Quiet UK

Author: kchristian1

  • Notifications and alarms – why it’s time to silence your digital world

    Notifications and alarms – why it’s time to silence your digital world

    Back in the late 1980s, my Nan bought a Grandfather clock for my Grandad. And my grandad was delighted. He set it up and we all waited patiently for the next hour to arrive. Ding-dong-ding-dong it went. We all clapped enthusiastically. Fast-forward a couple of days and the once novel chimes were driving us to distraction. Another couple of days and the bells were silenced, only to be allowed to ring once a year on New Year’s Eve. We didn’t need to be alerted to every passing hour of our lives.

    More recently, at a family event, I found a rather more modern technology was driving me to distraction. Ding went my Nan’s iPad. Boing went my mother’s phone. Yet another phone announced ‘your son is texting you’ to the whole room. It took a lot of willpower, and a desire to remain on the Christmas present list, not to grab their devices and lob them out the window. And these digital noise offenders weren’t my younger cousins or their kids, these were the boomers and early-born Gen Xers. They seem to have missed the memo on the effects of app notifications and allowing your digital devices to infiltrate every waking moment.

    And I wouldn’t mind if they got up and answered the alert. Nope, my Nan’s iPad continued to ‘ding’ away in the corner, each ‘ding’ seemingly getting louder each time it was ignored. She’d acknowledge each ‘ding’ by stopping the conversation, saying ‘oh that’s an email’ before going back to whatever she was talking about.

    Just turn them off

    Just to clarify — turn off your notifications, not your grandparents.

    I used to be an early adopter of various devices but then I got bored with the faff of setting them up, not to mention the cost. My Samsung phone is eight years old and the phone company have given up sending me updates on the latest phone that I ‘really must have’. And in the eight years I’ve had the phone the only sound it has ever made is ‘ring’. I will admit that at one point in the early 00s my Nokia used to beep out the theme tune to Fraggle Rock, but I have learned my lesson.

    The first thing I do whenever something digital comes in the house is turn off all the beeps, dings, bleeps etc. With the exception of my sodding attention-seeking washing machine which I can’t silence — AEG I’m looking at you.

    And it’s worth the ten minutes of my life it takes to do this — I know it’s a foreign concept to some but I believe if something is really that urgent the person will call me.

    Pay attention

    Those little dings, bings and bleeps do nothing but seek and divert our attention. Some studies suggest that app notifications are to blame for our lack of concentration. Others say that they are a symptom of a society that expects us to be contactable (by work or family and friends) at all times which has a knock on effect on our health and wellbeing. Whichever it is, turning off your notifications solves both problems.

    A study by Deloitte showed that the average American household has 25 connected devices — that’s a lot of things that go beep. And according to RescueTime we pick up our phones an average of 58 times a day — often in response to a notification. And once you’re on your phone you may as well check the news or the latest TikTok trend. Now, what was I doing again?

    Plus, if like me, you’re someone with hyperacusis (noise sensitivity) the sounds can create anxiety and a reduction in general wellbeing. Add in misophonia (a decreased tolerance to specific sounds) and I’ll be the person sitting next to you on the train plotting increasingly vindictive ways to kill you while your phone beeps away, letting you know there’s a photo of your cousin’s kid playing football on WhatsApp. Think about those around you — an app notification that makes a sound is not only notifying you.

    I’m focussing on the sounds devices make here because I write about sound and hearing health. But it doesn’t have to be sound — a red dot or flashing light can be equally distracting — if a little less annoying to those around you.

    I’m not dissing tech and social media. After I’ve pressed publish on this story I’ll head over to Bluesky to share it. But as much as I’d like you to read this story, it will never be that important that your device has to alert you to its presence.

  • What is noise pollution and what can you do about it?

    What is noise pollution and what can you do about it?

    Stop for a minute. Turn off the TV. Take off your headphones. What do you hear? If you hear nothing but natural sounds — birds, water, bees buzzing, then you’re either very lucky or your brain is doing its utmost not to hear the everyday noise of the human-made world.

    And our brains are very good at this. Walk into a room with a smelly dog and you’ll probably wrinkle your nose at first, but give it a while and nose blindness will kick in. The same happens with sounds and noise. But even if we can’t ‘hear’ them they are still having an effect on our bodies and our wellbeing. A WHO study showed that one million healthy years of life are lost every year due to traffic noise in western Europe alone. One million healthy years of life!

    And guess who is more likely to live in areas with higher levels of noise pollution? Yep, people with lower socioeconomic status and other disadvantaged groups.

    What is noise pollution?

