Noise is one of the sounds that accompany our lives in daily environments. Prolonged exposure to an environment with noise pollution can cause a variety of problems in emotions sleep, health, and more.
What is noise?
It is reasonable to define noise as “sounds that have no meaning to us are noise” because it difficult for us to quantify noise with specific values.
In fact, the definition of noise should be considered comprehensively in combination with the surrounding environment and the time it occurs. the same sound is noise in a certain environment, but it is not noise in another environment.
It is generally believed that sounds above 50 decibels (dB, which are disorderly and cause obvious discomfort to the human body, are noise.
How is sound classified?
What are the common noises?
There are two to evaluate sound. One is the loudness of the sound, and the other is the frequency range of the sound. Because sound has a certain frequency specificity, the low frequency in life refers to the range of relatively low sound frequency.
It is generally believed that sounds between 20Hz and 500Hz are low frequency sounds, people a sense of depression.
The sound between 500Hz and 2000Hz belongs to the medium frequency sound, and the medium frequency is the frequency of our daily speech.
Sounds above 2000Hz belong to high frequency sounds, similar to the chirping of cicadas or more piercing sounds.
High frequency noise is more familiar to everyone, such as the harsh sound of a buzz saw, the sound of a subway running at high speed, screams, etc.
frequency noise is often easily overlooked, such as the sound of the air conditioner’s external unit, the buzzing sound when household appliances are turned on, the sound of the elevator, the sound of the electric vehicle’s charging pile and the sound of the electrical appliances working when charging, all of which are the sources of low frequency noise in life
What are the effects of being exposed to noise for a long time?
Firstly, noise can cause a lot of discomforts to both the mood the body. Most people who are exposed to noise for a long time will experience emotional problems such as anxiety, irritability, and anger, and may also suffer from insomnia
Secondly, if the human body is exposed to bad moods for a long time, it will produce negative problems, the most common of which are cardiovascular and cerebroascular problems. If you are exposed to noise for a long time, you may experience elevated blood pressure, and combined with the changes in sleep structure caused by noise, it can lead unstable blood pressure.
In addition, noise can also affect the endocrine system. The levels of some hormones related to mood will gradually show up over time
Hearing a sound;
Is excessive anxiety a disease?
This fear of noise, in medicine, has a proper name, hyperacusis that is, what we usually call “phonophobia”.
Some patients, when stimulated by certain sounds, will feel that the sound has an abnormally amplified, and may have some discomfort in the body or mind, some people will also have severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, and some people will have irritable, irritable emotional expression
Is there any benign noise?
Some people will play background music when they study or do something. This kind of music with rhythm and rh will not cause discomfort, so it does not belong to noise. This kind of sound can shield noise and prevent us from being disturbed by the sound of the outside environment, which plays role in concentrating.
There are also some patients who, for various reasons, will hear abnormal sounds in their ears, some like cicadas, some like trains passing by This kind of sound continues to appear in the ears or inside the skull, which will also affect the mood of patients to a certain extent. This kind of tinnitus can be by looking for the same frequency of noise, which can mask the sound of tinnitus. For example, some white noise can resist the sound signals in the patient’s brain which can make the patient relax temporarily. This is a kind of benign and beneficial noise.
In addition, white noise has a certain effect of helping sleep. This effect can understood as a diversion, which allows us not to pay too much attention to a certain sudden sound.
How to carry out reasonable noise protection?
In daily life, noise sources can be divided into several types: traffic noise, industrial, and decoration noise. There are different protection suggestions for different noise situations.
In a home environment, a background sound of 30-40dB is more suitable sleep. When the surrounding sound is relatively loud, the simplest protection method is to make a physical block, mainly through air resistance to block the transmission path of noise, such as installing-layer glass.
In special working environments, the surrounding environment decibel number may reach 100dB-120dB, which is close to theibel number of an aircraft taking off and landing. In this case, special noise-reducing earplugs can be used, which can play a certain role in isolation.
In daily life, there are also some places with relatively strong noise decibels, such as KTV, stadiums, and even when the loudspeaker is playing the theater, the local noise will also be very obvious. In this case, it is necessary to minimize the time of exposure to noise.
There are also some details in that need to be paid attention to. When using headphones and some audio equipment, it is recommended to follow the “six-six principle”, that is, the output volume should exceed 60% of the entire device, and the use time should not exceed 60 minutes.
The longer the time and the louder the sound, the greater damage to the auditory cells, and these damages are irreversible. Especially when the environmental background noise is greater, we are more likely to turn up the volume of the device to it, which will also cause serious damage to hearing in the long run.
