Quiet UK

Tag: Soundscape

  • Sound or Noise? What are you hearing?

    Sound or Noise? What are you hearing?

    I’d like you to imagine a scenario. You’re sat at home, on your sofa, you’ve just finished work and you want to wind down. What do you do? My first thought would be a cold glass of alcohol-free beer. My second would be, ‘how about some music.’ So, if you’re like me you turn on your wireless speaker, connect your phone and depending on the kind of day you’ve had the music coming out could be anything from opera to country western, heavy metal to the songs of Disney (just me?). You listen and you relax. This is sound.

    Now I’d like you to imagine another scenario. This time you are standing up on a commuter train (standing, of course because there are never any seats by the time the train gets to your stop). A person opposite you is listening to the music they like. It’s probably something to relax them during their equally miserable commute. It’s probably music that you would normally enjoy in any other circumstance. But, today, right now, the tinny, ptz ptz ptz and muffled lyrics are driving you to distraction. You feel you heart race, your fists clench and you start thinking homicidal thoughts (again, just me?). You don’t want to listen, you can’t relax. This is noise.

    Noise or sound?

    So, what’s the difference between the two scenarios? Technically, there is no difference between sound and noise – they are both caused by vibrating air particles that generate pressure waves and are detected by the ear before being translated by the brain into something that you hear. But from a hearing point of view the difference is highly subjective. Sound is something we hear. Noise is something we don’t want to hear.

    The difference between a sound we want to hear and one we don’t is listener intent. More than likely, a sound that we have had some agency in creating or agreeing to listen to is preferable to one that is being created by or forced upon us by someone else.

    For example, my husband loves classic music and likes to play it in the car. In contrast all I hear is the scritchy, scratchy violins and once I detect them, that is all I can focus on. If I’m in the car, the stereo is getting turned off. The sound is the same but translated very differently by our brains.

    There are several factors that may change a sound to a noise:

    • the volume – it doesn’t have to be loud, sometimes a quiet sound can be more annoying.
    • the characteristics – for example, the frequency
    • the duration – a dog barking once or twice is probably ok, but what if it barks for several hours?
    • the time of the noise – again the dog barking during the day might be ok, but at 3am?

    And these are all subjective. One person’s noise is another person’s relaxing soundscape.

    But how does this help people who have sensitive hearing, who find there is more noise in their life than sound? For me, thinking about the difference between sound and noise has helped a bit (definite work in progress based on my reaction to my neighbour mowing his lawn today!). I don’t live in a world of silence; I create sounds that might escape into other people’s worlds and give them a bit of a tic. I’m sure not everyone appreciates my lively renditions of Let it Go or Total Eclipse of the Heart.

    Some tips to reduce noise in your life

    If the noise is coming from in your home, try explaining how it impacts you to the person making it – my husband now only plays his guitar and piano when I’m out of the house.

    Can you change your commute? Not a simple solution for everyone but sometimes changing your train or bus to the one before or after your usual one can make a massive difference to the amount of people and therefore noise. Or could you walk part of your commute – stress busting in itself and saves you money!

    I would say use the quiet carriage but from experience those are a greater source of noise and stress than the buffet car!

    Noise cancelling headphones are an option. My mum swears by her’s but I feel claustrophobic in them. I recomend you try out a friend’s pair before shelling out for some – they are not cheap.

    At the moment I’m exploring how I can learn to live with some noise and also how to find the quiet that some days my head craves so much it hurts. As I try things out I’ll share the results with you (good and bad). The above tips are just a couple of things that I’ve found to help – and they won’t always help or they aren’t always possible but they are something to try and see if they work for you.

    Feel free to share your experiences of noise and how you have coped or what you have changed to improve your sound experience of the world.

  • How to find quiet in an open plan office

    How to find quiet in an open plan office

    Buzz, bang, beep, cackle, holler, door screeching slowly closed. These are just some of the noises that welcome those of us that work in open plan offices. After several years of suffering in my own open-plan-noise-hell I’ve discovered there are plenty of things you can do to create quiet in even the most gossip-ridden, Tuesday-fire-alarm-testing, two-hour-speaker-phone-meeting office environment.

    Several years ago, I started working in my first open plan office. I wasn’t a big fan, but we had big windows looking out on to trees and green fields and large desks where we could create our own space. Then the company decided to fit more and more people into the same tiny area. Suddenly we went from two people on a desk to three, then four. I went from having several feet between me and my colleague to practically sitting on each other’s laps. It didn’t help that the intern who sat next to me had no concept of personal space, or indeed a volume button.

    As the noise went up, my stress levels went up and my productivity went down. Open plan offices done properly can improve collaboration, personal connections and create opportunities for people from different departments to mix and perhaps come up with the next big idea. However, they can still be loud and distracting and the background noise can reduce cognitive ability leading to reduced productivity.

    In my case they can also induce a slight murderous rage when the man-spreading senior manager next to me used to take hour long calls at his desk and clearly had no concept of how phones worked or he wouldn’t have been shouting down the receiver.

    But don’t worry there are plenty of ways to reduce the amount of noise in these notorious sound generating environments?

    What can you do to reduce noise levels in open plan offices?