    We hear a lot about air pollution, with good reason. Interestingly many of the things that cause air pollution also cause noise pollution — cars, planes, factories — they do a real number on the environment around them.

    Excessive noise seriously harms human health and interferes with people’s daily activities at school, at work, at home and during leisure time. It can disturb sleep, cause cardiovascular and psychophysiological effects, reduce performance and provoke annoyance responses and changes in social behaviour. World Health Organization (WHO)

    Last week the UK and Europe literally burned in a record-breaking heatwave. As per the advice I kept my windows and curtains shut during the day to keep out the worst of the heat. In the late evening, when it finally cooled a bit, I opened the windows and was greeted by the sound of lawnmowers. Who the f*ck is mowing their lawn when it was still 30+ degrees. Why the f*ck would you mow what is essentially now straw due to the climate crisis-induced heatwave. This action was unnecessary and showed a distinct lack of consideration for their neighbours. I shut the windows and swore and sweated a lot.

    Noise pollution is harming the environment. Noise pollution is harming human health. It can lead to hearing loss and tinnitus. It creates stress in the body leading to cardiovascular disease. It reduces children’s ability to learn. It affects sleep patterns — a big one for me, and trust me the world doesn’t need me getting less sleep.

    Noise pollution needs to be a political issue. It needs to be a priority in every political party manifesto. Environmental groups need to talk about it more. Reducing or changing the things that make noise will have a positive impact on the climate crisis.

    But what can I do about it?

    First of all, listen. Listen for the good sounds, the birds singing, the arrival of bees in spring. Not only are these sounds good for your wellbeing, they also need someone listening out for them so that if they are impacted by human behaviour someone notices and does something about it.

    Other practical things you can do include:

    • Stop flying — that’s it. We all know we need to stop doing that shit.
    • Ditch the car if you are able — walk, cycle, wheel or use (quiet) public transport instead. And no, electric cars aren’t silent. The engines might not roar like a diesel or petrol engine, but the noise they create when travelling on the road is just the same.
    • Campaign for low-traffic neighbourhoods and lower speed limits in your area. Remember 20 is plenty where people live.
    • Dig up your lawn and replace it with herbs and pollinator-friendly plants = no more lawn mower or strimmer. I did this and the increase in bees, birds and butterflies has been amazing. Plus we saved £150 on replacing our broken lawnmower.*
    • Talk to your local council or government — make them understand that this is an important issue. Ask them to consider noise pollution whenever they approve a new housing estate or road. Perhaps instead of a new road, they could improve the walking and cycling infrastructure?

    These suggestions link closely to noises that I feel impact my life. You might have other noises that you feel are more urgent to rid your environment of. One person I follow on Twitter would love to see the end of leaf blowers. Why not buy a rake and broom instead — that way you also get a workout.

    It’s time to get noisy about noise.

    *Lawns are carbon sinks. If you dig up your lawn replace it with other plants and trees. Don’t pave over it or replace with other forms of hard landscaping.

  • Simple solutions for a quieter life

    Simple solutions for a quieter life

    Back in the day when I used to commute to work the simple task of getting the train used to raise my stress levels to breaking point. Five days a week I’d arrive at the station five minutes before my train, then wait an extra ten minutes because the train was always delayed. I’d then jostle with my fellow commuters trying to claim a spare foot of space as my own. The journey itself was 12 minutes, except on days when we had to stop because of branches, cows or swans on the track (yes, all three of those we’re given as reasons for delays). And by the time I reached work, I was a jittery mess of anxiety and hatred towards all humanity.

    Yes, the delays were frustrating, paying for a seat and not being able to get one was a tad irritating, but the thing that got to me most was the noise. From the minute the carriage doors clunked shut there was constant noise. The train manager making unintelligible announcements over the PA. The squeals, bangs and squeaks of under-invested in rolling stock. The new phenomena of people playing music or watching movies without headphones — it was bad enough having loud, tinny music leach from headphones, but this new antisocial habit is enough to make me shove their devices into some very dark holes. And who can forget the very important man (yes, always a man) who doesn’t understand how a phone works and shouts so loudly into the receiver that the whole carriage knows just how important it is that Steve gets the contract to Maggie by close of play.

    In the end, I started driving to work — yes, I know this is not the sustainable option, but honestly, I was so far past the end of my tether that I was liable to headbutt the next very important man I came across. My commute time went from 12 minutes to 45 minutes, but those 45 minutes were quiet. Before this, I was ready to quit my job but this little change allowed me to hang on until I was ready to go freelance.

    In an increasingly loud world, opportunities for quiet seem to be diminishing. From the minute we wake up to the beep beep beep of our alarms to the time we are lulled to sleep by the near-constant rumble of traffic and aeroplanes noise is always there. And it’s killing us.

