I bought $180 of in-ear headphones to try out (the Shure SE210′s and the Sennheiser CX300′s) and both of them, I think, made me feel dizzy to the point of falling over and feeling like I was going to hurl my guts out the next morning. I’ve blogged previously about motion sickness, but this is just frightening and frustrating and badness.
Does this make any sense to anyone? Is it possible to be predisposed to dizziness and room-spinning-ness? Are in-ear, noise-isolating headphones known for making you feel dizzy, causing the room to spin on you, and not take effect until the next morning? I felt fine while I was listening to them. But after I took them off, went to bed, and got up the next morning, the room just spun ferociously.
Blef.
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
You might want to experiment with headphone DSP pre-amps. Here is the story:
When you listen to stereo audio from speakers, the two channels do not just reach their respective ear unchanged. Instead there is echo in the room and crosstalk and delay between the channels.
Now your brain is used to that. If the crosstalk does not happen it gets more or less confused. Normal headphones still have a _little_ bit of crosstalk, while in-ear ones totally eliminate it.
Your audio processing center in the brain might just be very uncomfortable with the unnatural signal it’s getting.
A headphone pre-amp&DSP fixes that: it simulates a natural listening room.
Monday February 25, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I am not a doctor, but: you should talk to a professional. Having dizziness in the morning might be serious health problem, and probably is NOT connected with listening with earphones the day before. If the headphones are causing the problem, you should start feeling a short time after you turn on the music, and that shouldn’t last long after you stop that activity. There’s no way it should induce dizziness the day after!
Again, I am not a doctor (IANAD?), but I think you should talk to one about your problem ASAP. This might be something mild (weather change, stress, mild ear infections, etc.) but could be a really, really serious health issue as well. Don’t take it lightly.
Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 5:56 am
I have Shure E2c-s, and they’re working great for me. I do get nervous and uncomfortable after listening to them for several hours without interruption (which is remedied by taking them out for a couple of minutes), but nothing like the dizziness you describe (and certainly not anything the following morning…). (My armchair theory is it might have something to do with not getting any sort of stimulus to my ears from the outside world at all for an extended period, in my case.)
Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 8:42 am
I think the problem could be caused by increased pressure in your ear canals. Since the motion sensory functions of the body are in the ears it is possible. Perhaps the ear buds are pushing your canals in such a way that messes with the motion sensory of your ears. If you put them in without music playing do you get dizzy?
I’m no doctor but I think it is likely to be the shape or the ear buds causing pressure, rather than the sound quality.
Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 8:50 am
Have cx300 and doesn’t have problems with them. They are working great.
Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 1:08 pmUm, not – the motion sensors are in the middle ear, far away from foreign objects, and can’t be interfered by sticking something blunt and relatively short in your ear.
Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I am also not a doctor, but I once had a bad ear infection once where if I closed my eyes I’d become unstable and almost fall down. Apparently, my brain was using my eyes to make up for my messed up inner ear balance stuff. I have a set of Shure E3c headphones and they are pretty much earplugs with speakers in them. I also can’t hear anything around me when they are in which is great for planes. Try going to the pharmacy and seeing if earplugs cause you the same grief. Or ask your doctor.
Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I _am_ a doctor. There are several cause, and you should have someone check you out, probably an otolargyngoloist. The worrisome thinks would be a perilymph fistula or ruptured oval window. You may just have a variant 10th cranial nerve (the same one that makes people gag) which supplies sensation to your ear canal (in which case, you are not going to be very happy to find out you just spent $180 on something you cannot use).
But the point is don’t listen to anyone online and go have someone who knows what the hell they are doing check you out. Just like you wouldn’t believe someone who said “well, I don’t know anything about Linux…but why don’t you reboot since that helps my Windows PC”
Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 5:00 pmPS: have someone else drive you! People with vertigo shouldn’t drive. Or use Windows.
Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Heh. Wow, thanks everyone for commenting! =:)
@Tom: I’m not a headbanger, but I do like my music nice and loud. =:) And yeah, I’ve heard of the rocks/fluid/canal thing, but I thought that everybody had that?
@Hans: Wow, thank you very much for the info! I’d never heard about headphone pre-amps before. I think I’ll probably just take back the in-ear ones I bought and use the standard iPod ear-buds. I can’t imagine how much headphone pre-amps cost, but being that I’m hesitant to spend $100 on headphones, I think I’d be loathe to spend any additional $$. =:)
@illissius: I’m not sure I’d want to have to remember to keep taking breaks from my headphones. I typically listen to music for hours and hours on end while I work…. Although you’re saying you feel the effects immediately, so it’s probably not the same thing that I’m dealing with. =:/
@mikmach: Yeah, I read really great things about the cx300′s, but compared to the Shures, they really sounded odd and heavy. I know they’re supposed to be bassey, and they are, but I think they put too much emphasis on bass and the rest of the music sounds not as good as the Shures.
