World’s quietest room. You can hear yourself blink.

Credit: Orfield Laboratories

Several things went through my mind when I read this. First of all, if I can hear myself blink in this room, that alone is enough to drive me a bit bananas. What does the sound of blinking sound like? Like an eagle’s flap of wings? What would my blood sound like as it flowed through my veins? A river? The sound of a hungry belly would be funny at first, but perhaps it would then suddenly turn into a horror show of creepy whale and lion sounds.

They say not many people can stay longer than 45 minutes in this room and slowly I am understanding why (blink, blink). This opens up a maze and endless hallways of questions and input of how we as humans are adaptable to sound. Imagine people who already live in a very quiet environment and thrown into the loud sounds of NYC. They would not be able to deal with it. The overstimulation of sounds of honking horns, noise, banging would drive them crazy. Then take a person who has lived in a very noisy environment such as NYC and put them in the bowels of the South Pole where one can hear your heartbeat as loud as a shout.

Does the sound of our environment have connection of how we behave or tolerate noise? I know it emphasizes our senses to someone who lives in an extremely quiet environment compared to another person who lives in a noisy environment. Our brain adjusts itself to bring out the survival senses to live in that environment. How quickly can our brain adjust to levels of noise or lack thereof? Do we need sound to survive? Can one slowly wean themselves to adapt to complete lack of sound? What if they put a deaf person in that room? What would they experience?

I know I’d whistle to just make noise, but I’m sure I’d be quickly banging on the door pleading for someone to let me out.

Would you take the challenge? How long would you last? How would you distract yourself?

What if they turned off the lights in that room?