Popping your ears means forcing open a small tube that connects your middle ear to the back of your throat, letting air rush in to equalize pressure. The sensation of fullness or muffled hearing happens because gases naturally diffuse out of your middle ear through tiny blood vessels, creating a slight vacuum compared to the air around you. Opening that tube, called the eustachian tube, lets atmospheric pressure back in and produces the familiar pop. Here are the most effective ways to do it.
Why Your Ears Feel Blocked
Your middle ear is a sealed space behind the eardrum. Oxygen and carbon dioxide slowly pass through the walls of small blood vessels inside it, which gradually lowers the pressure relative to the outside atmosphere. Normally, swallowing and yawning open the eustachian tube dozens of times a day without you noticing. But when the tube stays shut, whether from congestion, altitude changes, or swelling, the pressure difference pulls the eardrum inward. That’s the plugged, underwater feeling.
Rapid altitude changes make this worse. During airplane descent or a dive underwater, outside pressure climbs quickly while your middle ear stays at the lower pressure from higher altitude. The greater the mismatch, the harder it becomes to open the tube, which is why timing matters.
Swallowing and Yawning
The simplest technique is just swallowing or yawning. Both actions contract muscles attached to the eustachian tube, pulling it open briefly and letting a small burst of air into the middle ear. Chewing gum, sucking on hard candy, or sipping water all trigger repeated swallowing. For mild pressure, this is often enough.
The Valsalva Maneuver
This is the classic “pinch and blow” method most people try first. Pinch your nostrils shut, close your mouth, and gently push air out as if you’re trying to exhale through your nose. Hold for about 15 to 20 seconds. You should feel your ears pop as air pushes through the eustachian tubes into the middle ear.
The key word is gently. Your eardrum can handle only a limited pressure difference before it risks tearing. In most people, the membrane can withstand up to about 35 kPa (roughly 5 psi), but forceful, repeated blowing can exceed that threshold. Never strain hard or blow explosively. If a gentle effort doesn’t work, try a different technique rather than pushing harder.
The Toynbee Maneuver
This approach works in the opposite direction from the Valsalva. Pinch your nostrils closed and swallow at the same time. Swallowing with a sealed nose creates a brief pressure shift in the back of your throat that can nudge the eustachian tube open. Some people find this more effective than blowing, especially when their ears feel overpressurized rather than underpressurized. You can alternate between the Valsalva and Toynbee maneuvers to find which one clicks for your situation.
The Frenzel Maneuver
Divers often prefer this technique because it’s gentler, uses very little air, and can be repeated quickly. Here’s how it works: pinch your nose, close the back of your throat (as if you’re about to lift something heavy), then press your tongue upward and backward against the roof of your mouth. That tongue movement compresses the small pocket of air in your throat and directs it into the eustachian tubes without involving your lungs or diaphragm at all.
Because the Frenzel maneuver doesn’t rely on lung pressure, it carries a significantly lower risk of overpressurizing the middle ear compared to the Valsalva. Divers can use it hands-free with a nose clip, and it works at depths where the Valsalva becomes impractical (beyond about 30 meters, there simply isn’t enough air in the lungs to push against the surrounding water pressure). For everyday ear popping on a plane, it’s equally useful once you get the hang of it, though the tongue coordination takes some practice.
Popping Ears on a Flight
Airplane ear is most common during descent, when cabin pressure rises faster than your middle ear can adjust. The Mayo Clinic recommends staying awake during takeoff and landing so you can actively equalize. Yawn and swallow repeatedly, or use the Valsalva maneuver gently several times, especially as the plane descends. Chewing gum gives you continuous swallowing action without thinking about it.
If you’re flying with a cold or sinus congestion, the swollen tissue around the eustachian tube makes equalization harder. An oral decongestant or nasal spray taken 30 minutes to an hour before takeoff and again before landing can help shrink that tissue enough to let the tube open. Filtered earplugs designed for flying slow down the rate of pressure change reaching the eardrum, giving you more time to equalize naturally.
Helping Babies and Young Children
Infants can’t perform any of these maneuvers on their own, but they still get the same ear pressure during flights. The solution is to trigger swallowing: nurse, offer a bottle (with the baby sitting upright), or give a pacifier during takeoff and landing. For toddlers, a sippy cup or snack that requires chewing works well. Timing matters most during descent, so start feeding or offering the pacifier as the plane begins its approach.
What About Decongestants for Chronic Fullness?
Over-the-counter nasal decongestants are widely recommended for ear pressure, but the evidence for their effectiveness is surprisingly weak. Research testing nasal decongestant sprays found no improvement in eustachian tube opening in most patients. In a minority of cases, tube function actually worsened. For short-term use before a flight, decongestants may still help by reducing nasal swelling enough to make manual techniques more effective. But if you’re dealing with ongoing ear fullness unrelated to altitude, decongestant sprays are unlikely to solve the underlying problem.
When Pressure Won’t Clear
Most episodes of ear pressure are mild and resolve within a few days with simple swallowing, yawning, or gentle blowing. Persistent fullness that lasts longer than a week or two, recurring pressure that keeps coming back, pain, hearing loss, or fluid draining from the ear all point to eustachian tube dysfunction that may need professional evaluation. There are no standardized diagnostic guidelines, so diagnosis typically involves a medical history and examination to identify what’s keeping the tube from working, whether that’s chronic allergies, a structural issue, or lingering inflammation. Surgical options exist but are generally reserved for cases that don’t respond to other approaches.
Avoiding Injury
The biggest risk with ear popping is blowing too hard. Your eardrum can rupture when internal pressure exceeds what the membrane can handle, and vigorous, repeated Valsalva attempts are a known cause. If gentle pressure doesn’t produce a pop, stop. Try swallowing, the Toynbee maneuver, or wait a few minutes and try again. Forcing it risks not just eardrum perforation but also damage to the delicate structures of the inner ear. During scuba diving, equalizing early and often on the way down is far safer than waiting until pressure builds and then trying to force your ears open at depth.