How the Power of Silence Can Rewire Your Brain and Transform Health

By Carolanne Wright | Contributing writer for Wake Up World

“Unnecessary noise is the most cruel absence of care that can be inflicted on sick or well.” ~ Florence Nightingale

In this day and age, we’d be hard-pressed to find a few moments without the cacophony of modern life swirling around us. With 24/7 access to television, streaming video, radio and all sorts of digital music, we might not give a second thought to the constant audio bombardment. Nor do we typically notice the day-to-day chatter from our coworkers, friends and families. Then there’s the constant buzz of lawnmowers, highways, trains, planes and automobiles. But science is finding that “noise pollution” may very well dumb us down, compromise health and dramatically increase stress and the accompanying hormones — unfortunately, this last bit can lead to weight-gain and heart disease. Even low levels of noise can trigger a cascade of undesirable effects. It’s enough to drive one mad — literally.

In a world where noise is a given and rarely a choice, silence sells because it’s so uncommon. Finland has built a tourist industry around it by marketing silence as a resource, with catchy country branding like “Silence, Please” and “No talking, but action.” Finnish watch maker Rönkkö has also taken up the torch by proclaiming their products are “Handmade in Finnish silence.” In the quest for ever elusive quiet, people will shell out hundreds of dollars for noise-canceling headphones or pay into the thousands for silent meditation retreats. Beyond simply being a rare commodity, scientists are proving what we already know on an intuitive level — periods of silence are good for the body, mind and soul. But it’s only recently been discovered how crucial peace and quiet really is for our well-being.

A clamorous world is an unhealthy one

The translation for the Latin root “noise” is nausea or pain — which is exactly what happens when we are exposed to loud environments, especially if we are sensitive to sound to begin with. When noise becomes a chronic problem, our health ultimately suffers.

Writes Daniel A. Gross in This Is Your Brain on Silence:

“Studies of human physiology help explain how an invisible phenomenon can have such a pronounced physical effect. Sound waves vibrate the bones of the ear, which transmit movement to the snail-shaped cochlea. The cochlea converts physical vibrations into electrical signals that the brain receives. The body reacts immediately and powerfully to these signals, even in the middle of deep sleep. Neurophysiological research suggests that noises first activate the amygdalae, clusters of neurons located in the temporal lobes of the brain, associated with memory formation and emotion. The activation prompts an immediate release of stress hormones like cortisol. People who live in consistently loud environments often experience chronically elevated levels of stress hormones.”

These stress hormones have a real impact on health by encouraging high blood pressure, insomnia, heart disease and obesity. Our escalating noise levels have become such a problem that the World Health Organization reported in 2011 that western Europe (population 340 million) annually lost the equivalent of a million years worth of healthy life because of noise. The WHO also noted that 3,000 deaths due to heart disease were linked with exposure to excessive noise.

Further research published in the journal Psychological Science investigated how the relocation of Munich’s airport affected children’s health and learning. Gary W. Evans of Cornell University found that the children developed a stress response which helped them to ignore the noise, but they also ignored other stimuli as well — such as speech. The children tended to block out a majority of stimuli when exposed to loud noise, even areas where they should have been paying attention.

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