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How to Find Quiet in a Noisy World
BY CATHERINE BEARD
AUGUST 4, 2024
Take a moment to listen to the sounds around you right now. What can you hear?
As I write this, cars are driving by in the distance. A crow is cawing outside the window, and a leaf blower is humming loudly. I was rudely awoken this morning by a smoke detector chirping.
When you really take a moment to listen, you realize that moments of quiet are rare.
Even when you do find those moments, it’s hard to know what to do with yourself.
Shall I just twiddle my thumbs and listen to my own thoughts? That sounds like a form of torture.
Though silence is temporarily uncomfortable, noise pollution may be causing more discomfort than you realize. The constant buzz of outside noise can disrupt our health, concentration levels, and ability to actually listen.
Research shows that silence is good for our brains, and that quiet time can improve our memory and help us better understand ourselves and the world around us.
But how can we incorporate silence into our lives when it feels impossible to escape modern-day noise?
Keep reading to find out how noise might be affecting your well-being, as well as how to incorporate moments of silence into your daily routine (even if you squirm at the thought of quiet time).
P.S. Try listening to this birdsong video while you read this – apparently the sound of birds is good for calming the mind.
How noise is disrupting our lives
Are outside noises really the worst thing in the world? What if you like TV playing in the background to keep you company?
Well, controlled noise is one thing; noises completely out of your control are a different matter.
Noise pollution refers to “any unwanted or disturbing sound that affects the health and well-being of humans and other organisms.”
Here are a few of the disruptions that noise pollution may be causing in your life:
Noise breaks our focus
One of the most obvious issues with noise pollution is its effect on concentration and our ability to stay focused.
One study revealed that exposure to a nearby conversation in an office setting can reduce productivity by 66%.
I used to work in an open-concept office, and getting things done felt like a constant struggle. Hearing other people’s conversations and being interrupted at any moment was a constant invitation for distraction.
Ideally, we need to be in a state of flow to get things done and to enjoy what we’re doing. Flow, as discussed in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book, means being absorbed by what you’re doing to the point that you’re oblivious to outside distractions.
If you consider that it can take around 23 minutes to regain focus after being interrupted or distracted, these disruptions can prevent you from reaching that state of flow and making progress on anything.
Noise can create health problems
Of course, this isn’t all about being productive. Excess noise can disrupt your health as well.
Noise pollution has been linked to stress, sleep disturbances, high blood pressure, and even heart disease.
And this doesn’t mean noises that are extremely loud. Even noises that don’t produce hearing damage can harm your health.
One study found that children who lived under a flight path of an international airport in Germany “experienced modest but significant increases in blood pressure and significant increases in stress hormones” while children who lived in quiet areas experienced no such changes.
This makes me wonder how noises from the devices we use on a daily basis may be affecting our health without us realizing it.
We’re bombarded with sounds from our phones and computers, and I’ll bet certain notifications, such as those from Teams or Slack, break you into an instant sweat.
And with short-form video taking over, what are the noises we hear while scrolling doing to our brains?
Why silence is worth finding
Beyond improving focus and keeping us healthy, what else does silence do for us? Here’s why it’s worth embracing the discomfort of silence:
Silence improves cognitive function
Silence can feel incredibly boring. It may not feel like there’s anything to gain from being quiet since it’s not entertaining us, giving us new ideas, or teaching us anything.
After all, if you’re not feeding your brain with noise (aka information), you’re not expanding your knowledge.
But incorporating silence into your day may help your memory, which you need in order to actually absorb that knowledge.
While studying the impact of sounds in mice’s brains, researcher Imke Kirste “found that two hours of silence per day prompted cell development in the hippocampus.”
Essentially the lack of input positively affected the mice’s memory development.
Perhaps instead of trying to cram our brains with information all the time, we can learn better from some good old-fashioned quiet time.
Silence improves the connection to yourself
Most of us today are familiar with scrolling our phones to avoid what’s going on within us. Often when we’re having a rough time, we turn to outside sources to numb the pain.
But when we scroll our phones to distract ourselves, we’re exposed to even more excess noise from notifications, videos, and ads.
If we’re constantly distracting and numbing ourselves, we won’t be able to sit with our feelings.
If we can’t sit with our feelings, we’ll never be able to fully process them and release the grip they have on us.
As uncomfortable as it may be, silence can help us connect with ourselves because we’re willing to listen to what our thoughts and feelings are telling us.
“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.”
―Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
3 ways to incorporate silence into your routine
Now that you know the benefits of silence, here’s how to make it part of your daily life:
1. Find a quiet place
Finding silence will be difficult no matter where you live. Absolute silence is impossible to find (except for this silent room, which will apparently drive you mad).
According to Urban Quiet Park’s recommendations, the sweet spot for background noise is no higher than 45 decibels—the equivalent of library-level chatter.
The best place to start is by spending time in nature. Any time spent around the sounds of the natural world is beneficial. If you’re not sure where to find a quiet spot, Quiet Parks International has a map of quiet places worldwide.
Another option is to create a quiet environment in your home. Take some time when you can fully appreciate even thirty minutes of silence. Maybe this means letting people know you need some quiet time, turning off your phone notifications, and/or putting on noise-canceling headphones.
2. Block out the noise
When silence isn’t an option because of other people or where you live, try drowning out noise pollution with artificial sounds like background music, white noise, or ambient frequencies. Though these don’t provide actual silence, they can create an auditory environment that blocks distraction-causing noises.
You might wonder if background noise is counterintuitive to the concept of silence. Isn’t all noise the same? Well, studies have shown that fluctuating noise can affect cognitive function more than steady noise. Listening to any kind of consistent noise can minimize distractions and allow you to focus on what you need to do.
The more these sounds mimic nature, the better. For example, try listening to rain sounds or birdsong. You can also try white, brown, or pink noise.
3. Be open to silence (this is the hardest one)
In order to embrace silence in your life, you have to be open to being still and quiet. I struggle to embrace silence myself, and I usually have something playing in the background while doing other things (music, podcasts, etc.).
Perhaps it’s because sometimes I’d rather not acknowledge my own thoughts for too long. But like I said earlier, numbing ourselves with distractions and drowning out our own thoughts will only disconnect us from our feelings.
If nothing else, be open to the idea of silence and how it can benefit your life. Acknowledge that silence is uncomfortable, but seek it out anyway.
The next time you find a moment of silence in your day, savor it. These moments are few and far between.
How do you feel about silence? How might you spend a quiet moment to yourself?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi, I'm Catherine! As the creator of The Blissful Mind, I love exploring ways to make life more fulfilling, especially when it comes to our daily routines, habits, and well-being.
