silicon tips is designed to fit Airpods into ears of all shapes and sizes to cater to their customers’ individual needs rather than make different sizes for different people.
By simply replacing the silicon tips, you’ll find that your Airpods Pro will not slip out of your ears as easily.
But remember that you still have to take proper precautions like cleaning your ears and Airpods Pro frequently, keeping the volume low, and avoiding prolonged use.
In Summary
If you wear airpods pro to bed, the constant background noise can disrupt your sleep.
If you are experiencing issues with concentration or memory during the day, it may be due to a lack of quality sleep at night.
Try wearing ear plugs if you’re concerned about sound disturbances while sleeping and want to see improvements in mental clarity!
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