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On this page: Overview
Key Takeaways
An earplug lowers the level of every sound reaching the ear for as long as it is in. It does not change the reaction to a sound, so it works best as a tool for short, chosen moments such as a meal or a journey, taken out afterwards.
A passive earplug rated SNR 24 dB brings a 60 dB conversation down to roughly 36 to 40 dB and chewing at 45 dB down to about 21 to 23 dB. Sounds get quieter, not silent.
NHS guidance on noise sensitivity says not to wear earplugs or ear muffs all the time, because this could make you more sensitive to noise. Short-term use in a noisy setting is a different matter.
Decide the event before you start: a meal, an exam, a journey or a 45 to 90 minute focus block. Put them in at the start, take them out at the end, and stop if you notice pain, itching or that you reach for them all day.
Start with your GP, who can refer you to audiology, ENT or psychology services. Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Misophonia UK and soQuiet all publish information and support.
Used now and then for a chosen event, earplugs simply make sounds quieter while they are in. Worn all day, they may leave everyday sound harder to tolerate, which is why NHS guidance on noise sensitivity advises against wearing them all the time. If you notice sounds getting harder to bear, speak to your GP.
Tie the time to an event rather than the clock. A meal, a journey or a 45 to 90 minute focus block is a sensible unit. Take them out at the end, give your ears a break, and stop straight away if you feel pain or itching.
We would suggest not. Choose the meals that are hardest, such as a long family dinner, and leave the rest. Reaching for them at every meal is a sign to step back and talk to your GP about other kinds of support.
The NHS advises caution: short-term use in very noisy places may help, but wearing earplugs all the time could make you more sensitive to noise. Speak to an audiologist before building a routine. Our guide to misophonia vs hyperacusis vs noise sensitivity explains how the three differ.
Do earplugs help with misophonia? They can make a hard moment quieter, and that is all they physically do. If certain sounds bother you, such as chewing, sniffing or a pen clicking across the room, a good earplug lowers the level of every sound reaching your ear while it is in, and that can make a meal or a train ride easier to sit through.
You are far from the only person asking. A UK study of 772 adults found that 18.4 % met a threshold for significant misophonia-related difficulty, while only 13.6 % had heard the word before (Vitoratou et al., PLOS ONE, 2023).
At Bollsen, we make reusable silicone earplugs trusted by 1,000,000+ people, and we would rather you used them well than all the time. One worry we hear often goes something like “I know wearing earplugs for hours can’t be healthy”. That instinct is sound. This guide sits alongside our wider page on earplugs for misophonia and covers the part most advice skips: when to put them in and when to take them out.
Do earplugs help with misophonia?
Earplugs help in a narrow, physical sense: a passive earplug such as Life+ lowers the level of sound reaching the ear by roughly its 24 dB rating, which can make a trigger sound quieter during a chosen event, but it cannot change how the brain responds to that sound.
Earplugs do not treat, cure or relieve misophonia; they lower the level of sound reaching the ear for the time they are worn. Everything else here follows from that. A quieter sound is easier for many people to sit with, yet Oxford Health’s Psychological Information Centre notes that a reaction can happen even when a sound is at a very low volume.
So an earplug is a volume tool, used for a moment you have chosen. It is not a plan for the whole day. If trigger sounds are affecting your work, sleep or relationships, speak to your GP as well, whatever you decide about earplugs.
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Life+★ 4.7 · 3,700 reviewsLife+★ 4.7 · 3,700 reviewsMusic SoundPRO★ 4.8 · 514 reviewsWatersafe+★ 4.8 · 684 reviewsLife+★ 4.7 · 3,700 reviewsWhat does an earplug actually change, and what does it not?
A passive earplug changes one thing: the level of sound in the ear canal. Our Life+ earplugs are rated SNR 24 dB (H 24, M 21, L 19), German-tested and independently certified. In practice, a normal 60 dB conversation lands at roughly 36 to 40 dB, and chewing at around 45 dB from a metre away lands at about 21 to 23 dB.
Quieter, not silent. Like most passive earplugs, Life+ lowers higher-pitched sounds a little more than low ones, as its attenuation rises with frequency. A voice across the table stays audible because it is loud, not because the earplug lets one kind of sound through and holds another back. The full frequency picture sits in our guide to misophonia trigger sounds.
What an earplug leaves untouched matters just as much. The Oxford Health NHS misophonia page groups common triggers into eating sounds, nose and throat sounds, and repetitive sounds like keyboard tapping or rustling paper. It also describes misokinesia, a reaction to movements such as leg jiggling or fidgeting. No earplug does anything about something you can see.
There is also the sound of your own body. With the ear canal sealed, your own chewing and swallowing can seem louder, because bone-conducted sound below about 500 Hz is boosted by 10 to 20 dB. This occlusion effect is why many people keep earplugs out while they eat and put them in when the eating noise around them is the problem.
Can wearing earplugs too much backfire?
It can. The NHS page on noise sensitivity (hyperacusis) advises against wearing earplugs or ear muffs all the time, because this could make you more sensitive to noise. The same page says short-term use may help in very noisy environments, and it advises against avoiding noise completely.
That guidance is written for hyperacusis rather than misophonia, and the NHS lists misophonia as one type of hearing sensitivity, where some sounds trigger an upsetting emotional response like anger or disgust. The two often overlap. Audiologists apply the same caution to both: a quieter world, all day, every day, can shift what the brain comes to expect as normal. Ear protection works best in short, deliberate windows.
