Health, Sleep, and more
Turn the music down! Go to bed!
YOUR APPLE WATCH can now take steps to protect your hearing, it can remind you to wash your hands to reduce the risk of virus transmission, and it can give you valuable insights into how well you’re sleeping.
We’ve had the Noise app warning us about loud sounds since watchOS 6, but your Watch is no longer just a passive listener. If you enable the Reduce Loud Sounds option it can adjust the volume of your headphones to ensure that you’re not subjecting your ears to excessive volume levels, and it now gives you a weekly listening report that can help warn you if your cumulative exposure to loud noises is potentially disastrous for your hearing.
Monitoring ongoing exposure is important because the World Health Organisation reports a significant rise in hearing loss among younger people in recent years, and suggests that headphones, particularly earbuds, play a significant role in that rise. We know very loud sounds can damage our hearing, but damage can also come from regular or prolonged exposure to sounds that aren’t so obviously dangerous. That damage is irreversible, so clearly it’s better to try to prevent it from happening.