Why do your ears hurt before a plane lands?
― Pushing air into the space behind your eardrum is much harder than letting it out
Takeoff was fine, but shortly before landing your ears start to throb. Many people notice this odd difference, and there's a clear reason for it. Behind your eardrum sits a sealed pocket of air. Letting air "out" of it is easy, but pushing air "in" is much harder.
The plane starts descending, and the announcement comes: "We will shortly begin our descent for landing." Around then, your ears feel plugged, and sounds around you seem muffled.
In bad cases, it turns into a sharp pain, as if something is pressing hard into your ear. Nearby, a baby suddenly starts crying.
You swallow, and there's a little "pop" deep in your ear, then instant relief. So what was actually happening inside your ear?
Just two reasons
Just behind your eardrum sits a small chamber filled with air. When the outside pressure alone changes, the eardrum gets pushed and pulled unevenly from both sides, and that's what hurts.
A narrow tube links that chamber to your throat, but it's normally closed. This tube opens easily when air needs to escape outward, but not so easily when air needs to go in.
In short, your ears hurt because when a plane "descends," air needs to be pushed back into your ears. Let's walk through it step by step.
The eardrum is a "thin membrane" sandwiched between two pockets of air
At the far end of your ear canal sits the eardrum, a thin membrane about 0.1mm thick. Behind it is a small cavity inside your ear, filled with air. The eardrum sits sandwiched between this air and the air outside.
Normally, the pressure inside and outside is equal. So the eardrum isn't pushed either way, and it's free to vibrate with sound alone.
But on a plane, cabin pressure changes a great deal. Airliners pump air into the cabin while flying at high altitude. Even so, cabin pressure is said to drop to roughly what you'd feel on a mountain over 2000m high. Then, as the plane descends for landing, it climbs back to ground-level pressure.
At this point, if the outside pressure rises while the pressure behind the eardrum stays low, the eardrum gets pushed inward from outside. That thin membrane stretches, and you feel it as pain. Sound also has trouble getting through, so your ears feel blocked.
Air is easy to let "out," hard to push "in"
The chamber behind your eardrum connects to the space behind your nose and throat via a narrow tube called the Eustachian tube. When this tube opens, the chamber's pressure equalizes with the outside.
But the Eustachian tube normally stays shut, its soft walls stuck together. It only opens for a moment, when you swallow or yawn — the muscles of your throat pull the tube's walls apart to create a gap.
Look at the left side of Figure 1. As a plane climbs, outside pressure drops, so the chamber ends up with more air than the outside. That air pushes the closed tube open from the inside. Air escapes on its own, so there's little pain.
The right side of Figure 1 shows descent. Now the chamber is short on air, and its pressure is lower than outside. So the tube gets pressed from outside, and its walls stick together even more tightly. The only way to get air in is to force the tube open with muscle power.
While the pressure difference is still small, swallowing alone is enough to open it. But once the difference grows too large, swallowing reportedly stops working. That's why the pain gets worse right before landing — the difference keeps building up bit by bit.
The "pop" or "click" you hear when you swallow is the sound of the Eustachian tube opening, air flowing in, and the pushed-in eardrum springing back to its normal position. The same thing happens when a bullet train enters a tunnel, or when an elevator races up or down a tall building.
A child's Eustachian tube is said to be shorter than an adult's, more horizontal, and its opening mechanism still immature. Babies also can't pop their own ears. Once the plane starts descending, nursing, bottle-feeding, or giving them a drink to encourage swallowing tends to help.
So what should you do?
- Swallow often once descent beginsSip water, suck a sweet, chew gum, or yawn. The trick is to open the tube repeatedly while the pressure gap is still small.
- Don't sleep before landingSleeping means you swallow less often, letting the pressure difference build up.
- Equalize your ears "gently"Pinch your nose, close your mouth, and blow lightly through your nose. Blowing too hard can actually damage your ear.
When a cold or hay fever has your nose blocked, the entrance to the Eustachian tube is also swollen and harder to open. If you have a flight coming up, it's worth checking with an ENT doctor beforehand. If pain or muffled hearing continues after landing, see a doctor promptly.
Summary
Behind your eardrum sits a sealed little pocket of air. When a plane climbs, the air in that pocket escapes through the tube on its own. When it descends, you have to force the closed tube open to let air back in. Your ears only hurt before landing because of this one-way trait: easy to let out, hard to let in.
Air behind your ear leaves freely on its own,
but getting back in takes your own "swallow."
How pressure differences affect the body is covered in "Why does altitude sickness happen just from gaining elevation?", and the invisible strength of air pressure is covered in "Why can you drink through a straw?"
- In a quiet room, focus on your ears and swallow slowly. Listen for a small "pop" deep inside.
- Next, try a big yawn. Compare how the sound and sensation differ from swallowing.
- In a tall building's elevator, or driving down a mountain road, notice when the blocked feeling starts, and count how many swallows it takes to clear.
Please don't try pinching your nose and blowing hard as an experiment. Avoid trying any of this if your ears hurt or you have a cold.
Want to know more? ― Terms, equations, and textbook linksWe've marked which level each part belongs to, from middle-school science to university specialist courses
- MSCovered in middle-school science
- HSCovered in high-school "Physics" or "Biology"
- HS+Advanced high-school content, or textbook sidebar material
- Univ.Not covered in high school — university specialist course content (otolaryngology, physiology)
- ResearchNot yet settled "textbook fact" even at university — an active research topic
MSTerms: this phenomenon has names
- Middle ear: an air-filled cavity behind the eardrum. It houses the tiny bones (ossicles) that carry sound.
