The future of your own hearing is in your hands. There are a few reasons I can think of why drummers do not protect their hearing. Laziness may be the biggest reason. Another is that they don't like how it sounds when wearing ear plugs or cotton balls. The only other reason I can think of it that it is uncomfortable. Unfortunately, none of these reasons is good enough to justify not wearing them.

The reason that the sound gets muffled and distorted when wearing the cheaper earplugs or cotton balls is because the higher frequencies are being cut out of the mix before it gets to your eardrum. A lot of the delicate or higher frequency sounds that are desireable in music may be difficult to hear or distorted in some way. If this is the reason you don't wear hearing protection then there is a solution for you. Westone makes custom earplugs with special filters that will attenuate the sound without filtering out frequencies. They will enable you to hear the full spectrum of sound, and still protect your ears.

You can get these ear plugs custom molded to the shape of your ear canal so that they have a perfect seal. There are colored dots to indicate which ear they belong to. The red dot means right ear, and the blue dot means left ear. Contact your local ear, nose, and throat clinic to find out if they provide these custom ear plugs or any other type of musicians ear plugs. The money you spend on proper hearing protection is well worth it. If you can't afford them, at least ask for them as a Christmas or birthday present. Your hearing is more valuable than any amount of drum or musical equimpment you will ever own.