    So how can you find the quiet space you need?

    Explore your local community

    Even in the busiest of city, you can find quiet nooks and crannies. Sometimes they are obvious places like large, tree-filled parks but there are also plenty of hidden spaces waiting to be discovered. One of my favourite places is churches. I’m not religious but the enforced quiet of a religious building can be a blessing. But you need to avoid the fancy ones, the ones that tourist flock to.

    For example, Liverpool has two cathedrals. The first, and oldest is the appropriately named Liverpool Cathedral. An imposing building full of stained glass, stone carvings and tourists. The other, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, is a modern building with a derogatory nickname due to its, shall we say, distinctive architecture. And because of this fewer people visit making it a much calmer space. This building is a wonderful space to escape the rumble of traffic and bustle of the nearby shopping centre. (If you’re not religious please be aware of the religious practices in the building and act appropriately).

    Turn everything off

    Nice and simple this one. Take off your headphones. Turn off the TV, phone and tablet. If you are constantly listening to your devices you won’t know when there is quiet around you.

    Yes, they block out unwanted noise, but you are just substituting one noise for another. Turn them off and listen. Let your ears lead you towards the quiet they crave.

    Change your schedule

    A few years ago I worked in an open-plan office. Well, that was its own special kind of hell. No Phil, making hour-long calls on speakerphone is not sodding appropriate. Other than building your own fort out of reams of printer paper and broken A4 binders there’s not a lot you can do to change the physical space. But what if you changed when you are in the space?

    My old company allowed flexi-time — as long as we were in the building for the core hours we could start as early as 7am and finish as late as 8pm. I was an early bird and would arrive outside the office at 6.59am and leave just as the clock struck 3pm. This worked because the rest of my team were night owls who would rock up sometime between 9.30 and 10.00. Leaving me with up to three delightful hours of quiet every day.

    Depending on your company this might take a bit of negotiating, but it’s worth a try — even half an hour of quiet a day could make a difference.

    Avoid traffic

    Venice and Amsterdam are major European tourist sites, filled with people, cafes and restaurants. But they are both missing one thing — cars. Thanks to their unique landscape and, in the case of Amsterdam, their attitude towards cars, they are filled with the hubbub of people, but they lack the roar of motorised transport.

    Some towns and cities are finding ways to reduce our reliance on cars but others are still stuck in a car is King mindset. This gives you another reason to explore your neighbourhood or perhaps try a different walking route to work.

    If I walk the most direct route from my house into town I end up walking alongside a major road — filled with all the accompanying air and noise pollution. But if I take a diagonal route, it adds five minutes, but it avoids the main road and takes me along a tree-lined path that skirts a brook with all its accompanying bird song and babbling. For the sake of five minutes, I know which my lungs and ears prefer.

    I hope these simple ideas will help you to find some quiet space. I’d love to hear if you have any other ideas for finding a bit of hush in our increasingly noisy world.

  • There’s one way you can help me sleep better (please)

    There’s one way you can help me sleep better (please)

    I’ve got a little favour to ask…

    It won’t take much of your time and it could mean the difference between a good night’s sleep and me trying to work out how to turn off the buzzing minibar at 1am without ripping it off the wall. It could mean the difference between a few hours of rest after a long day exploring a new place and my husband screaming at children who are running up and down the corridor at 3am (yes, this really happened — Disneyland Paris, 2005). It will definitely mean the difference between me enjoying the hotel I’ve spent hard-earned cash on and spending the day searching for a hotel to move to so I don’t start plotting ways to end all humanity.

    So what is this little favour?

    I need you to write hotel reviews. More specifically I need you to write reviews that mention the noise levels of the hotel. I don’t care if you’re an American and have turned up in Paris or Venice and the rooms are ‘so small I can barely stand up’. We know the rooms in our centuries-old listed buildings are small, but we like them. I’m also not overly concerned if the car park is a little tight or if the receptionist doesn’t jump at your every last little whim. These things won’t disrupt my holiday or cause anxiety or an increase in tinnitus levels. They are minor inconveniences — knock off a star if you must, but I only have one concern — is the room quiet enough to sleep in?

    So, please, when you write your next review, in between moaning about or gushing over the range of pastries at breakfast, take a moment and think about the noises you heard during your stay.

    • Were the walls in the room paper thin so you could hear everything going on in the room next door?
    • Did the bare wood floors make the people on the floor above sound like they were partying with a herd of tiny elephants?
    • Did the air con hiss and whine all night despite being turned off?