- Eustachian tube: the tube connecting the middle ear to the upper throat (nasopharynx) behind the nose. Normally closed, it opens briefly when you swallow or yawn.
- Barotitis media (airplane ear): damage to the eardrum or middle-ear lining when cabin pressure changes can't be equalized with the middle ear. A type of "barotrauma."
MSHSCheck it with numbers: is the pressure gap before landing like diving several meters in a pool?
Let's convert the cabin's pressure change into an equivalent water depth. The meaning and units of each symbol are summarized right after the table.
| Ground-level pressure (standard) | about 1013 hPa |
| Cabin pressure at high cruising altitude (lower-bound estimate) | said to be about 750 hPa |
| Pressure increase per 1m of water depth | about 98 hPa |
| Eardrum surface area | said to be about 0.6 cm² (0.00006 m²) |
| Gap at which swallowing reportedly stops opening the tube | about 90 mmHg |
| Pressure gap recovered before landing | 1013 − 750 = 263 hPa |
| Converted to water depth | 263 ÷ 98 ≒ 2.7 m |
| Converting the tube's lockup gap to hPa (1 mmHg ≒ 1.333 hPa) | 90 × 1.333 ≒ 120 hPa |
| That gap converted to water depth | 120 ÷ 98 ≒ 1.2 m |
| Converting 120 hPa to Pa | 120 × 100 = 12000 Pa |
| Force on the eardrum (pressure × area) | 12000 × 0.00006 = 0.72 N |
| Converted to weight (0.72 N ÷ 9.8) | 0.72 ÷ 9.8 ≒ 0.073 kg |
The pressure change your ears experience as a plane descends is roughly like diving about 2.7m to the bottom of a pool. If you don't swallow and let a gap of about 1.2m worth build up, the tube reportedly becomes hard to open. At that point, the eardrum has roughly 70-odd grams of weight resting on an area the size of a fingertip.
| Symbol | Meaning and unit |
| hPa | Hectopascal, a unit of pressure; 1 hPa = 100 Pa |
| mmHg | Millimeters of mercury, a pressure unit widely used in medicine |
| N | Newton, a unit of force; roughly a 0.1 kg object weighs about 1 N |
HSHS+Why is it "one-way"?
HSThe middle ear is a cavity enclosed by bone, so its shape barely changes. When only the outside pressure changes, the eardrum is the only part that can move. So the pressure difference translates almost directly into force on the eardrum. Thinking with Boyle's law, the middle ear's volume changes only slightly, so its pressure can barely keep up.
HS+The throat-side portion of the Eustachian tube is made not of bone but of cartilage and soft tissue. When middle-ear pressure is high, it's pushed from inside and peels open like a flap. When middle-ear pressure is low, its walls get pressed shut from outside, acting like a valve that closes. This is why air escapes passively on ascent, but has to be forced open by muscle on descent.
Univ.The muscle that opens the tube, and how the middle ear loses air
The main muscle responsible for opening the Eustachian tube is thought to be the tensor veli palatini, deep in the throat. During swallowing or yawning, this muscle pulls the tube's wall sideways to create a gap. The middle-ear lining also steadily absorbs the air's components into the bloodstream. So even without flying, if the tube never opens, the middle ear gradually becomes negatively pressured. This is why reduced Eustachian tube function from rhinitis and similar conditions can lead to otitis media with effusion. In medicine, a test measuring how freely the eardrum moves (tympanometry) is used to check middle-ear pressure.
ResearchWhat's still not fully understood
- The fine mechanics of how the tube opens. Which muscles act in what order, and where along the tube it opens first, is hard to capture directly with imaging, and remains under study.
- Individual differences in ear-pain susceptibility. Some people on the same flight feel pain while others don't. How much each factor — tube shape, lining condition, muscle function — contributes isn't yet well understood.
- How to compare the effectiveness of prevention methods. Nasal medications, ear-popping devices, and pressure-regulating earplugs are all in use, but studies disagree on how well each works for whom.
In other words, this article too reflects "the current state of understanding." Individual differences in how pain is felt are especially large.
Links to textbook units (by level)
| Level | Subject / unit | Where in this article |
|---|---|---|
| MS | Science (atmospheric/water pressure, ear structure) | How the eardrum sits between two pockets of air, conversion to water depth |
| HS | Physics (pressure, gas laws), Biology (receptors) | Pressure × area = force, a cavity whose shape doesn't change |
| HS+ | Advanced physics (soft tubes and valves) | Why the Eustachian tube is one-way |
| Univ. | Otolaryngology, physiology | Tensor veli palatini, middle-ear gas exchange, otitis media |
| Research | Eustachian tube function research | Details of the opening motion, individual differences, evaluating prevention methods |
| ― | Everyday connections | Ear discomfort on planes, bullet trains, elevators, mountain roads |
- US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), pilot safety brochure "Ear Facts"
- Mayo Clinic, "Airplane ear"
- Kirisu Ichiro (original author), *Shin Jibi Inkoka Gaku* (新耳鼻咽喉科学, "New Otolaryngology"), Nanzando (anatomy and physiology of the middle ear and Eustachian tube)
- Otological Society of Japan (日本耳科学会) and Japan Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society (日本耳鼻咽喉科頭頸部外科学会), clinical guidance on Eustachian tube function
※This article is a general-audience science explainer. The figures given are approximations meant to aid understanding of the mechanism. If ear pain or muffled hearing persists, or fluid leaks from your ear, don't self-diagnose — see an ENT doctor. Follow any instructions given by your airline or doctor.