Kevin's Watch

In our modern lives noise, desired or otherwise is an almost constant and ubiquitous feature. Most of those I work with cannot function without a radio on at all times, some even going so far as to say that silence makes them nervous. Those of us who live in towns will be subjected day and night to the sound of cars, lorries, helicopters and planes; children shouting, dogs barking, strimmers strimming and mowers mowing. At 3am the one benefit of insomnia for silence lovers will be just that - as pure a silence as is possible in the fast paced world we live.

But I have noted one thing over the years, almost without exception for sufferers of silence deficiency syndrome it is human generated sound that is the pollutant. Natural sounds of the earth - rain, wind, birdsong etc is almost always a calming thing. Cicadas in the tropics, gulls by the sea, rivers in the woods all serve to add balm to our frayed souls - but add a human element and the mix and the proverbial fly appears instantly in the auditory ointment. Funny that.

I live on a pretty busy road, so endure a lot of traffic noise, and it's a fairly high density area, so quite a bit of human noise as well.

Luckily for me, I've gotten quite adept at tuning most of it out.

--A

I hear ya, peter. My previous apartment, on the other side of the building, overlooked both an interstate highway and Bubba the Apartment Building A/C Unit. The human-generated sounds were so bad that if the windows were open, I couldn't hear the TV. The new apartment is markedly quieter.

I've never been one of those people who leaves the TV on for company. I rarely even listen to music in the car anymore -- I'd rather enjoy the silence. But yes, nature sounds are more calming than human-generated ones for me.

I always sleep better when it's raining. There's something really relaxing about the sound. My alarm clock has a built in rain sound effect thing, but my brain apparently only accepts the real deal.

Ah, love the sound of rain. Could do with some...serious drought here.

--A

Rain is a great sound (when you're indoors ). I heard it last night and it was sooooooooooooooooothing!

I use pink noise, which is rather like rushing water, when I need to shut out external noise, and it works rather well on internal noise as well.

The house we have lived in for the past ten years has silent nights as one of its best features. I adore hearing screech owls and lapwings crying at night; frogs and crickets too. We are soon moving to a new house, but I am hoping it's at least not crazy at night which it really can be in Nigeria-- prayer meetings, Muslim calls to prayer, bars playing highlife.

The thing about having tinnitus is that there is no silence.

Savor Dam wrote:The thing about having tinnitus is that there is no silence.

Agreed. Tinnitus can make falling asleep very difficult, but I find that if there is other noise (ie, rain) then I can focus on that noise and ignore the tinnitus.

Fortunately, rain is common in the Pacific Northwet.

dlbpharmd wrote:

Savor Dam wrote:The thing about having tinnitus is that there is no silence.

Agreed. Tinnitus can make falling asleep very difficult, but I find that if there is other noise (ie, rain) then I can focus on that noise and ignore the tinnitus.

Hmmm, I get it occasionally, but luckily it's only temporary when it happens.

--A

peter wrote:Those of us who live in towns will be subjected day and night to the sound of cars, lorries, helicopters and planes;

Sounds great

I mean, I love going camping, or to the coast, for a few days... But for daily life, I prefer the city.

Sure...just wouldn't mind it a little quieter.

--A