We live in times where silence has become a luxury. It is not without reason that we have legal restrictions on, for example, night curfew. What if I told you that noise is the second biggest environmental threat in public life? It is only outpaced by air pollution. So let's take a look at how noise is destroying the world and people, and finally find out what you can do to reduce its negative impact.
First of all, it is worth realizing how big a threat we are dealing with. In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report entitled "The burden of disease from environmental noise". As we can read, "this study compiles data from various large-scale epidemiological studies on environmental noise in Western Europe, collected over a 10-year period."
However, the destructive power of noise does not only affect people. It turns out that it also has a negative impact on the natural environment, for example on marine animals. “Noise related to human activity impairs cooperation and communication in dolphins” – we read in the article “Dolphins shout above each other to cut through the noise produced by humans.” According to experts, noise generated by human activities, such as mining and shipping, has a potentially harmful impact on the health of the population of these marine creatures.
Environmental noise includes things such as the sound of airplanes, cars and other means of transport, city renovations, and all other city noises. This may also include other sources of noise, such as clubs, bars or, in some cases, animals. Researchers looked at whether there was a correlation between these noise-causing factors and the decline in quality of life and health, which manifested itself in cardiovascular diseases, sleep disorders, tinnitus, cognitive impairment in children and irritability. As you can guess, noise played a part in the development of these disorders.
The most destructive sounds for us are those that we are not fully aware of, because we are accustomed to their existence and we do not even try to avoid them. Thus, during the day and even at night, we are constantly accompanied by various types of noises and murmurs that gradually degrade our health.
You must realize that the human ear canal is constantly open - even when you are sleeping. During sleep, our eyes are closed, so visual stimuli reach us to a very limited extent. However, auditory stimuli are constantly processed by the mind. So even when you sleep, your ears are working, capturing and transmitting sounds that are filtered and interpreted by different parts of the brain - sounds such as a dog barking, cars passing by, or trains, all constantly enter our mind.
This is the trap of ubiquitous noise. It destroys slowly, even imperceptibly, because we are so accustomed to its existence. Noise can be compared to polluted air. Pollution cannot be seen with the naked eye, it cannot often be felt, but as a result of long-term exposure to toxic substances, our sense of well-being degrades and our health simply deteriorates.
Of course, huge noise is uncomfortable for humans, just as air containing smoke is uncomfortable. However, there is a lot of noise around you that you are not aware of. Noise that (to paraphrase a perversely popular saying) cannot be heard with the naked ear. Even when you come home from work or school and you have a buzzing in your head or a multitude of different sounds, this is the result of noise overstimulation.
The authors of the previously mentioned study concluded that "there is overwhelming evidence that exposure to environmental noise has an adverse impact on public health," and as a result, they placed road traffic noise in second place among environmental threats to public health.
According to the report "Environmental noise in Europe - 2020", environmental noise causes 48,000 new cases of ischemic heart disease annually and 12,000 premature deaths. Additionally, 22 million people suffer from chronic irritability and 6.5 million people struggle with chronic sleep disorders.
The human ear perceives sounds in a very wide range of intensities: from 0 to 120 decibels, but above the threshold of 120 decibels most people experience pain and hearing damage may also occur. At the same time, lower intensity sounds, especially with longer exposure, may be equally harmful to hearing.
What noise intensity becomes harmful? Let's take a look at the individual levels:
- Below 35 dB - harmless to health, may be annoying or interfere with work that requires concentration. This is a level typical of the whisper or noise of the forest.
- 35–70 dB – affects the fatigue of the human nervous system, seriously impeding speech intelligibility, falling asleep and resting. This noise level is assumed by, for example, loud conversations.
- 70-85 dB - this intensity significantly reduces work efficiency, may be harmful to health and cause hearing damage. This level of noise accompanies, for example, standing in a traffic jam in a medium-sized city.
- 85–130 dB – causes numerous diseases of the human body, making speech incomprehensible even from a distance of 50 cm. Imagine that this level of noise prevails in the noisiest cities in the world, located mainly in Asia, such as Dhaka, Moradabad or Islamabad.
- Above 130 dB - causes permanent hearing damage, stimulates vibrations of human internal organs, causing diseases. This noise is heard when an ambulance passes by or an explosion occurs.
You may have never looked in this direction for a reason, but…
If you suffer from chronic stress, have difficulty concentrating, experience a drop in productivity at your job (even your dream job, which you can get thanks to our e-book, available at niewiem.pl), there is a high probability that these problems result from, among other things, constant exposure to noise. Other possible symptoms of auditory fatigue include communication difficulties, cognitive impairment, even cardiovascular disease and, of course, sleep disorders.
A study conducted by Dr. Orfeu Buxton, a sleep expert at Harvard University, monitored the brain activity of healthy volunteers who were played 10-second audio clips containing different types of noise while they slept. As we can read in the article Health effects of environmental noise pollution, on the website of the Australian Academy of Science:
"The study found that jagged, wake-like patterns of neural activity appeared in the volunteers' brain waves as each clip played. This particular study focused on sounds heard in a hospital environment - including conversations, phones ringing, doors closing, machines, flushing toilets and city traffic - but we also heard many of the tested sounds in urban environments. "
Therefore, even if some sounds do not wake you up completely, they reduce the quality of sleep. Sleep is a regeneration mechanism for the brain and body. If the regeneration process is disturbed, our body and mind do not regenerate. You age faster, you are constantly tired and chronically stressed. And all this may result from living on a too busy street or airport. Scientists have found that people exposed to high levels of aircraft noise are up to five times more likely to require hospital treatment or die from stroke and cardiovascular diseases.