    Quiet night? It’ll cost you

    A recent article in the Guardian talked about a new trend for sleep tourism. Fancy hotels who have created plush rooms with soundproofing, comfortable beds and blackout curtains promising a great night’s sleep. Now, excuse me for being picky, but surely the aim of every hotel should be to offer a great night’s sleep?

    Yes, depending on what you spend the bedding might be fancier, the shower gel might have come from an over-hyped apothecary in Mayfair or you might be lucky to get some PG Tips and the slowest boiling kettle in the world. But a great night’s sleep should be the number one aim for anyone opening a hotel. What the else are you there for?

    Perhaps if more of us write about the noise issues then hotels might start to pay attention. If people aren’t staying at their hotel because the lifts are noisy or housekeeping bangs their vacuum against the door at 7am, then they might do something about it. If not it’s going to affect their bottom line.

    Recent hotel noise issues

    Here’s just a handful of noise-related issues that have led to middle-of-the-night rage:

    • A buzzing minibar in a £250 a night room — the plug was hidden behind a panel so I couldn’t even turn it off.
    • A loose manhole cover on the road outside — nothing the hotel can do directly but they can report it to the council. When asked if they’d done this they responded, “No, it’s always been like that.”
    • A lift that every time the door opened bellowed “first floor” loud enough to wake us in the room furthest away from it. I’d hate to have been in the room opposite.
    • A hotel receptionist in Paris who when I complained about the traffic noise and asked to be moved to a courtyard room responded, “It’s Paris”, in that spectacularly haughty way that only Parisians can pull off. I appreciate it’s a major city with all the accompanying noise — I’ve stayed in Paris many times. But I didn’t expect to stay in a hotel where they’d apparently opted for tracing paper rather than soundproof windows.
    • A beautiful old hotel in the hills above Donostia / San Sebastián — lovely and peaceful until the dog on the farm next door started barking at 4pm and continued through until quarter past ten.

    Some of these things the hotels should have thought about when they were being built — oh the doors slam really loudly, perhaps we’ll go with a different style? Some of these things can’t be changed — yes the centuries-old buildings in Europe are beautiful, but they’re often not practical or easily modernised.

    But I’d like to know about these things so I can make an informed choice. And writing a review that comments on the noise levels, even just a few words, could make the difference between me spending a lot of money for barely a wink of sleep or waking from a night where it feels like I’ve been cocooned in a marshmallow made of love and kittens (Sofitel Luxembourg, that’s all you).

    Of course, some of these things wouldn’t bother other people — I admit as a person with tinnitus and misophonia I’m perhaps more sensitive to noise than others. But with 7.1 million people in the UK suffering from tinnitus and one in five having misophonia, a little bit of thought about noise will go a long way.

  • Why we need to listen more

    Why we need to listen more

    Nine years ago, my tinnitus started. Silence was a thing of the past. Then over the last few years, I become more and more sensitive to and annoyed by noise. The quietest woof of a dog in the distance was enough to kick my fight or flight response into action. Every beep, bang or bark was an intrusion in my hearing space. At that point I hadn’t accepted that silence, due to tinnitus was a thing of the past.

    The Covid lockdowns made things worse. Some noise went away for a while – the bypass near our house was much quieter for a few months. But this was replaced by other humanmade noises – drilling, mowing lawns, and don’t get me started on the pointlessness of leaf blowers. There was an increase in people buying dogs (for company and as an excuse to leave the house more often). More dogs, more barking, more noise. The constant doses of cortisol hitting my system were leaving me exhausted, and a bit of a cow to live with, especially when I shouted out the window at the early morning dog walkers.

    Listen more

    What would happen if I listened more? I decided to stop fightling the noise and take control of the sounds I wanted to hear, and learn to adapt to or find ways to remove the noise that I didn’t.

    Sound is something we want to hear, something that pleases us.
    Noise is an unwanted sound, often humanmade.

    For example: at the moment I’m stood in front of my window, it’s a beautiful spring morning, the birds are flirting with each other and busying themselves making nests. This is a good sound. In the near distance, there’s a delivery vehicle announcing to the world with eardrum-pummelling squeals, that it is reversing, this is a bad sound. Before, this would have led me to don my noise-cancelling headphones, removing both the good and bad sounds. No more birdsong!

    So, if I want the birdsong in my life what can I do? Well now, I take a little more time and care when I’m listening. I can rationalise that the irritating noise will soon go away, and the birds will continue with their tunes (well, at least most of the time I can, it’s a work-in-progress). I try and tune into the sounds I want to, and let them flow over the noise, a DPD van reversing is little competition for a wren at full blast. This takes some time and practice, a bit like meditation, but it’s worth it, even if you only manage a few minutes at a time to start with.

