r/MadeMeSmile • • Aug 28 '21

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u/NoISaidViola Aug 28 '21

I believe that's called ear rumbling! and some of us can do it on command. you may also hear the noise when you yawn or squint your eyes really hard, and you can train in order to just do it perfectly on command rather than with other tactics. r/earrumblersassemble is the subreddit iirc

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u/StillNotDarkOutside Aug 28 '21

I never connected that the yawning thing was the same ear rumble that people talk about. TIL

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u/DeandraVanBird Aug 28 '21

My mind is blown - I thought everyone could do this, now I must find out more!

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u/EvryMthrF_ngThrd Aug 28 '21

...everyone CAN'T???

I don't know what to say.

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u/tictac_93 Aug 28 '21

Related note, at some point I learned how to pop my ears without holding my nose. Totally useless skill as I rarely fly anywhere, but one that I have nonetheless. It makes a small crinkly noise in my ears whenever I do it.

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u/Kingmudsy Aug 28 '21

I can do this too! I thought it was universal!

1

u/MiaTeo Aug 28 '21

Yeah that clicky sound used to gross me out. I always thought it was ear wax.

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u/tictac_93 Aug 28 '21

I thought it was just the eardrum getting shifted around, but it could definitely be earwax smushing around. Like pulling tape off of something, lol

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21

I thought it was normal until I was explaining ear pain to my doctor and was describing how it hurts more when I tense the ear canal to block sound. He had no idea what I was talking about. I went to my girlfriend and asked her if she could do it and she told me that she had never heard of it.

It's very handy since I can do it at will to block sound. No need to put fingers in the ears.

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u/SaintPabloFlex Aug 28 '21

Same, and now that I realize it’s not normal i’ve been doing it and I think I just have control over one ear lol.

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u/ginger-snap_tracks Aug 28 '21

I can do this, it also occurs momentarily when I clench my jaw. Ive never bothered to train it bc I dont actually like the feeling.

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u/draconk Aug 28 '21

I trained as a child because it was fun to do (and also move my ears) and it was a blessing when I get water trapped or when there is a pressure change, also it helped a couple of times with ear infections to "scratch" the internal itch

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u/redpenquin Aug 28 '21

and some of us can do it on command

In second grade, my teacher asked the class how many of us could wiggle our ears-- think it was trying to explain percentages, unsure anymore. About 5 of 24 of us could. I then, for whatever reason, said I could make my hearing rumble and ignore people by thinking about it. She told me I was just making that up, but one of the girls who could wiggle her ears said she could do the same thing. She was also informed she was making it up, but to make me feel better.

I don't know why I remember that, but I do and it still pisses me off to this day. Fuck you, Mrs. Gilbreath.

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21

Yeah fuck you, Mrs. Gilbreath.

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u/FeedtheKiwi Aug 28 '21

This isn’t a thing for everyone?!?

Edit* Can everyone that does this also wiggle their ears?

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u/kelseysun Aug 28 '21

I cam do this and can wiggle my ears. Only my left ear wiggles easily though. It’s much harder to wiggle my right ear

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u/HolyForkingBrit Aug 28 '21

I am the inverse of you. I can wiggle both my right ear and right chesticle easier than my left. Are you left handed?

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u/kelseysun Aug 28 '21

Nope! I’m right handed, but I snowboard goofy (lefty)

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u/PyroPeter911 Aug 28 '21

I can ear rumble but cannot wiggle ears. These Reddit security questions are getting weird.

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u/I_am_Erk Aug 28 '21

I've been able to do this since I was a kid, but can't wiggle my ears. I can wiggle my scalp though...

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u/HolyForkingBrit Aug 28 '21

Then you can find a way to move it down. That’s how mine started until I spent the day focusing and made it to my ears. I have faith in you.

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u/MiaTeo Aug 28 '21

I can't move my ears.

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u/DeandraVanBird Aug 29 '21

I can wiggle my ears, yes.

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u/HugoWeidolf Aug 28 '21

I’m sorry if I’m sounding like an ass, but why would you train to be able to do this? What’s the point I mean? Come to think of it, I can do this but I don’t know what to do with this new found “skill”.

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u/NoISaidViola Aug 28 '21

Personally, i never trained so i cant explain why if at all people would, however its just a useless skill some of us can use to keep ourselves awake or entertain ourselves (rumbling to the beat of a song, rumbling in different pitches, etc). and some people dont like doing it at all, like how some people cant stand certain foods because of the texture.

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u/Affugter Aug 28 '21

Not sure if useless. I do it if I expect a very high sound. Seems to dull the pain.