@Glitch: Yeah, I actually kind of liked the Shures. Especially with the new memory-foam-type earplugs. Kept a lot of noise out, which is what I was looking for. It just kind of freaked me out with this dizziness. I think I’m going to let my body recover before trying any more in-ear headphones.
and @DrK: Thanks for the comment! =:) Actually, I just went to the doctor today. I’ve been having other flu/sickie-like symptoms (not to mention not getting a whole heck of a lot of sleep lately and been under a lot of stress, and not drinking enough water, etc., etc.), so she wrote me a script for some Amoxicillin to help kick whatever sinus/flu thing I have. I had this weird dizzy thing last year too, and it was while I was sick and had an ear infection, so I’m hopeful that this will go away with the sinus/flu thing. The weird thing this time was that I wasn’t really aware of a bad cold/sinus/flu thing when I started feeling dizzy.
So I’m taking the $180 worth of sound-isolating headphones back. I must be out of my mind to even be thinking about spending that kind of money on headphones. =:/
And I think that’s my new favorite quote: “People with vertigo shouldn’t drive. Or use Windows.” =;D
Thanks everybody! =:)
Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 6:11 pm
So, now that it has been a few months, can you update? I am JUST having this problem. I’m using regular ordinary ear buds that came with my iPod shuffle which I got to mitigate the tedious bus commute I have and to provide background noise while at work. I don’t play the music very loud at all …. BUT …. I’ve been battle the spins for well over a week and have only been ‘addicted’ to this iPod shuffle business for about three weeks. I’ve been taking an anti-biotic and that hasn’t helped a thing. So …. like you, this started unexpectedly about two weeks of consistent (5 hours a day?) listening to music with ear buds. What ever happened with you and your deal?
Thursday July 24, 2008 at 1:45 pm@Renee: Hi!! =:) My dizziness kept getting worse and worse until I had to go into the emergency room and thereafter the hospital, where they kept me for the weekend and ran every test they could think of. In hindsight, I’m not 100% convinced that it was the headphones that caused all of the trouble, but I think that they were just another factor in the mixture of things that whacked my head.
The doctors never did find anything wrong with me, other than the fact that I was a little dehydrated. Nothing wrong with any blood tests, CAT scans, MRI’s… no liver problems, no Lyme disease… nothing. I even went to a neurologist (who was worthless and I’ll never go back to her again). And finally, I went through 6 weeks of physical therapy to align my spine a little better, since it was slightly out of whack.
All told, though, the doctors were pretty nonchalant about this whole thing (which had me totally stressed out and I thought I was dying). They said that probably 50% of the time that things like this happen (debilitating dizziness–and apparently, it happens FAR more commonly than people think), they never do find out what caused it. It just happens sometimes. Sometimes it never comes back and sometimes it does. Comforting, eh? I’ve since found out that my mom has had problems with debilitating dizziness too, so maybe there’s something hereditary. *shrug*
I think that I believe now that what happened was that I was under a lot of stress during this time and my body wasn’t handling it well. I also think that the headphones caused the little stones in my inner ears to reposition themselves, which caused my brain to freak out and not be able to balance itself like it used to be able to. I did the sit-up-then-lying-down-quickly exercises which are supposed to force your brain to re-learn where its balance is, and I think that helped.
At any rate, I haven’t had any more problems with dizziness since this. And I’ve used a couple of other pairs of in-ear headphones without any adverse affects. I did notice, however, that my brain/ears do _not_ like in-ear headphones at all, since they block out _everything_, including the normal ambient noises that my ears use to find balance. So I’m not going to do that anymore. =:)
Anyway, I REALLY hope your dizziness gets better. =:( I’d definitely keep going back to the doctor, though, until things get better. My doctor ended up prescribing Antivert for a little while, and I think that that was the biggest help prescription-wise. You can also find the dizziness/balance exercises (like here: http://tinyurl.com/6cbvjr) online, but I would definitely get advice from your doctor before you try doing them. I think they can cause problems (stroke, etc.) in some people.
