Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: kdlynn on 06/11/2007 16:33:22

Title: why do earplugs make me gag?
Post by: kdlynn on 06/11/2007 16:33:22
no, i wasn't eating them... i got some ear plugs to wear to bed because my neighbors are really noisy. i put them in as directed, but they somehow made me feel like i was choking. any suggestions?
Title: why do earplugs make me gag?
Post by: SquarishTriangle on 11/11/2007 03:09:46
Haha...I'm not the ONLY one that needs earplugs to get to sleep. I found it fairly uncomfortable when I first tried them, to the point where I couldn't get to sleep because a) I could feel something in my ears and b) I could hear my own heartbeat louder than I normally would. Now I feel a little strange trying to sleep without them.

I haven't experienced the chocking sensation though. It could just be that you are trapping a little bit of air in your ear canal, and then by pushing the earplug in increasing the pressure inside the ear canal. As you might have noticed, the ear is rather sensitive to changes in air pressure: as in elevators, aeroplanes etc.
Title: why do earplugs make me gag?
Post by: kdlynn on 12/11/2007 04:43:36
i hate them! i end up pulling them out in my sleep. my boyfriend said they make wax ones that are somehow custom fitted to your ears. i might have to try to find those
Title: why do earplugs make me gag?
Post by: Karen W. on 12/11/2007 11:03:59
Its ear putty and it is for swimmers and it works good without having to go so far into the canal.. go to the drugstore and get ear putty, you can even get designer colors you press it around your ear it is like silly putty but usually clearish and a bit firmer!
Title: why do earplugs make me gag?
Post by: kdlynn on 13/11/2007 02:00:46
thank you
Title: why do earplugs make me gag?
Post by: Karen W. on 13/11/2007 02:19:01
your welcome.. hope it stops the gagging!
Title: why do earplugs make me gag?
Post by: Hadrian on 13/11/2007 09:36:10
This could be Synaesthesia which literally refers to the fact that in some people, a stimulus in one sense modality involuntarily elicits a sensation/experience in another sense modality.  An example of this would be the taste of lemon visually evoking the colour blue.  The elicited synesthetic experience does not replace the normal experience but instead always adds to it.  Synesthetic elicitations are durable, consistent, and discrete, as noted by Dr. Cytowic.  Dr Richard E. Cytowic is best known for rediscovering synaesthesia in 1980 and returning it to the scientific mainstream where it is now seen as crucial to basic theories of how the brain works. Synaesthesia date back as far as Pythagoras (6th century B.C.) and Aristotle (4th century B.C.) who it is said had also written on the subject.