Can Silence Actually Drive You Crazy?
31,919,955
Published 2014-02-18
Is 45 minutes really the longest anyone can stay in a perfectly silent, pitch-black room?
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Want to watch the whole hour of silence? • An Hour of Silence
Many stories have circulated claiming the longest anyone has stayed in an ultra-quiet anechoic chamber is 45 minutes, the reason being any longer would drive you insane. To me this sounded like unsubstantiated rubbish, like the claim the Great Wall is the only manmade structure visible from space. So I put my own psyche on the line, subjecting myself to over an hour of the most intense quiet on Earth. No, this was not THE quietest room on Earth (-9dB) but it is one of the quietest, and the truth is once you put a person inside, they are by far the loudest thing in there so the sound rating of the room is irrelevant.
I was not surprised to find that I could stay in there for as long as I liked and feel perfectly fine. What was surprising is that my heartbeat was audible. You can hear it on the sound recording. Now I wasn't consciously aware of the sound of my heart while in the room, but I was more aware of the feeling of it beating.
Huge thank you to everyone at BYU: Duane Merrell, Spencer Perry, Cameron Vongsawad, Jazz Myers, Ann Clawson, and Robert Willes.
All Comments (21)
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This doesn’t beat when your mom leaves you in the car at a store for 5 minutes
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The silence in that room: My ear: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
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"the record is 45 minutes" Introverts : Are you challengine me?
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Veritasium casually breaks world record " I like silence, no big deal":
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Imagine him going out of the room and everybody in the world was missing.
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the quietest room is when your teacher done yelling in your class
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I’ve spent time in these chambers for work, and have to admit I’m completely flabbergasted by the feelings described of claustrophobia or fear. I always found them quite peaceful and have almost fallen asleep.
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I think the silence wouldn't freak me out but the dark would. I get really anxious and start panicking when it's pitch black bcs I can't orientated myself anymore. So silence yes, total darkness hell no 😬
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Imagine he geting out of the room only to find several years have passed somehow and everyone is missing.
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Deaf people: “Put me in there and let me get some free money”
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I did live sound effects (Foley) for over 25 years and often I would work in a "Dead Room" which was a modified A Chamber. Sometimes the actors would leave to listen to the playback of the scene and I would stay in the Dead Room waiting for them to come back for another take. The lights were never turned off but from experience I can state that in the silence of the room you would begin to hear your heartbeat and the blood pumping throughout your body. My ears started to hear something in the silence and slowly I began to hear the air flow within the room. I think under the correct circumstances it would have been an excellent location for deep meditation but I doubt that it would drive a normal person crazy. However some of the people I worked with ... ?
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you walking through the door at the end gave me backrooms vibes. the burst of sound hitting the camera, the buzzing lights and AC units in the background, the well-lit room
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I'd be more scared about the floor
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“The record is 45 minutes” Me: laughs in deaf
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I love it, I wish my room was like that. I can be in there for more than 24 hours and still keep my sanity if even have any left lmao
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when i was doing my broadcasting engineering degree i had the privilege of going into an anechoic chamber several times with some of my class mates we all varied in how long we could stay in. But i totally heard my blood rushing through my veins. I heard sounds that weren't really there. What surprised me the most the first time though is the deadening of sound like when you talk its hard to explain its like your words get sucked away. We had a couple of people who got really visibly sick and very nauseous. And at least two of my class mates had anxiety of varying levels. If you ever get the chance to experience it though I'd say go for it. It really is a unique experience
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Little did he know he went crazy and actually never left the room
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I've heard the blood flowing through my ears just laid in my bed at night a few times.
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I really love this guy he helped me learn so much things easier then what my teachers could have done if they tought me one subject for 4 years
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I had a hearing test done in an anechoic chamber that was a bit bigger than a phone booth. After about two minutes I could hear my blood flowing. It was a mind blowing experience.
