Noise. As the population increases and cities get bigger, the levels of noise pollution all over the world are steadily creeping up, and not many people are aware of how this affects their health and wellbeing. In fact, most people don’t pay much attention to their ears unless something goes wrong: ringing, tinnitus, loss of hearing, or problems with balance. In this busy noisy world, you not only need to prevent damage to your ears, but you also need to proactively seek the health benefits of silence.
Once you understand how noise affects your body as well as your mental and emotional health, you may become more aware of your surroundings and make a few changes. And you’ll be surprised just how big of a difference a few extra decibels can make in your life.
So what is it about noise and how does it affect you?
The first thing you need to understand is that, to a certain extent, the loudness of a sound is not the only parameter of how damaging it is. When people talk of noise, what they mean is unwanted sound, even if it’s low in volume.
For example, if you’ve been to a movie theater or concert, the loudness of the sounds there were expected. The sound was wanted and so you didn’t consider it “noise”. But if there is construction work happening in the building next to yours, and you’re trying to work or study or sleep, even if the volume is less than that of your TV, you will find it to be disturbing, because it is unwanted. It can be considered “noise”.
Unwanted noise has a negative impact on your health, not just psychologically, but physically as well. Being a little irritated or distracted is not where the disturbance ends. Noise can affect your body’s stress hormones, your sleep cycle, and your cardiovascular system, even if you don’t notice.
Sounds you want, in high volumes, also have a negative impact, because they do have a physical effect on the ear itself and can sometimes cause permanent damage to it.
Your body is built to handle acute stress once in a while, and that includes loud noises, but it is not built to deal with chronic stress day in and day out. Constant noise pollution is a form of chronic stress on the body, and as such, exposure to it will engage your NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response, which is your body’s global response to stress, on a daily basis.
Your NEM is composed of six circuit of organs and systems that work together to fight a stressor, such as the effects of noise, and these circuits are the Hormone, the Bioenergetics, the Cardionomic, the Neuroaffect, the Inflammation, and the Detoxification circuits. Although all six circuits are affected by noise, the Neuroaffect circuit is the one that is most susceptible to it, and it is the one that needs the health benefits of silence the most.
Your Neuroaffect circuit is composed of your brain, your autonomic nervous system (ANS), and your microbiome. Your ANS operates automatically without your conscious control, and it has a few different branches that engage depending on the level of stress.
Together, the AHS and SNS constitute what is called the Sympathoadrenal System (SAS), which must stay in balance within the ANS if your body is to function normally and return to homeostasis after any stress response, such as the “fight or flight” response. If the AHS and SNS stay in a prolonged state of imbalance, dysregulating norepinephrine and adrenaline, you are more prone to adrenal exhaustion.
Adrenal exhaustion is an advanced stage of Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS), which is a condition that results from chronic stress. Your adrenals produce your body’s main anti-stress hormone, cortisol, and they can become fatigued after too-long a period of production. Symptoms of AFS include fatigue, weight gain, insomnia, anxiety, mild depression, brain fog, lowered immunity, food and drug sensitivities, hypoglycemia, heart palpitations, low libido, infertility, PMS, hair loss, dry skin, and sensitivity to noise.
Even though noise can become a stressor if it is not dealt with properly, it is rare that noise on its own will cause advanced adrenal exhaustion. It can, and does, add to adrenal fatigue, where your sensitivity to noise is heightened and your body cannot tolerate much more stress.
But there’s more to noise than noise sensitivity when it comes to AFS. When you have AFS, you are in dire need of rest, and the fact is that noise can disturb your sleep.
When you are asleep, your nervous system is still on alert for unusual sounds, in case of a threat. Whether you wake up or not, noise can disturb your sleep cycle and create a situation where your body doesn’t go fully into the deeply restful state it needs. You could wake up thinking you’ve had a full night’s rest, but if these disturbances occurred on an unconscious, physiological level, and you could wake up sleep-deprived and not even know it.
To mitigate these effects, you will need to maintain good sleep hygiene and take full advantage of the health benefits of silence. Some steps you can take to do that include:
Other than the above, meditating, taking time off to be quiet, and walking in nature quietly can all give you the health benefits of silence, and help rebalance your Neuroaffect circuit.
One of the unlikely health benefits of silence comes from studies that looked at how noise affects the cardiovascular system. By understanding how the NEM’s components are connected, you can see how the chronic stress that results from frequent exposure to loud noises and sleep disturbance would affect the Cardionomic circuit, and not just the Neuroaffect circuit or adrenal glands.
Stress hormones can raise blood pressure as well as increase inflammation, both of which are major factors in heart disease. Inflammation in blood vessels can cause strokes and heart attacks.
A study conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston looked at the correlation between heart health and noise in 499 participants. At the beginning of the study, these participants were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Then the researchers followed up with these participants five years later.
When looking at the data in the follow-up, the researchers found that the participants that lived in the noisiest areas had more inflammation in their arteries and more stress-related brain activity. Of the 499 participants, 40 had experienced strokes and heart attacks during the five years.
In that sense, the health benefits of silence can include reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and even helping to prevent plaque in arteries.
But that’s not all. Other health benefits of silence include boosting the immune system, better hormone regulation, and even improving brain health. A study done in 2013 showed that just two hours of silence can stimulate the development of new cells in the hippocampus, which is the area in the brain that is responsible for memory and learning. In this way, silence can also help relieve the very frustrating brain fog and cognitive decline that often accompanies AFS.
Many people who regularly take quiet time have reported a greater sense of well-being, peace, relaxation, creativity, emotional resilience, and an ability to reflect and become more aware of their inner state. These health benefits of silence don’t just improve quality of life, they also have a positive impact on heart rate variability, productivity, and relationships.
So if you’re convinced that silence will do you good, take proactive steps to bring more of it into your life. These steps can be small, such as using noise-canceling headphones during the day and earplugs at night, or they can be big, such as soundproofing your home or even moving altogether. They will most likely require some negotiations with family members, neighbors, or coworkers so they can also help reduce the noise they make, but you would be doing everyone a favor by finding creative compromises to this common problem. The question is, are you willing to slow down and put health first?
© Copyright 2020 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.
You’ll be surprised to hear that the health benefits of silence don’t just pertain to the mind, but to the body as well. Reducing the noise in your life can give you better sleep, balance your hormones, and more. With a few simple steps, you can reap these benefits.