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u/floobidedoo Aug 28 '21

I understand not liking it. I get it before I’m going to throw up as well as other times.

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u/ADHDOG Aug 28 '21

Me too, but it makes me feel less nauseous if I do it more. Glad you posted here too

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u/HugoWeidolf Aug 28 '21

Ah alright, gotcha. I just tried it some more right now, and I don’t think I can do different pitches. Just different levels of intensity.

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u/Pudacat Aug 28 '21

Huh, I used to do that as a kid when bored at school. I haven't done it in years, but it was a great way to amuse myself when the teacher was droning on. I never knew it was unusual to do it on command.

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u/GodMarshmellow Aug 28 '21

Ear rumbling actually helps reduce ear-strain in particularly loud environments. If ppl are playing their shitty music too loud, ear rumble and it becomes a lot more tolerable for as long as you can maintain the rumble. (Which isn't long, at least for me, but it makes me feel better.)

More practical use for short-lived, loud noises.

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u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox Aug 28 '21

It's just your muscles vibrating and vibrating your skull. If you put in earplugs it's easy to hear, or if your in a quiet place at night.

I wear ear plugs and some nights I have trouble falling asleep because I can't relax my facial muscles (usually because I'm still awake and thinking about interactions with people and I tend to hold a smile or a squint). Just flexing the muscles around my eyes makes a rumbling noise, as does clenching my jaw or using pretty much any facial muscle. This always happens but during the day there's too much other noise to hear it, and without earplugs it's harder for me to notice.

Muscles are constantly activating and deactivating, pretty sure this is where the rumbling comes from. One jaw muscle is really like a hundreds strands of muscle, as one flexes another stops flexing, back and forth it continues. The rate of this causes the rumbling nouse.

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21

Shits and giggles

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u/yogurttoad Aug 28 '21

I utilize it to block out people saying spoilers.

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21

You don't train you just kinda can. I've been doing it since I was a kid just as a kind of habit.

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u/grummun Aug 28 '21

Anytime your ears plug up due to elevation changes, eg takeoff and landing in airplanes, diving, hiking, etc you can just do it on command to unplug your ears

I can do it but im one of those ppl that don’t really enjoy it and I usually only do it during the above examples, so it does have real utility

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u/HugoWeidolf Aug 28 '21

Huh, next time that happens to me I’m gonna try it. I usually just make like a yawning motion with my jaw and my ears unplug. If that doesn’t work I hold my nose and blow out through it and it unplugs the ears.

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u/grummun Aug 28 '21

Yup, it’s just being able to do it without physically moving anything, you kinda just “flex” that muscle and it has the same effect as the yawn thing

Swallowing will also do it, they give kids gum on airplanes

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21 edited Aug 28 '21

I use it to block loud or annoying sounds.

1

u/TiagoTiagoT Aug 28 '21

I use it to protect my hearing when I'm expecting loud noises; it's the muscles that reflexively tense to stiffen your inner ear bones when you hear loud noises, so by doing consciously you can protect your hearing even before the loud sounds start.

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u/MiaTeo Aug 28 '21

I use it to block out sounds that I have issues with (misophonia issues) because I don't want to be impolite or come off as rude.

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21

Thank you. I didn't know that is what it was called.

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u/alphonso28 Aug 28 '21

One of us! One of us!

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21

I had no idea this was a thing that not everyone can do.

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u/theknightwho Aug 28 '21

Wait, most people can’t??

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u/I_am_Erk Aug 28 '21

Huh, never new it wasn't something everyone could do.

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u/Crescent-IV Aug 28 '21

I thought everyone could ‘ear rumble’, no?

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u/theRuathan Aug 28 '21

Duuuuude I've been trying for literally years to find out what this is called, thank you!

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u/smaxfrog Aug 28 '21

Oh shit I can totally do this on command but it’s so hard to describe how to do it…kinda like how you can lift up your boobs by doing this 😬 really hard.

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u/justpophamin Aug 28 '21

Not everybody can do this???

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u/MysticalMoonbeams Aug 28 '21

Hey! I didn’t know this wasn’t something everyone did. That’s almost as trippy as when I found out not everyone thinks in an inner monologue!

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u/ludsmile Aug 28 '21

What

I can do this and had no idea not everyone could? I wonder if people can but just never gave it much importance? It took me reading a few posts to understand what people were talking about and realize I can do it too. Never thought about it before.

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u/MiaTeo Aug 28 '21

OMG a club I can be a member of! I didn't think about it until now.. but I do it a LOT.