Why is quiet important

You need quiet time, that uninterrupted silence that is so elusive and prized, to rest and renew. All the negatives attendant in everyday life can overshadow the good and positive that co-exist. You need quiet time to allow grace to suffuse you and your spirit to renew itself in those golden moments of quiet introspection. Savor the silence. Allow your thoughts to wander where they will and then draw back your attention to your center.

This is the core of mindfulness meditation. Since you are human and not a machine, you can put things into perspective. You need quiet time to do that. If you cannot escape stress , you can certainly do something to mitigate it.

One quick and straightforward way to reduce stress is to carve out minutes regularly to sit quietly, meditate, listen to music, go for a peaceful walk, take a brief nap. If you have longer, perhaps on your lunch break, you can extend your quiet time. A bonus is that you return to the task at hand at work, home or school energized and more focused.

Quite ahead of her time, Florence Nightingale reportedly considered quiet an important part of patient care. Concerningly, modern hospitals have become far noisier than they were in the past.

As more technology is added to wards, the average noise level in hospitals is well above the World Health Organization's hospital noise guidelines for patient rooms , something that is detrimental to patient health and recovery. Such a noisy environment can even cause doctors to confuse similar-sounding drugs —a potentially deadly mistake caused by excess noise.

High-noise environments are dangerous for our mental health as well. One study looked at children who went to school near the Munich airport before and after the airport was relocated. The researchers found that students attending that school performed worse on long-term memory and reading comprehension tests when the airport was near their school.

When the airport was moved, the researchers followed up with the nearby schools and found reading comprehension and long-term memory had improved among students at the school near the old airport site. Children in schools near the airport's new location, however, had worsened. It's not just airports that cause noise pollution: elevated trains and other transit systems contribute to poorer scores for students in nearby classrooms, but installing noise-reduction materials in the rooms were able to reverse the effects.

Both examples point to good news: removing the noise can take away the mental effects. It may not, however, reverse physical effects from long-term exposure to noise. Going to school near the airport had also led to higher blood pressure and higher levels of stress hormones, as well as trouble with speech perception, problems that didn't improve after the airport was moved.

So what about those of us who don't live or work near an airport or a highway? How does general daily noise affect us? For most of us, daily noise tends to involve interruptions and distractions. If you work in an open plan office, you'll probably find this is an even greater problem. Ollie Campbell, CEO of Milanote and part of Navy Design 's multi-disciplinary team, says open plan offices come with their own implicit values.

They make team members feel that disruption is acceptable, collaboration is the key priority, and serendipity is worth the interruptions it requires. According to Campbell:. In most workplaces, focused work is left to chance. If nobody's called you for a meeting that day, you might get an afternoon to yourself.

Distractions and interruptions are such a common part of our workdays, we don't even think of them as excessive noise anymore. It's often more obvious when we don't hear the noise of distractions around us at work than when we do.. A study at the University of California, Irvine , found that knowledge workers have focus periods of just eleven minutes on average, in-between interruptions.

As Campbell said, "if you need to focus, 'work' is pretty much the worst place you could be. Collaboration is important, but so is focus—particularly for those of us who are creators. For knowledge workers, our work happens between us and the blank page.

Disruptions and noise only interrupt that process. Between interruptions, distractions, background noise, and general lack of calm and quiet, the noise of the office can be harmful. With a buzzing office around you, a bustling street out the window, and something distracting you every three minutes, it's almost impossible to create anything of value. Shutting both types of noise out--literal and excessive sound, and the more general commotion of the modern workplace—can improve our ability to focus and create our best work.

For a long time, researchers used silence as a control in experiments testing the effects of sound or noise. After realizing silence was fascinating in itself, researchers started focusing more on the effects of silence than relegating it to control status. In one experiment testing how the brain reacts to different types of music, silence was used as a control between the different music clips.

But silence actually produced one of the most interesting effects. When compared with so-called "relaxing" music—or even long silence before the experiment began—short, two-minute silent pauses between the music actually proved more relaxing on the brain. It seems the effect of silence is heightened by contrasting it with noise. While some people dislike a silent environment, equating it with being alone and lonely, others look forward to spending time with just their thoughts, seeking silence with eagerness, as if anticipating a gift.

Besides giving our ears a break, silence has been shown to offer significant health advantages that boost overall well-being. From a physiological standpoint, silence helps:. Lending credence to these observations, science now recognizes the harmful effects of noise pollution on human health and cognition.

Taking a break from difficulties at home, work or school is often best accomplished with a conscious choice to entertain silence. At a loss for effortless ways to get in the practice of entertaining silence? Try these suggestions:. Culturally, we tend to be less adept at managing boredom through creative pursuits or a meditation practice.

We have to foster that ability. Because of this, introverts may be better positioned to appreciate still, calm moments. There is huge value to that. Spend that time just sitting or lying in silence. She recommends making it a daily practice. It is hard to sit still.

Instead, people think about everything they need to get done or want to be doing.