Get best of the week

Weekend Reading: 10 materials on the effects of sound on health - from “noise hygiene” to good sleep and GTD

Meet our new selection of selected Habratopics for weekend reading. This time we are talking about the impact of sound on health and discuss: how to live in a world where it has become too noisy, which helps athletes recover strength, and what kind of music will help to become more productive.

Everyone who cares about their beloved ears and well-being, we invite you to cat.


Photo by ZACHARY STAINES / Unsplash

There is a lot of noise, there will be little noise. Residents of megacities are already so accustomed to noise pollution that sometimes they simply cannot imagine how to achieve at least relative silence. Our material is about how to protect yourself from the annoying sounds of the city and maintain your health. We are discussing how household appliances are noisy, what to do at the stage of apartment renovation and after it, plus - do not forget about the relationship with the sound of pedestrians and motorists.

What you should know about noise pollutionandhow to protect your hearing. In these two materials, we talk about how noise affects health - an uncomfortable sound level worsens sleep quality, increases stress, and this is already the path to diabetes and strokes. Noise pollution can cause depression and anxiety disorders. It negatively affects the development of children. We are discussing how to live in such conditions, and what will help slow down hearing loss.

How noise prevents hearing loss in traffic accidents. You can and should work with the cacophony of the city. Here useful noises come to the rescue - they are called colored. With pink noise, you can smooth out harsh sounds that annoy our hearing aid. This approach is used by one of the largest auto concerns, and color noise helps to concentrate and is involved in the production of microphones and the calibration of audio equipment before musicians perform.


Photo by Keith Tan / Unsplash Get enough

sleep at the weekend: white noise will help. It is used not only for relaxation, but also in the treatment of tinnitus. You can also find special applications that generate white and other color noises based on various inputs. But everything has limitations - doctors do not recommend listening to white noises for a long time, although not everyone can sleep under a monotonous hiss.

How professional athletes overcome fatigue, and what do we do with it . NBA players just do not have time to get the right amount of hours of sleep due to a busy schedule, so their performance is falling. But meditation, breathing exercises and sound come to the rescue. We discuss the opinions of experts who have worked with Kobe Bryant and other basketball stars. Their methods for restoring strength in one form or another can be useful for professionals in IT.

Put on your headphones and become more effective. In the era of coworking and open space, it’s very difficult to concentrate: phones are ringing, colleagues are discussing something, and you can hide from noise only with headphones. We tell how sounds affect the entry and exit of the stream state, and discuss the music that works best. It seems to us that the main thing is to listen to what you like.

Music for effective work . Not everyone can program in headphones or with background music from speakers. For some, this approach helps to concentrate, while for others it only distracts. The impact of music on productivity is still being studied, but preferences almost always turn out to be a determining factor. We tell you what resources will help you choose something suitable for work. Among them there is even a website that combines negotiations between air traffic controllers and ambient.


Photo by Larry George II / Unsplash

Sounds that annoy us. Office buzz is not all that one has to deal with. Creaking foam on glass, champing, snoring or unbearable neighbors singing - each has its own selection of unbearable sounds. We explain what unites most of these audio irritators.

How the psyche reacts to audio triggers. We understand why some sounds draw us into the dance, while others make us cringe and cover our ears. We talk about hypersensitivity and discuss how perception is formed, and why it can lead to noticeable differences: someone will not even notice how the bus is buzzing, but others will be annoyed by constant noise.

Which part of the brain is responsible for the pitch of our speech. Scientists have tried to understand what is happening with the contents of our heads at the moment we speak. A method called electrocorticography allowed them to detect the area responsible for the pitch of speech. There are many similar studies and they will affect the audio technology of the near future.

Additional reading:

More articles:


All Articles