A pattern people describe often is “they help, so I end up wearing them at every meal”. That is the point to step back. The routine below exists so that earplugs stay a tool you pick up for one event, and put down again.
What does a short-moments routine look like?
A short-moments routine means you decide the event before it starts, put the earplugs in at a clear cue, take them out at another, and watch for signs that it is time to stop. Plan for a meal, an exam, a journey or a 45 to 90 minute focus block. The table gives a starting point. Adjust the times to your own day.
| Event | In cue | Out cue | Maximum duration | Sign to stop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meal at a shared table (see earplugs for chewing sounds at a shared table) | Once your own plate is finished and others are still eating | Plates cleared, or the conversation needs you | The rest of the meal, about 30 minutes | Wanting them at every meal, or feeling cut off from the people at the table |
| Study session or exam (see studying with misophonia) | Start of a revision block; in exams only if agreed in advance through access arrangements | The planned break or the end of the paper | 45 to 90 minutes, then a break without them | Needing them for every page you read, or a sore ear canal |
| Train, bus or plane journey (see misophonia on public transport) | When eating, sniffing or headphone leak starts nearby | Before your stop, or whenever you need to hear announcements | The journey, with a break every 90 minutes on long trips | Missing announcements, or itching |
| Focus block at a desk (see misophonia at work) | Start of one task you have chosen | End of the block, and before any call or meeting | 45 to 90 minutes | Wearing them through every meeting, or pain |
| Night-time | Lights out, if a partner’s breathing or a neighbour keeps you awake | When you get up | One night at a time; see misophonia and sleep | Ear pain, itching or a blocked feeling in the morning |
Night-time is its own question with its own guidance, and our sleeping team covers is it safe to sleep with earplugs in detail, including wax, hygiene and nightly wear.
Across every row, take them out straight away if you notice pain or itching, and talk to your GP or pharmacist if it persists. If you find that the list of events keeps growing, mention it to your GP too. That is useful information for them, not a failure on your part.
For the moments in the table, our Life+ passive SNR 24 dB reusable silicone earplug (£29.95) is a patented conical two-lamella design in hypoallergenic silicone that sits flush in the ear with no stem. One pair lasts up to 100 uses, about 30p a use, and comes in an aluminium keyring case so it is there when a meal or journey turns loud. Two packs cost £44.95, UK delivery is free on orders over £35, and every order has a 40-day money-back guarantee.
If you do decide to use them, what matters?
Fit matters more than the number on the box. An earplug that is too small leaks sound around the edge, and one that is too large presses on the ear canal and gets taken out after ten minutes. A good seal also changes how loud your own voice and chewing sound, so the right size makes short sessions more comfortable.
If sizing has been a problem before, Life+ is also available with an AI ear measurement from two photos (£44.95). You send two pictures of your ears, our system picks the size, and that size is what we ship. It is the same earplug with the same 24 dB rating, just matched to your ears.
More attenuation is not automatically better here. Foam earplugs reach 30 to 35 dB but are single-use, and some people find the deeper quiet makes them more alert to the sounds that do get through. Reusable silicone sits around 22 to 25 dB. Our guide on how to choose earplugs for misophonia compares the categories side by side, along with headphones.
Why might sounds seem louder when you take them out?
Many people notice that the room seems sharper for a minute after they take earplugs out. Part of this is simple contrast: after half an hour at a lower level, normal sound feels like a step up, the way daylight seems bright after a dark cinema.
The longer-term concern is different, and it is the one the NHS raises. If the ears spend most of the day protected, everyday sound may start to feel harder to tolerate. We cannot tell you how that applies to you, and an audiologist can. If sounds seem louder after you take earplugs out and that lasts, or it is getting worse over weeks, book a GP appointment and ask about an audiology referral.
Who can you talk to in the UK?
Your GP is the starting point on the NHS. They can rule out other causes and refer you on, usually to audiology, ENT or a psychology service depending on what is going on. There is no stand-alone diagnostic code for misophonia in DSM-5 or ICD-11, so clinicians describe and assess it in other ways, often with a standardised questionnaire such as the S-Five.
Oxford Health’s Psychological Information Centre explains the condition in plain English and notes some evidence that CBT can be helpful. Misophonia UK runs a support community with leaflets for family, friends and doctors. soQuiet, a US-based charity, has practical material on school and work. Our separate guide on where to find support for misophonia on the NHS walks through the referral route step by step.
Earplugs can sit alongside any of these. They are a way to make a chosen hour quieter while you work out the bigger picture with someone qualified to help.
His connection to hearing protection stems from personal experience with sound sensitivity during live events and work in noisy environments, an issue that made him more aware of the long-term risks of unmanaged noise exposure. Today, as both a communicator and a user of BOLLSEN products, he is passionate about raising awareness around the importance of proactive hearing care.
At BOLLSEN, he develops data-driven marketing campaigns, writes SEO-focused articles, and manages communication channels that connect customers with practical knowledge about hearing protection. His work ensures that BOLLSEN’s message—prioritizing health, performance, and sustainability reaches a global audience in an engaging and trustworthy way.
Passionate about writing since childhood, Timotej combines creativity with a strong analytical approach, continuously testing new ideas in digital marketing, performance advertising, and social media. He believes in learning through innovation and collaboration, balancing leadership with openness to new perspectives.
Beyond his professional role, Timotej is committed to a healthy lifestyle and finds inspiration in fitness, sports, and quality time with friends. His personal passion for well-being aligns with BOLLSEN’s core values, making his work not only a career but also a cause he deeply believes in.