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About this tool
Alternating listen and rest timer for long headphone sessions, with a break schedule and how much of the daily sound allowance you use.
A listening break timer splits a long headphone session into repeating listen-and-rest blocks so your ears get regular quiet, and this one pairs that schedule with the sound-dose maths behind it. The default cycle follows the widely used 60/60 guidance — around an hour of continuous listening, then a rest — while the dose panel applies the WHO-ITU safe listening standard (Recommendation ITU-T H.870), which allows 80 dB(A) for 40 hours a week and halves the permitted time for every 3 dB you turn up. It is informational and does not replace a hearing test.
Open Headphone Listening Break Timer on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Add your input to the workspace.
Adjust the options until the result looks right.
Copy or download the output and put it to work.
Shows the whole session broken into blocks before you start, then counts down each one.
Converts your planned listening minutes into a share of the WHO-ITU daily sound allowance at your level.
Time in a break does not count towards listening, so the totals stay honest.
A common rule of thumb is a rest after about 60 minutes of continuous listening, which is the 60/60 guidance also used for volume. There is no single official interval, but the more relevant limit is total daily dose: at 85 dB(A) the WHO-ITU allowance works out to roughly 108 minutes of listening a day.
Five to ten minutes of genuine quiet is the usual suggestion, and longer after a loud block. What matters is that the break really is quiet — swapping headphones for a noisy commute or a loud room adds to the daily dose rather than resting from it.
No. Breaks reduce the total sound energy your ears take in and let temporary threshold shift — the muffled feeling after loud sound — recover, but they do not repair damaged hair cells. Noise-induced hearing loss is permanent, which is why limiting level and duration matters more than resting after the fact.
Both, combined as a dose. Sound energy doubles every 3 dB, so raising the volume 3 dB halves the time you can safely listen: 40 hours a week at 80 dB(A) becomes 20 hours at 83 dB(A) and about 24 minutes a week at 100 dB(A).