We'll talk about the other devastating effects later in the episode, but for now I'd like you to conduct a little experiment. Think about it, when was the last time you had the opportunity to stay and rest in silence? It's about the truly deafening silence that you can experience in the middle of nowhere or in the mountains. Unless you live in a place with easy access to wildlife, it's probably been a long time since you've experienced one of the most luxurious products of the 21st century - silence.
I encourage you to indulge in this niche pleasure from time to time and give your ears a rest, especially if you live in a busy city. Several things will happen as a result of this silent meditation, and you will probably be fascinated by their effects.
You will feel your body relax and your blood pressure stabilize. You will also feel a kind of relief that comes from inner peace emerging. You will also feel a state that you may not have experienced for a long time, i.e. a reduction in stress levels. By regularly taking such baths in silence without any distractions, you will be able to really improve the quality of your life, even in areas where you do not expect it, such as in the sexual sphere.
However, it turns out that even silence can be overdosed.
Despite the fact that we do not need noise to live and that it can even destroy life, the opposite situation, i.e. the absolute lack of sound stimuli, also has a negative impact on humans. All daredevils who took the opportunity to enter the quietest room in the world experienced this.
The walls of the room not only do not allow sounds from outside to pass through, but also absorb those that are inside. Noise does not exist because its value according to measurements is 20 dB, only negative. Being in such conditions, a person begins to hear his own body more clearly. As the founder of the laboratory states:
“You will hear your heart beating, and sometimes you may hear your lungs or a loud gurgling in your stomach. In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.”
As a result of such strong deprivation, after some time the human mind begins to generate sounds itself just to have access to stimuli. As a result, auditory hallucinations occur. Therefore, we need sound for normal functioning, but it cannot be too loud.
However, the question arises - why?
The human species has evolved for thousands of years in certain conditions in which sound played a very important information role. When I say “very important,” I really mean something extremely important. Because the sound could herald... death. For thousands of years, when humans lived close to nature, a sudden loud sound was usually a sign of danger. Therefore, the human body has developed certain mechanisms designed to maximize the chance of survival in the face of such a high-profile threat.
The increased level of stress is the result of cortisol and adrenaline, which were released in the body at such moments. In addition, of course, there is the aspect of increased mental activity and general stimulation. The body must be on alert to detect potential threats associated with noisy sounds early enough. Now you know where sleep disorders and concentration problems come from.
If the sound stimulus is loud and almost constantly accompanies a person, it is equivalent to the state of body tension. And the state of tension and excessive stress often also means metabolic disorders and recurrent headaches.
However, from an evolutionary point of view, silence in most cases indicated safety in a given situation. In such circumstances, the body could regenerate in peace, instead of watching for the upcoming threat.
Now that you know all these mechanisms and are aware of the dangers resulting from chronic exposure to noise, you have probably started wondering what to do to avoid it all.
It is obvious that you need to start avoiding noise. Start with the things you can influence the most - from setting a slightly nicer and quieter alarm clock to muting the TV during commercials and reducing the number of notifications on your phone, to dusting your earplugs. Over time, you can replace home electronic devices with ones that operate more quietly.
It is also worth taking a silent bath regularly - that is, going to places where a lot of unpleasant sounds cannot reach. The forest is the perfect place to relax from the hustle and bustle.
Also, and perhaps above all, take care of your sleep hygiene. Don't bombard yourself with a lot of sound stimuli before going to bed. When it comes to reducing noise at night, it is worth buying earplugs. You can also invest in an eye mask - although, as you probably guessed, it does not reduce noise, but it improves the quality of sleep, so your body's regeneration after the whole day will be better.
If you live in a really noisy area, you have no choice - you have to take care of your hygiene and reduce the level of chronic stress in various ways. Remember that noise generates stress, which leads to other disorders. You can reduce your stress level through meditation and mindfulness. You won't reduce the noise around you this way, but you will be able to reduce the amount of cortisol.
The final solution is to move to a peaceful and quiet area, if you can afford it, of course.
Sources:
1. Silence for the brave, or the quietest room in the world (online), access: https://www.tvp.pl/65981332/cisza-dla-odwaznych-niczy-najcichsze-pomiesz-swiata, [access date: October 13, 2023] .
2. Dolphins "scream" to break through the noise produced by humans (online), access: https://tvn24.pl/tvnmeteo/nauka/delfiny-przekrzyczuja-sie-aby-przebic-sie-prze-halas- manufactured-by-czlowieka-6627623, [access date: 15/10/2023].
3. Health effects of environmental noise pollution (online), access: https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/health-effects-environmental-noise-pollution, [access date: 15/10/2023].
4. Itzkowitz N., Gong X., Atilola G., Aircraft noise and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality near Heathrow Airport: A case-crossover study, “Environment International” 2023, vol. 177; access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023002891.
5. What noise level is harmful? (online), access: https://www.fonix.pl/o-sluchu/jaki-zdrowie-halasu-jest-szkodliwy/, [access date: October 13, 2023].
6. Noise pollution is a major problem, both for human health and the environment (online), access: https://www.eea.europa.eu/articles/noise-pollution-is-a-major, [access date: 15/10/2023].
7. WHO Report "The burden of disease from environmental noise" (online), access: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/326424, [access date: 15/10/2023].
8. Sleep Disruption due to Hospital Noises (online), access: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-157-2-201208070-00456?articleid=1305527, [access date: 13/10. 2023].
9. The Noisiest Cities In The World (online), access: https://www.iac-australia.com.au/news/the-noisiest-cities-in-the-world/, [access date: 13/10/2023 ]
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