    A lot of the noise in your office is probably out of your control, but here are a few things that can help create some quiet space for you:

    • Wear standard or noise cancelling earphones. This way you can listen to the sounds you want to. Just make sure they’re not turned up too loud, so you don’t contribute to the problem.
    • Lead by example
      • turn off unnecessary (all in my opinion) notifications on digital devices
      • have conversations away from other people’s desks
      • don’t talk over desks – it’s tempting if you have desk dividers to pop your head over and have a quick catch up with a colleague, but you won’t be the only people hearing the conversation.
    • Explore your office – find the quiet spaces that others haven’t discovered. I found so many ‘secret’ cubbyholes where I could find space and quiet when I needed it. Tip: the canteen outside of peak times can be an unlikely haven.
    • Don’t let things get really bad. Talk to your manager. A simple desk move might solve the problem. Don’t let things build up and bubble over. Address them before they have a negative impact on your health and mental wellbeing. Your manager might not even realise there is a problem. Go to them with some solutions and see how you can solve the problem together.
    • A personal one. At Christmas don’t bring in a musical clock that every hour places a tinny, high-pitched ‘version’ of Jingle Bells. You know who are, Lou!

    Office managers these ones are for you:

    • Create quiet spaces where people can focus on their work away from distractions.
    • Conversely you could create a noisy area – somewhere for huddles, lunch breaks, team training sessions to take place – just make sure it’s not next to the quiet space.
    • Assign quiet times – perhaps post lunch when everyone is in a bit of a lull anyway.
    • Introduce a visual key system so people can show if they are willing to be interrupted. We placed coloured cards on the top of our screens – green for yes, I’m free and happy to speak and red for I’m focussing on a task and do not want to be interrupted. Or there’s the earbud code – one in for happy to be spoken to, two in for leave me alone.
    • Encourage staff to work from home. Yes, I know many companies are encouraging/ forcing workers back to our offices but one or two days a week at home can make a massive difference to the quality of life and productivity of an employee who prefers it quiet.
    • No speakerphone conversations in the office – hearing one voice is bad enough!
    • And leading on from this – no video calls at desks. Encourage everyone to treat video calls as a meeting and go to a designated meeting space.
    • Move noise generating equipment away from desks and quiet areas. It might be a noisy machine, or it could be people congregating and chatting at the printer.
    • Finally, listen to colleagues who say they are struggling with noise. Work together to see how things can change. They might not be the only ones who are having a bad time. Simple changes can make a world of difference to their health and mental wellbeing and your business productivity.

    There are also myriad ways of reducing the sound by, for example, changing the layout, adding acoustic panels and planting living walls. These maybe suitable for your business or not but a quick google brings up loads of options in varying price ranges.

    I’d love to know how other people cope with open plan offices – from both a personal and business perspective. Keeping everyone happy is not easy but as we spend so much of our time at work, we need to learn compassion and respect for our colleagues. I don’t want to silence the loud voices, but equally they shouldn’t be the only voices heard.

  • Why listening to birds is good for your health

    Why listening to birds is good for your health

    “Shag me, shag me, shag me.”

    After weeks of hearing a Great Tit scream this from the tree outside my bedroom, I was ready to sign him up to bird Tinder. OK, so I’m not a bird whisperer, and he might have been saying “Oi lazy, the feeder’s empty.” But it was that time of year when the birds all get a bit frisky and their calls a bit louder, and this poor fellow really did seem to be missing out on all the action.

    Despite this slightly jarring addition to the soundscape of my garden, I love to sit and listen to the different birds coming and going, chatting and scrapping, or in the case of the most ubiquitous of songbirds, the blackbird, announcing the start and end of the day. Each bird has a different story to tell and if you listen closely you can even tell the rain is coming because the sparrows start to cheep and chirrup louder and more frantically — I like to think they are doing a public service by telling me to get my washing in.

    In a study by researchers from the University of Surrey, birdsong was shown to be associated with perceived stress recovery and attention restoration, although not all birds were equal in their ability to calm. Wood pigeons and even chickens were associated with stress reduction, while “spooky” owls and the chattering and raucous magpies were seen as stressors.

    I’m not sure I agree with the latter as I love the magpies that come to my garden (including a playful family of five last year) and often have rambling conversations with them as they scoop up the leftover hedgehog biscuits. They are super intelligent (they drop the hard biscuits in water to soften them before eating) and I feel they appreciate the effort I make to create a bird-safe garden environment. But I can see how the calls they make could be disruptive to others.

    Quite often the sound of a bird is the only thing to give away their presence, especially in urban areas where they might not be as obvious. The song of the robin can be heard long before you spy him hiding on the upper branches of a tree. Sitting and looking out of my office window there is a row of trees between me and the next lot of houses, and it is a haven for regular and just passing avian friends. In the summer when all the leaves are out, the songs and calls are all there is to identify who is lurking in amongst the green.

    Naturally good for you

    The cackling anguish that is a spooked blackbird is easy to recognise, others I have yet to learn, but a new sound is sure to catch my ear, and draw me away from my work for a few minutes of immersion in nature.

    The University of Surrey study showed that birdsong was the preferred natural sound (over water and other animal sounds) and that it could provide a distraction or alternative focus from stressors.

    But, unfortunately, this wonderful, free and natural stress reliever may not be around for future generations as the number of songbirds is in decline thanks to modern farming and building practices that destroy their natural environments.

    Save our songbirds

    We must act now to stop further destruction of these environments before we lose their songs forever. One way to help is to support local bird charities such as the RSPB in the UK or the American Bird Conservancy in the US. Another is to be aware of the sounds around you, learn which feathered friend is visiting your garden, office building or park. The more you listen the more you will be aware of any changes and be able to act.

    And remember, if the birds are singing, then nature has a smile on her face, and so will you.

  • 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.