Please let me know how things go for you with this!! =:)
Saturday July 26, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Just wanted to thank everyone for their comments and of course Jason for originally posting this.. I’m having the same problem with my new earphones and I wasn’t sure if I was alone in the gagging sensation when I use them. I guess I should see Dr. Drk!
Wednesday January 21, 2009 at 1:10 pmHi @Neal! =:)
I think I’ve settled on the Sennheiser PX 100 Collapsible Headphones
I’ve had vertigo for over 20 years and have the type where the small particles/rocks are floating around within the semi-circular canals…and have had every test run in the book. The vertigo comes and goes about every 6 months. I just got an iphone and earbuds and went through a marathon of yard work yesterday where I wore earbuds for an unusually long time/full blast and then this morning woke up with my classic vertigo of loose particles/rocks floating down the semi-circular canals again. The exact same sensation happened when I road a roller coaster and the vibrations broke off some of these little particles (when they roll down the canal after they break off they give the sensation of turning/moving when you’re not which makes you sick). I’m convinced that the micro-vibrations from the loud music caused some of these particles to break loose again (the vibrations from the tractor probably didn’t help either, but I’ve used it a lot before without the earbud/loud music and didn’t have a problem) ….just wanted to pass that on. Fortunately, these little particles/rocks in the semi-circular canal have what amounts to velcro on them and they can become re-attached after a few days… I’m putting my ultra expensive earbuds on the shelf…
Thursday May 14, 2009 at 8:59 amHi @sean! Wow, I’m so sorry to hear that. =:( Is there anything the doctors can do to help? Have you tried the exercises they can have you do to help reposition the rocks? I think they helped me a little bit last time I had this. And yeah, I’m with you… I’m not trying the in-the-ear-canal headphones again probably ever again.
Thursday May 14, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Wow… I’m so thankful for this thread. I put the chain of events together based on my recent dizziness and my music and thought, “there’s no WAY taking a walk with earbuds in can be doing this to me,” but sure enough – the last two times I have gone for a 45-minute walk while listening to my ipod, I’ve awoken the following day with my vertigo. I saw my doctor last week (after puking my own guts out) and he assessed my condition as a benign vertigo and gave me some mechlizine (SP?) for motion sickness to ease my stomach. I have a follow-up visit scheduled in a couple of weeks and I think I’ll discuss it with him. Poor doctors – they have to get absolutely inundated with questions from patients who have so much information (or disinformation) available to them. Thanks for allowing me to share!
Monday May 18, 2009 at 4:33 pmHi Mark! =:) Yeah, I’ve sworn that I’ll never use in-ear headphones again. IIUC, it all has to do with the little rocks that @sean mentioned that help your body/ears/brain to establish movement, and it seems quite plausible to me that loud, directed sonic activity can certainly cause the incapacitating dizziness that I (and just about everyone else on this post) have felt. My doctors were very confused by my symptoms and the never did diagnose me with anything. I was given AntiVert, iirc and some muscle-relaxing scripts, and those seemed to help.
I wish you the best of luck!!! =:)
Monday May 18, 2009 at 5:58 pmSorry to hear that. This iphone/earbud episode was the worst attack I’ve had in 15 years (loosing your dinner and the like). I could feel it coming on even before I got up…but it is slowly subsiding. After more research I found that doctors do use vibrations to help resuspend these particles so that you can clear them out through these different head manuever exersizes. Also this old Army helicopter pilot told me yesterday that they routinely used tuning forks to create harmonic vibrations behind the ear to treat motion sickness (not sure exactly how…). Anyways, it backed up the notion that loud harmonic vibrations (earbuds) could resuspend particles (breaking them off the inner wall of the canals…they can attach like velcro but also break off again) that can then cause the attacks.
Inspired by this thread (thanks Jason for starting this), I checked out some more sights that you might find helpful.
http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/bppv/bppv.html
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/884261-overview
Using these sights I was able to finally tell which ear was causing the problem and therefore which set of head movements triggered the attack…and also which of the recommended exercises could clear out the particles. The only problem is that I did 1 rep and I was puking my guts out…I think I’m going to wait a while before trying that again…for now, I’m going with the “wait it out” method (which has a bunch of management tips for sleeping etc.)…which has worked for the past 28 years…
Monday May 18, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Great post! I’ve had vertigo problems for over 10 years now. Comes around once every six months or so. And I’ve recently noticed a correlation with ear-phones giving me slight dizziness after extended periods of time.
Also noticed that having just one ear-phone on usually prevents this (maybe because I tend to favor my ‘healthy’ ear?).