    I believe we should be more active listeners to the world around us, rather than just accepting the noise. And this is especially important now while the world is a bit quieter and we can hear the sounds we want to hear. Noise pollution is not only stressful, but it also shortens life expectancy. A study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that in Western Europe alone, at least 1.6 million healthy years of life are lost to noise pollution.

    There are some noises that I’m working to appreciate, rather than remove. The sound of people gathered in the park outside, chattering away, is something that, especially at the moment, should be cherished.

    Some noises are hard to appreciate or remove. Other than stealing all my neighbours DIY tools, there’s little I can do to silence that noise – and neither should I, they have a right to look after their property. I can however remove myself from the noise by going for a walk. I can also lead by example – this year we’re replacing our noisy electric lawnmower with a quieter cylinder one.

    For bigger noises, think planes, trains and automobiles, there are various groups you can join or support who are campaigning to either silence or quieten these intrusions. For example, HACAN campaign for those affected by the noise from planes taking off and landing at Heathrow.

    And it’s not all birdsong and wind rustling through the trees for me. There are still many times when the noise gets to me and I feel my anxiety rising. I’m not sure I’ll ever reach a sound nirvana. But for the sake of my health, and those who just want to walk their dogs at 6 am, I’m trying to accept the noises I can’t change, let the sounds I want to hear into my life, and work with others to remove or reduce the ones that are doing us physical and mental harm.

    But for now, why not open a window and have a listen to what is going on in the world around you. Sounds are subjective, ones that make me happy might make your teeth itch, and vice versa. So, try listening to the ones that make you smile, relax or feel part of nature. Those are the ones we need to amplify and appreciate before they’re buried in a world of noise.

    Originally published on Quest for Quiet (7 March 2021).

  • Swimming in silence

    Swimming in silence

    If you search ‘tinnitus swimming’ all the results talk about the negatives – swimmer’s ear being the main one, and how to prevent it. But for now, let’s take a look at the positives.

    My tinnitus is a barometer for my stress and anxiety levels. At the moment, after a brush with Covid, a nasty horsefly bite and some stressful deadlines at work my T is at peak attention-seeking. Swimming is my ultimate relaxant – although it has to be outdoors, I find indoor pools noisy and a bit grim (think used plasters floating by at eye level!). And it has to be skins, no neoprene here, although a bobble hat is essential and the absolute in outdoor swimming chic

    Outdoor swimming can also be a massive challenge. When I first started outdoor swimming in 2019, I was not a confident swimmer. The thought of not being able to put my feet down or the extremes of swimming in the winter took me so far out of my comfort zone, I’m not sure how I ever got back in the water, let alone fell in love with it. But fall in love I did, to the point I now swim in an old quarry that is 36 metres deep, with a 6m drop as soon as you kick off – no chance of putting my feet down. And this was the beginning of ‘silencing’ my tinnitus because the challenges meant I had something else to focus on.

    Now I find outdoor swimming the most relaxing thing in the world. The moment I step into the water, everything else in the world disappears. My mind is either silenced and I just bob along, chatting with the cormorants, great crested grebes and kingfishers, or it awakens my creativity – many stories have been conceived and plotted in the silky ripples of a lake. With my stressors removed, my tinnitus no longer has a place in my consciousness.

    Swimming alternatives

    BUt what happens when I can’t go for a swim? Instead, I have cold showers, apologies to my neighbours who have to put up with the regular shrieks, followed by giggles and laughter. This has something of a dampening effect, but it is shorter-lived than the effects of swimming.

    Go back to 2016 when my tinnitus started and I never would have said that swimming would be my go-to thing for silencing the ringing. And I guess that’s kind of the point. You don’t know if something’s going to work for you until you try it. So, please try not let tinnitus get you down. Meditation is often cited as something to try, but it might not work for you – it doesn’t work for me. But what about knitting, or gardening or mountain climbing? I find the best way to silence my T is to do an activity where my brain has to concentrate, so it doesn’t have time to become obsessed with the ringing, music or humming.

    I’d love to know what works (or doesn’t work) for you. Perhaps something you never expected to work has become your go-to way of distracting your brain. Feel free to share in the comments below.

    Further info

    If you are interested in outdoor/ wild/ cold water swimming please check out Outdoor Swimmer’s guide to swimming safely.

    If you need help or support with your tinnitus the British Tinnitus Association support line is available Mon-Fri 9-5 on 0800 018 0527. If you feel like you can’t cope and need help outside of these times the Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123.

    This post was originally posted on Quest for Quiet (10 Feb 2021).