Too Much Quiet Is as Stressful as Too Much Noise

Audiologist holding headphones in a soundproof cubicle.

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Have you ever spent time in a soundproof booth? If you are in the broadcast or recording business, you likely have.

If you’ve ever had your hearing tested, you’ll know what I mean. As soon as you step into the booth, you can feel the deadness of the sound, or more precisely, the lack of it.

Sounds are muffled by materials in the environment that absorb sound waves rather than letting them bounce off shiny, non-absorbing surfaces. In the natural world, it’s like walking in a snow-filled street after the howling of a snowstorm has abated. There is something surreal and calming about being in such quiet.

While short time in such a space can be calming, taking you away from the clangs and crashes, clatters and sirens, and noises of our modern world, spending a prolonged period in complete silence can be stressful. You become aware of every sound your body makes—your heartbeat, your breathing. And while those sounds are soothing, they can also jangle your nerves if that’s all you hear.

Architects know that every material used in the built environment has an acoustic rating, telling how much sound it absorbs and how much sound it reflects and amplifies. Spaces can be designed to be louder or quieter. Concert halls are engineered to reflect and amplify sound, recording studios to absorb and direct it. Typically, many restaurants are noisy—with noise levels often exceeding the healthy range.

Office spaces also tend to be noisy, especially if they are “open office” design. But they don’t need to be.

Business person covering ears over loud noise.

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The biggest single complaint of people working in open office settings is noise. Most people know that loud noises, especially those above 80 dB (like the firing of a motorcycle at close range) are not only stressful but also can damage the delicate components of your hearing apparatus—your ears. Sudden loud noises also trigger the stress response—and actually trigger a reflex called the startle response. Evolutionarily this is a good thing, as an animal needs to be on alert and ready to pounce or run when danger is near. But startle too often and your stress response stays on high alert even when it is not needed for escape, and that is wearing on the rest of your body. Loud noises can also trigger anxiety in persons with post-traumatic stress, especially if they sound like gunfire. Think of the backfiring of a truck as it backs up.

Loud noises can also stress because they make it difficult to understand what others are saying, especially in persons with some amount of hearing loss. Think of noisy restaurants, which are purposefully designed to seem lively and bustling. That may have the desired effect for younger persons whose hearing is intact, but as we age everyone loses hearing, especially at the high frequency end of the spectrum, so you can’t catch all the words that are being said and have to struggle to piece together what others are saying. This can make a person with even small amounts of hearing loss give up and isolate and not join the conversation—a form of social isolation even in the midst of a crowd, which can feel lonely and depressing.

Neurodiverse individuals are also particularly stressed by loud noise, especially where there are lots of different noises impacting them continuously in a cacophonous soundscape. So are people with sensory hypersensitivity or mild traumatic brain injury.

Prolonged exposure to loud noises not only impacts mental health, stress, and anxiety, but also can have physical and physiological effects including high blood pressure and even cardiovascular disease.

Yellow wagtail singing in a meadow.

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But what about too quiet? Is that really stressful? In measuring people’s stress responses in office spaces, we found that when it was too quiet, the stress response levels we detected with wearable health tracking devices were also elevated. There was a sweet spot, where the stress response was lowest and what we called the physiological well-being response was highest. That was at 45 to 50dB. As the rooms increased in sound levels from 30 to 50 dB, the well-being response increased, and then at 50dB it took a sudden turn on down to 80 dB, where stress was highest.

What does this mean for the spaces where we live and learn and work and play? It means that we need to pay attention to the materials that are used in such spaces, and tune the rooms, the way musicians tune their instruments, to optimal sound levels and soundscapes to support well-being rather than stress. While a little stress for a short time may be energizing, too much for too long is deleterious for your health. Spaces need to be intentionally designed to offer many choices, including for individuals who may be neurodiverse—quiet spaces and less quiet ones.

Young woman listening to headphones in airport.

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If you’re not the person designing the space, then carry ear plugs with you, or use noise-canceling headphones if you expect to be in a very loud environment, to protect your ears and your stress response. And if it’s too quiet, add a little sound—but not too much—with earphones and your favorite soundtrack to reduce stress and enhance well-being. Nature sounds are great—it turns out that birdsong is about 45 dB, which is the sweet spot for the well-being response.