The effect of noise on the human body.

I am very noise sensitive. I cannot bear any invasive noise, even traffic. I get especially twitchy when I can hear others' music - a builder's tranny, a car with the window down and music blaring etc. Why do people imagine that others wish to their their music? That really really pulss my chain.

I get what I call an "audio hangover" if/when I have spent the previous night in a noisy environment - headache, nausea, fatigue etcetera. Basically I feel like crap (it's a long, long time since I had a hangover but I remember what it feels like: awful). But being in a noisy space most definitely affects me, that includes any booming music, most action films, modern restaurants with a lot of clanging and the buzz of people trying to make themselves heard above the din. I hate it. I know (for me) "the morning after the night before" feeling is caused by noise, because when I use earplugs to deaden the worst of the racket, it doesn't happen.

Mechanical and traffic noise is almost unbearable sometimes, but at the moment I have a noise problem of a quite different nature. At sunrise, a wood pigeon perches on the roof above my bedroom and coos. Usually the cooing of pigeons is quite soothing, but at 04:30 in the morning it is loud and annoying. It's been there all week, this morning I eventually went back to sleep but woke with a headache and that pigeon is getting the blame.

Noise can really affect your health and well being. I have very acute hearing and oten need to resort to ear plugs to prevent being totally exhausted. Post stroke I have terrible problems with intrusive noise even to the point that I cannot sit in my Dr's waiting room where they have a radio permanently on, not loud enough to actually hear it properly but just making a noise. (This is apparently so that anyone talking confidentially to the receptionist cannot be overheard although there are signs to say that there is a room available for any confidential discussion.)
I am amazed at the way so many people have their music permanently affixed to their ears and cannot understand their apparent need for permanent sound. I love to listen to the 'silence' when sitting in my garden, the bird song is wonderful. My friend who always had music blaring now suffers from tinnitus and I often wonder if there is a connection.

I was subjected to a loud radio playing day and night in a flat below me, after a week I was physically ill. I visited the GP and was admitted to hospital from the surgery, my BP was through the roof and they thought I might have had a heart attack.

That sounds horrendous harrigran - why do people do that? I hope you are better now.

I remember being in a caravan overnight and another caravan was playing very loud music with a deep beat all night. In my sleepless state I was planning how I might slash their tyres!

LuckyGirl Have you heard or sung this?
At our last concert we sang an Agnus Dei to the tune of Samuel Barber Adagio for strings. That piece is incredibly slow and droning and it really messed with my head.

There are also the droning humming noises that they seem to be put over on TV dramas. They vibrate in similar unpleasant way.

It's the reason we don't have a telly and why I hardly ever turn the radio on or listen to recorded music. I think the disconnect between the sound and me is the problem. Noises coming from a machine have a completely different quality from 'living' noises. I don't have a problem, for instance, listening to live music (well, I do if it's not very good music, which covers sbout 90%!).

Then there's the sheer volume! Most people seem to be deaf. They seem totally insensitive to what feels to me like sound torture.

Thanks for all your responses. I thought I was being over-sensitive, but I see it's a common problem.

Fast moving film/video does my head in as well.

I really don't think you are being oversensitive at all. I have always hated extraneous and especially unnecessary noise, such as people talking loudly, background music etc. Hence I don't have music on unless I am actually "listening" to it and my cleaning lady thinks I'm crazy because I don't have the radio on Lol!

Sorry I was going to continue this, but accidently sent the first part before I finished it.

And now the 2nd part has gone:-

I feel generally that as we get more and more over crowded that we will need to take very affirmative action to make the word a much quieter place. I really feel we need to start getting some legislation in place and educating people to be generally quieter. It is such a terrible imposition to play music loudly. I have even been on a train where someone set their laptop up and plugged speakers into it to watch a film which everyone in the carriage could hear. The conductor told them to switch it off and after about a 10 minute argument they eventually complied. There really is just no excuse for it when earpieces can be obtained for very little expense.

Yes this was an exception, but it illustrates the don't care attitude of some people and really this whole noise thing needs to stop or be stopped.