Those exercises look interesting. Might give them a try next time. Normally I just wait it out. Sometimes sleeping for a few hours helps. Can take up to a day or so to fully recover. Any movement during this time usually immediately triggers a crippling dizziness, but standing still / lying down feels almost normal.
Friday July 10, 2009 at 2:05 am
Ugh – I think this may have something to do with it. I had spells in the morning and nighttime [whenever I laid down] for two days a month ago. It went away, but just came back this morning. My mind went everywhere – do I have a tumor? did I get some STD? will I wake up in the morning? I’m a healthy 24 yo, so this was really surprising and confusing to me. Since it disappeared before I could go to the hospital, I figured I was okay, but now that it’s back I’m worried.
Yesterday I was listening to my in-ear monitors louder and longer than I normally would as I went about the city. I think they may have contributed to an ear infection or loosening of the ear canal rocks or whatever…and that combined with some romance-related stress and sleeplessness that began the week I first got dizzy, I think it might be stress and in-ear phones? Hopefully. I’m going to wait this second time out, see if it goes away in the next day or two and go to the hospital if it ever happens again.
Friday July 17, 2009 at 1:15 pm@Chloe: =:((( I’m so sorry to hear that! The scary thing is that at least with me, the doctors had NO idea what was causing it. =:( I hope you get better!!
Friday July 17, 2009 at 2:41 pm
wow, i’ve been experiencing vertigo after using my in-ear headphones, and thought i was the only one who suffered from this. this thread really helped, thanks everyone! i was wondering: for those who get vertigo after using in-ear headphones, does it also happen after using headband-style headphones (the ones that look like earmuffs)? i’m asking because i’m about to go on a long flight soon and would really like to listen to my music but it would be a pain to end up getting vertigo while i’m on vacation! thanks in advance.
Monday August 10, 2009 at 10:33 pmHi @kristine,
The only headphones I’ve experienced this with are the in-ear ones. HTH! =:)
Tuesday August 11, 2009 at 1:14 amokay thanks! i remember this didn’t happen to me either, a few years ago when it was still cool to use the headband type headphones, but i just wanted to see what others experienced. thanks again 
Wow thanks for all the comments on this thread, I’ve been experiencing the exact same symptoms with my new in-ear-canal earbuds — specifically the ER6I’s from Etymotic Research.
I woke up dizzy the morning after using the earbuds for longer than usual. This happened twice before I noticed any kind of correlation. I’ve had no problems with regular earbuds, but these are much more intense and sound isolating than usual.
I’m going to see an ENT doctor, discontinue the use of ANY earbuds, and hope for the best.
Thanks everyone!
Friday November 27, 2009 at 3:32 pm
It is amazing the number of people who feel they know things from their common sense.
I have had two vertigo attacks from earphones worn at night. The first was severe enough to wake me. Although it occurred to me that the headphones might be responsible for the vertigo, common sense led me to believe it was a new medication that was the culprit. Months later, and long after I quit taking the medication, I wore the ear phones again, and awoke so dizzy that I could not stand up, and in fact, could not stay on all fours. I came to this thread from a search, which has discovered others who have questioned this correlation.
Sunday September 25, 2011 at 8:35 amUgh! I’m so sorry to hear that, trust! I sincerely hope you get better and get better quickly!
As I type this right now, I’m on the tail end of recovering from yet another vertigo attack. My doctor diagnosed me with BPPV this time, thankfully. I say thankfully because the last time this happened, I was in the hospital for 3 days and at the end of it, I wasn’t diagnosed with anything and the doctors and nurses were saying discouraging things like “oh, sometimes people just get dizzy!” So this time I was immediately prescribed AntiVert (Meclizine) which has made this vertigo onslaught much more tolerable. I’m reading up on modified Epley’s maneuvers and I’m going to try them today when I come home from church. Soooo tired of this vertigo and dizziness stufff!
But yeah, trust, I feel that there has to be some correlation between loud, in-ear sounds and the disturbing of calcium crystals in our inner ear canals that helps to trigger dizziness and vertigo. I sincerely hope you get better quickly!
Sunday September 25, 2011 at 8:54 am[...] In-Ear Headphones and Puking Yer Guts Out? [...]
Wednesday March 5, 20089:37 pm
My wife has had what amounts to rocks floating in the fluid in the ear’s semi-circular canals, which give the signals of motion even when you’re not moving. This can cause feelings of vertigo: http://www.plugup.com/balancingact.php
Not sure how loud your music has to be to cause vertigo, though. Are you a head-banger?
Monday February 25, 2008 at 6:32 pm