My husband needs to fill nearly every second of his day with noise. He naps with a TV show playing in the background, eats while watching a video, and works with the radio on. The quiet is disquieting to him. So, would cutting down on noise be a good thing for him? Are there any health benefits to silence? It turns out that while quiet time could help our well-being, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all prescription. Our perception of silence greatly influences whether it benefits us.
So what is it about silence that makes some reflect and others (like my husband) reach for their headphones? Ahead, experts explain how the quiet impacts us and share tips on how we can better incorporate it into our lives:
Experts In This Article
- Eric Pfeifer, PhD., psychotherapist and professor of aesthetics and communication at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Germany
- Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan, PhD., neuroscientist at the Research Institute for Neuroscience, Education and Didactics, Italy
- Thuy-vy T Nguyen, PhD., associate professor in psychology at Durham University, United Kingdom.
Why does silence make some people uncomfortable?
Each person associates silence with different things. What you associate with silence, whether positive or negative memories and emotions, influences how comfortable you feel being in it.
For example, someone may perceive silence as stressful because, as a child, they were forced to sit silently as a punishment, says Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan, Ph.D, a neuroscientist who researches silence at the Research Institute for Neuroscience, Education and Didactics, Italy. Another person may find silence calming because they played with their siblings in a quiet backyard or house.
Also, each person differs in how comfortable they are with their inner thoughts. Why are some of us relaxed, while others might feel lonely, bored, or anxious? It comes down to whether or not we can regulate our emotions and cognitive processes, like rumination and worrying, which tend to come up when we spend time alone, explains Thuy-vy T Nguyen, Ph.D., an associate professor in psychology who studies solitude at Durham University, United Kingdom.
Regulatory capacity differs from person to person. For example, some people have a condition that causes them to prefer background noise. Those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may need noise to help them focus or to bring them to a comfortable level of stimulation.
Is constant noise bad for us?
Eric Pfeifer, Ph. D., a psychotherapist and professor who researches silence at Catholic University Freiburg in Germany, encourages us to gradually work towards striking a balance between noise and moments of silence (or reduced noise).
Recent research posits that non-stop noise can have negative effects on our well-being. However, research centers around unwanted environmental noise, like traffic or wailing sirens, versus sounds that we actively seek out for pleasure.
Long-term recreational sound exposure, like music or television, can damage our hearing if it exceeds permissible levels of >80 decibels for 40 hours a week. For reference, most vacuum cleaners are around 70 to 80 decibels, and an airplane cabin sits around 80 decibels.
But what if we constantly listen to music and podcasts at a volume below 70 decibels, which is safe for our hearing? Research on this is still scant, but experts have several theories.
If you are not somebody living with ADHD, round-the-clock exposure to acoustic information from digital media may increase the risk of overstimulating your brain. “There are times when the brain is very open towards acoustic information, like when we want to listen to music or go to a concert. The brain is ready when it’s ready. But that also means the brain needs some time off,” says Pfeifer. During this “downtime,” the brain rejuvenates and processes all the information it has received.
Conversely, silence is linked to reduced heart rate and increased calm, says Ben-Soussan. Pfeifer agrees: “As shown in studies we did, the participants claimed to be in a better mood, [and felt] significantly more relaxed after six and a half minutes of silence. And it’s more effective if the silence is spent in nature.”
How can we incorporate (and enjoy) silence
The thought of silence may be daunting if you’re used to having constant background noise. Thankfully, “noise breaks” do not have to mean sitting and staring off into space (unless that feels good to you). Below, experts tell us their strategies on how to introduce these breaks:
Recall a positive experience
To start, visualize when you had a good experience being in a quiet or silent environment. Then, focus on the positive emotions you felt during that time. It may help to write these down or say them aloud to yourself.
Still nervous? Pfeifer adds that framing silence as something luxurious may help reduce feelings of boredom.
Start small and ease your way into a practice
Choose any activity you enjoy doing. Perhaps it’s writing, reading, painting, cycling, swimming, or walking.
The key here is to start in short, manageable bursts, especially if this silence thing is new to you. For example, if you usually listen to a podcast while walking, introduce 30 seconds of quiet at the start of your walk. Then, gradually stretch the time as you settle into it.
If you live in a bustling household or are a parent, aim for realistic moments of reduced daily noise. Turn down the volume on the TV that’s running in the background. Take the kids with you on a five-minute walk outside. Sit in the backyard with a cup of tea.
Another tip Nguyen offers is to know what habits you associate with different places. For example, suppose you regularly scroll through videos while on the couch. In that case, engaging in a silent practice away from the couch may be easier, so you won’t have to fight that mental association (and temptation).
Have a good think
After your silence practice, reflect on how you feel afterward. Did you feel good? Relaxed? If it has positive effects, you want your brain to remember this.
Don’t fret if the experience wasn’t very comfortable. You might need to try different ways of incorporating silence before finding one that fits you.
“For people with mental disorders, it might be more difficult to find the [silence practice] that works best for them,” Pfeifer says. “So it could be an aim within therapy to find which [practice] might be a good one for them.”
Whatever works for you, know there’s no wrong way to incorporate a bit more quiet in your life. It can be as relaxed, introspective, or “luxurious” as you want.
