Do Your Earplugs Actually Fit?

This educational article is kindly sponsored by Otifleks, who’ve asked us to write an article about a fairly major problem that a lot of people encounter when trying to use earplugs.

We previously wrote about how earplugs can by various metrics outperform sound machines for dealing with noise-induced sleep disruptions:

The Sleep Problem That We Often Miss ← low-level noise disruption can result in a restless night whereby in the morning, we don’t really remember that we were troubled by the noise, since we never fully woke up enough to pay attention to it, even if we can tell we’re not well-rested, we often won’t know why. And, with our sleep-deprived brain, we’re unlike to interrogate that much—but sleep scientists have!

But they only work properly if they actually fit!

Perhaps you’ve tried earplugs and found they’re just not for you:

• They’re uncomfortable.
• They don’t block the sound.
• They fall out.
• They somehow just make you able to hear it against the inside of your own ear instead.
• Or some combination of the above!

So, what gives? Ok, so this one’s not a mystery; the answer’s in the title.

And yet, a lot of people simply don’t think about that, and just conclude “eh, I tried earplugs, they didn’t work”.

Your ears are unique

Well, perhaps unless you have an identical twin (or more). But for most of us, our ears are unique, including the shape and size of the ear canal.

But, just as we can find shoes that fit without being literally molded to our feet, so we can with earplugs too.

And, a word on that: yes, there are putty-like earplugs that will claim to mold themselves to the inside of your ear. And that claim may even be true, but a common problem is that often, if they’re firm enough to hold that shape, then they may also be firm enough to a) push against the inside of your ear, causing discomfort b) conduct sound c) create a perception of sound by touching your eardrum with a solid mass.

So, you want something that’ll be adaptable to your ear size and shape, while not being a big mass either.

In other words, a good option is the soft kind with a flared design (a central core supporting soft domed disks, that much more gently take on the shape of your ear canal, often being made of a slightly thermosoftening material, mean that they become softer at the touch of your body heat), like the one this model is holding (and is absolutely not demonstrating how to insert it):

The correct way to insert this kind of earplug, by the way, is:

1. Hold the earplug like that, yes, but also…
2. With your other hand, reach over the top of your head, gently take hold of the upper part of your ear and gently tug it upwards
3. While holding your ear up in this fashion, gently push the earplug into place until it feels snug but not uncomfortable
4. You can let go of your ear now
5. Repeat on the other side

But that’s about a shape that fits. What about size?

This one’s tricker. It’s a lot harder to measure your ear canal size than it is to measure your shoe size, and a lot of people get their shoe size wrong already.

But everyone knows when a pair of shoes fits or doesn’t, at least after perhaps a day of wearing them.

So, with earplugs, it really can become a case of “try it and see”.

However, it can at least be possible to improve your odds, if you get a selection of sizes from the same company, find which fits, and then get more of that same correct size from the same company later (because even re-usable earplugs are not reusable forever).

That’s not a perfect approach, but it may be less frustrating than just buying random earplugs and hoping that someday you’ll happen across the perfect fit by chance!

Disclosure: as we mentioned up top, this article was sponsored by Otifleks, a company that just happens to sell earplugs, which you can check out or not; this is an educational article and not an ad. The article was written by your usual 10almonds writing team, and in this case by your writer here (hi, it’s me) who has extensively tried different kinds of earplugs (in my case, due to my several hearing problems including hyperacusis), and the above earplug type and insertion method is what she found best.