Recently, while walking back from the park, I recorded a voice note with a few to-dos. On playback, I couldn’t make out a word. All I could hear was the whoosh of traffic.
We’re increasingly exposed to elevated sound levels in our environments, sometimes without realizing it. A 2022 UN Report identified noise pollution as a serious emerging threat alongside the climate crises.
Sound distractions come in various forms, such as road or air traffic, loud music, construction work, nattering coworkers, a noisy HVAC system, or the unrelenting pock-pock of pickleball!
As I navigate midlife, I find I’m wearing my EarPods more frequently outside of calls and podcast listening to reduce the clamor and clatter. If you’re a highly sensitive person (HSP) like me, you also might be more easily distracted by the cacophony of your environment.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
Nuisance noise affects your productivity and well-being, making business costly. It also affects your quality of life.
Side effects range from anger, irritable moods, and fatigue to increased stress and anxiety. Studies have found that noise pollution dampens reaction time, decision-making, attention, memory, and concentration. It also raises our risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, hormonal imbalances, and sleep disturbances. And persistent exposure to loud noise causes hearing loss that, if left untreated in midlife, may contribute to developing Alzheimer’s later on.
So, if any of these noise issues sound familiar, it’s a quiet warning to take action.
Listen Up
The good news is that hearing loss is one of the few modifiable risk factors that we have more control over.
Whether you want to protect your ears, improve your creative outputs, support your heart, or get a better night’s sleep, there are things you can do to drown out the discord in favor of quiet and calm.
- Try decibel-reducing earplugs for sleeping, concerts, or social situations.
- Cultivate a silent routine.
- Book a sound wellness treatment or immersive sound healing session.
- Mute your email notifications and media devices.
- Get outside and swap digital dings and pings for the tweets and peeps of birds.
- Enjoy more silent hobbies, like reading or meditation.
- Absorb sound in your home and office with plants and soft furnishings.
- Experiment with white noise (i.e., from a white noise machine, diffuser, or ambient music)
Introducing pockets of silence into your day quiets the chatter in your brain, calms your body, leads to better focus and flow, and creates space for more joy. To quote the Kings of Convenience from one of my favorite albums: “Quiet is the New Loud.”
Sometimes a little silence is golden. It has a sound all of its own, worth listening to if you want to hear well into the next age.
Noise Pollution Health Effects (Medical News Today)
How Noise Affects Concentration (Illuminated Integration)
12 Ways Noise Affects Worker Well-being & Productivity (Resonics)