Never think much about noise until I realise how strongly I become aware of absolute silence and find myself loving it. Happily it's in abundance where I live.

I can sympathise re mechanical noise. My neighbour is having a house refit apparently! It's the drilling against the adjoining wall that is driving me to distraction! It's been going on for more than a week now ?
Music at a reasonable time I can deal with, I like music myself.

I'm also sensitive to too much noise. It's stressful and irritating and I'm known in the family for having acute hearing. I do think women suffer from this more than men. Men seem to like loud music and TV more and I don't personally know any men with this problem.

My husband hates my music (heavy rock/metal) and I hate his (easy listening/female vocalists) so we never had the radio on in the car until he got his latest one which has DAB and we've discovered the stations with old 60's or 70's stuff on which we both listen to while out. When he's home we never have it on though and he's quite content to sit in silence which I find very difficult to cope with. When he's at work however I'm ok to have no noise or have the tv on in the background although recently i've rediscovered my favourite radio programme so have that on the pc while I'm working in the other room - it quickly has to go off if someone rings up I guess silence is golden to some and others can't cope without noise. Agree that some sounds are very annoying though - the police helicopter circling overhead, next door's dogs barking constantly, the machinery clearing land behind our house!

I find the drone of someone's tv irritating, especially when the tv is mounted on a party wall. I lived in an apartment in Turkey and our bedroom wall backed onto next door's lounge wall, their massive tv was mounted on the wall where our headboard was. No joke when Turks don't seem to go to bed before 4 am and I had to get up at 7 for work!!

It seems like every morning there is a siren - police or ambulance I don't know - but I'm getting twitchy about it. Then as we're in a comparatively quiet road, the motorbike learners come with their tutor to practice once a week. We live near a school which doesn't bother me at all but the loud, in fact VERY loud tractor motor does even though it's not regular. I don't want to stand or sit next to someone with earphones; I don't like their choice of music. I do find some of the one sided phone conversations interesting though - good ideas for stories if I were a writer. Overall I think we live in a very noisy society these days or is it me just getting older

The office I used to work in had a constant hum and you only became aware of it when the computers were switched off at the end of the day - then it became ghostly quiet, and it must have affected us in some way.
Now I live near to an intermittently busy road and around two weeks ago I got hearing aids which are fabulous - now I'm more aware of all sorts of sound, traffic, clocks ticking and can even hear the cat purr. Some sounds are good, others not so but I'm just grateful for the chance to hear better.

I love music and play it a lot in the house but not so that anyone else would be able to hear it. My problem though is that our house backs on to a playing field. In the summer it's lovely to sit out in the garden in the evening but teenagers tend to congregate on the field and play rap music. I totally understand their need to get together and they aren't really doing any harm but it's almost impossible to have a conversation or even just relax in my own garden at weekends or evenings in the summer.

We live near a spot that attracts needed rescues or sorting out by the police helicopter. Usually it's in the night just after getting to sleep! I don't notice the sound if they fly over in the day, but at night it's really loud and they can hover near ours for over an hour sometimes.

Sad for the person in need, so I just use builders earplugs (the yellow pellets). All other kinds just don't block the noise.

I think a lot of noise pollution comes from selfish/thoughtless people. Mechanical noises can sometimes not be on purpose. We have a chap who uses a strimmer in the local public areas. He is terribly considerate and stops the loudest noises when anyone walks past. good lad!
I have tinnitus and, sadly for others, i find that soft music almost negates the buzzing - sorry all but i do object to being on a street corner and having to put up with cars' headbanging noise so loud that one can hear it from at least 30 m away!
So, no, Rosie, you are far from being alone.

'Background' music in shops and restaurants! I gave up going into M&S because of the awful noise but thankfully they don't play it any more. Music is so subjective - what one person loves another will hate, so whatever you play you are going to alienate some of your customers. The staff in M&S told me it drove them mad as it was on a loop and played the same thing over and over again all day. And why anyone would want music in a restaurant I don't know - you are invariably having a meal with someone you want to talk to, not shout at over the noise.