Audiologists raise concern over headphone use in young people

Claire Benton, vice-president of the British Academy of Audiology, suggests that by blocking everyday sounds such as cars beeping, there is a possibility the brain can "forget" to filter out the noise.

"You have almost created this false environment by wearing those headphones of only listening to what you want to listen to. You are not having to work at it," she said.

"Those more complex, high-level listening skills in your brain only really finish developing towards your late teens. So, if you have only been wearing noise-cancelling headphones and been in this false world for your late teens then you are slightly delaying your ability to process speech and noise," Benton suggests.

I got a pair of active noise cancelling headphones for Christmas this year, and it took a few weeks of use before finding them comfortable to wear.

As opposed to my Powerbeats Pro (which offer “noise cancelling” as a result of the little plastic dinguses I shove into my ear canals), these Bose headphones actively filter out background noise.

If I have them on in my office for more than a half hour, it will hurt when I take them off. Everything sounds so loud, even the din of the white noise that gets piped into the office seems irritatingly noticeable.