Noise damaging our health

Really fascinating article. Especially interesting was the fact that the noise has an impact even whilst you are sleeping.

I listened to the tape and found all the noises equally irritating but the children playing was the worst for me - the unpredictability and suddenness of the shrill screaming.

I'm from the city but cannot bear it there now. The relentless roar of noise really eats away at my happiness and peace of mind. When I come home to my quiet seaside town I can actually feel the silence around me and whole body relaxes.

I need peace and quiet. I love my GS to bits, but he literally (and yes, I do mean it literally!) never stops talking when he is here, so when he goes home, I find I really need to just sit in a quiet room and decompress. Children screeching and screaming really sets my nerves on edge too. I couldn't live in a city either.

This article just clarifies what I have felt for years.. I absolutely relish silence and love silent retreats..

I need peace and quiet, much more than when I was younger. I am lucky to have that where I live. I would be happiest living in the middle of a field, hearing no man-made noise other than the occasional tractor.

It's one of the best things about living here, the peace and quiet.
It's just rooks squawking and wood pigeons cooing, and small birds tweeting, and hardly any traffic.
I've lived in noisy places in the past and appreciate how stressful it can be.

I have hearing aids but I don't always wear them. I find the world a much more peaceful place when I don't have them in.

I was once on a caravan site and someone in the next van was playing loud music all night which thumped through the ground.

I lay there seriously planning to creep out and let down their tyres! No wonder I have heart disease!

I like quiet ,too . However, when my Dad came to live here in Australia aged 80 we had to find him a house near a road because he hated the quiet having lived in inner London for his entire life. Horses for courses I suppose.

Apparently, wheeled trolleys and cases have been banned
in Barcelona city because of the trundling sound. Anyone who has walked along a hard surfaced corridor between trains and the Underground will be aware of the noise of these cases even on a smooth walking surface.

I don’t like it too quiet I d rather hear noise than silence to me silence is the grave I go to sleep with the radio on I can live with either, but my preference would be some noise obviously not loud machine type noise but background noise is fine

This is something which the government needs to bear in mind when planning their vast estates. People have a need for nature and natural sounds. Having people crammed in together in small spaces creates stress and disharmony. I think a lot of the so-called mental health problems are rooted in stress caused by other people.

I couldn’t agree more mum2three.

I agree too mum2three. As you drive along the motorway you see housing estates going up feet from the hard shoulder with only a fence to protect them from what must be a constant and deafening roar.

I agree, Mum2three. Whenever I go to London, I am astonished at how people have to live cheek by jowl with each other, and all their annoying habits. Everything is so tiny and crammed in. I’ve been spoilt by having the wide open spaces of Scotland to live in.

Dogs barking is one sound that really sets me on edge, I can feel my heart rate increasing even as I type this! I’ve lived in noisy cities that have 24 hr noise, with air conditioning and traffic etc and you do become accustomed to it to some degree. When we came home for holidays I used to not be able to sleep for the first few nights because of the absolute silence. I remember one time thinking I’d gone dead because I really could not hear a single noise.

Music in shops drives me insane, it makes me hurry though and get out asap to get away from the cacophony. I don’t like most buskers either, with their tinny renditions of hackneyed ‘choons’.

I don't like buskers either, with their tinny renditions of hackneyed 'choons'. I agree, I encountered one the other day he was singing "I never felt more like singing the blues" having to listen to him I felt the same way.

Christmas songs in shops annoy me particularly, they put on the same old selection of old Christmas pop songs every year from September onwards.

Sometimes in department stores you find yourself between two departments and can hear two different types of music at once. How the people who work there don't go mad is beyond me.

ViceVersa

I need peace and quiet. I love my GS to bits, but he literally (and yes, I do mean it literally!) never stops talking when he is here, so when he goes home, I find I really need to just sit in a quiet room and decompress. Children screeching and screaming really sets my nerves on edge too. I couldn't live in a city either.

Don't children make a noise in the countryside?

This reminds me of years ago staying in a lively holiday resort. I got talking to a Welsh farmer who said he loved going there for the peace and quiet, especially at night.
'But you live in the country,' I said.
'Oh it's so noisy though,' he replied in his lovely Welsh accent, 'because of the sheep! They keep me awake all night with their constant bleating...'
I've never forgotten that conversation.

Where I live now is the quietest place I've ever lived and I admit to loving it. It isn't in the countryside though, we are minutes away from a busy motorway junction but are surroundered by trees which I think helps to cushion the noise.

Maybe this is why I feel the healthiest I've ever been?

Oh...I love a bit of bustle around me. I like silence for sleep, but I like the sounds of my high street as much as the sounds of my park.

Re new housing estates, people lived and still do, happily, in rows of terraced house cheek by jowl, a lot choose that type of house, maybe they become friendlier with their neighbours.
I don’t mind some noise and often have the radio on low if I’m in the house on my own, but our garden is generally peaceful.

The noise the wheels on my suitcase made on the pavement as I walked down from Weimar station to the city centre was so embarrassing that I ended up carrying it.

The only time I like quiet is when I’m trying to sleep - even then , I often watch something on my iPad and fall asleep. It’s 1.30a.m and I’m wide awake

I live in and enjoy relative quiet until kids start wolloping a football on a grassed area where it is prohibited. Parents just say the kids need to play, most of them don't live immediately close to the noise. If I link in to the noise I do find myself being anxious and can't sit down and relax. By the way, adults often join in to play too. Persistent noise, to a certain level, becomes the norm, intermittent I feel is worse and is more noticeable.

I was brought up in a city but don't like being there now. I live in a rural area where sometimes you can actually hear the silence.
The only disturbance is occasional barking from neighbours dogs.

I am surprised that you didn't all know this, as the facts have been available for twenty years or so.

I find it quite fascinating, but also a little worrying, that it seems entirely to depend on which country you live in, which of this kind of research is made available to the general public and when.

Do you know in the UK that artificial lighting outside after dark, damages the health of nocturnal animals, and even of some animals and birds that are awake during daylight, and may even be detrimental to human health? There is focus on this in the Scandanavian countries.