If today’s moment of science were a moment of silence, it might take only a couple of minutes before your blood pressure lowered and your nervous system began to stabilize. But why?
Let’s start with the opposite of silence: noise.
The authors of “Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise” define noise as unwanted distraction—be it auditory or even internal. Your inner monologue is likely a loud and fast talker because researchers have found that the average person’s inner voice speaks at an incredibly fast rate of 4,000 words per minute. That can be distracting, to say the least.
Studies have shown that hearing noise outside your head hinders cognition and can even lead to higher health risks such as heart disease and depression. Silence, on the other hand, sustains our energy and refreshes our nervous system. The authors of the aforementioned book describe silence as the experience of pristine attention — a state where nothing demands our consciousness.
Science finds silence to be good for your health. A physician found that two minutes of silence between musical pieces effectively stabilized people’s cardiovascular and respiratory systems, even better than relaxing music. Another study had nearly 60 people focus on completing a task with either silence or some kind of noise in the background. Not only did silence improve concentration, but the stress hormone cortisol was found to be higher among the people who did the task while hearing noise.
If you're prone to stress, take time to savor silence — your heart and brain will thank you.
A special thanks goes to Leigh Marz, co-author of Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise, for reviewing today's episode.
Further Reading
- 8 Physical and Mental Health Benefits of Silence, Plus How to Get More of It
- Is silence golden? Effects of auditory stimuli and their absence on adult hippocampal neurogenesis
- Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory changes induced by different types of music in musicians and non-musicians: the importance of silence