Imagine this: you wake up one morning and you notice something strange. You missed your alarm. You look over and you realize it’s going off, but you cannot hear it. You turn on your morning news, but you cannot hear what they’re saying. You can’t hear the coffee brewing. You can’t hear your husband asking for the morning paper.

What would you do?

Nearly 10 percent of Americans suffer from hearing loss and that number is steadily increasing. Everyone is at risk of hearing loss, and you especially if you don’t protect your ears. Every day, we experience billions of sounds. These sounds don’t damage our hearing. It’s the sounds that are too loud that can be harmful. Noise-induced hearing loss can happen to anyone. You may think it won’t happen to you, but you’re not immune. Nearly 26 million Americans have hearing loss that may have been caused by exposure to noise whether in leisure activities or at work.

What sounds are we referring to? Anything over 85 decibels can cause hearing loss. The louder the sound, the shorter amount of time it takes for you to lose your hearing. Ever mowed your lawn? Your lower mower is likely to be as loud as 95 decibels. Love to work out in the gym to your favorite pump up song at full blast? You’re probably at about 110 decibels. Listening to that for an hour a day for 8 days? You’re likely to develop a hearing loss. Every flown in a plane? You see the runway workers always have ear safety headphones on. A plane can produce up to 150 decibels, which is enough to rupture your eardrum instantly. If you love shooting firearms, every shot hits up to 145 decibels. At a typical concert, the music gets up to 115 decibels.

Remember that time you left a concert and your ears were ringing? This is caused by damage to tiny hair cells in your inner ear. When you destroy these cells, your brain gets strange messages so it creates fake signals to neutralize. So basically, you are hearing sounds that aren’t really there.

Protect yourself: earplugs. Concertgoers may think this is “lame,” but you should really reconsider. Chronic hearing loss can have major effects on your lifestyle. Can you imagine walking out of a concert and it was the last one you could ever hear?