I've
begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a
quality and a dimension all its own. --Chaim Potok
Why
Silence is So Good For Your Brain
--by Carolyn
Gregoire, syndicated from huffingtonpost.com,
Mar 14, 2016
We live in
a loud and distracting world, where silence is increasingly difficult to come by
-- and that may be negatively affecting our health.
In fact, a
2011 World Health Organization report called noise pollution a "modern
plague," concluding that
"there is overwhelming evidence that exposure to environmental noise has adverse
effects on the health of the population."
We're
constantly filling our ears with music, TV and radio news, podcasts and, of
course, the multitude of sounds that we create nonstop in our own heads. Think
about it: How many moments each day do you spend in total silence? The answer is
probably very few.
As our
internal and external environments become louder and louder, more people are
beginning to seek out silence, whether through a practice of sitting quietly for
10 minutes every morning or heading off to a 10-day silent
retreat.
Inspired
to go find some peace and quiet? Here are four science-backed ways that silence
is good for your brain -- and how making time for it can make you feel less
stressed, more focused and more creative.
1. Silence
relieves stress and tension.
Florence
Nightingale, the 19th century British nurse and social activist, once wrote that
“Unnecessary noise is the most cruel absence of care that can be inflicted on
sick or well.” Nightgale argued that needless soundscould
cause distress, sleep loss and alarm for recovering
patients.
It turns
out that noise pollution has
been found to lead to high
blood pressure and heart attacks, as well as impairing hearing and overall
health. Loud noises raise stress levels by activating the brain's amygdala and
causing the release of the stress hormone cortisol, according to
research.
An
unpublished 2004
paper by environmental
psychologist Dr. Craig Zimring suggests that higher noise levels in neonatal
intensive care units led to elevated blood pressure, increased heart rates and
disrupted patient sleep patterns.
Just as
too much noise can cause stress and tension, research has found that silence has
the opposite effect, releasing tension in the brain and
body.
A 2006
study published
in the journal Heart found two minutes of silence to be more relaxing than
listening to "relaxing" music, based on changes in blood pressure and blood
circulation in the brain.
2. Silence
replenishes our mental resources.
In our
everyday lives, sensory input is being thrown at us from every angle. When we
can finally get away from these sonic disruptions, our brains' attention centers have the opportunity to restore
themselves.
The
ceaseless attentional demands of modern life put a significant burden on the
prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is involved in high-order thinking,
decision-making and problem-solving.
As a
result, our attentional resources become drained. When those attention resources
are depleted, we become distracted and mentally fatigued, and may struggle to
focus, solve problems and come up with new ideas.
But
according to attention
restoration theory, the brain can restore its finite cognitive
resources when we're in environments with lower levels of sensory input than
usual. In silence -- for instance, the quiet stillness you find when walking
alone in nature -- the brain can let down its sensory guard, so to
speak.
3. In
silence, we can tap into the brain's default mode network.
The default
mode network of the brain is
activated when we engage in what scientists refer to as "self-generated
cognition," such as daydreaming, meditating, fantasizing about the future or
just letting our minds wander.
When the
brain is idle and disengaged from external stimuli, we can finally tap into our
inner stream of thoughts, emotions, memories and ideas. Engaging this network
helps us to make meaning out of our experiences, empathize with others, be more
creative and reflect on our own mental and emotional
states.
In order
to do this, it's necessary to break away from the distractions that keep us
lingering on the shallow surfaces of the mind. Silence is one way of getting
there.
Default
mode activity helps us think deeply and creatively. As Herman Melville once
wrote, "All profound things and emotions of things are preceded and attended by
silence."
4. Getting
quiet can regenerate brain cells.
Silence
can quite literally grow the brain.
A 2013
study on mice, published in the journal Brain, Structure, and
Function, involved comparing the effects of ambient noise, white noise, pup
calls and silence on the rodents' brains. Although the researchers intended to
use silence as a control in the study, they found that two hours of silence
daily led to the development of new cells in the hippocampus, a key brain region
associated with learning, memory and emotion.
While
preliminary, the findings suggested that silence could be therapeutic for
conditions like depression and Alzheimer's, which are associated with decreased
rates of neuron regeneration in the hippocampus.
Republished
with permission from the Huffington Post where
this article originally appeared. Carolyn Gregoire is
a Senior Writer for The Huffington Post
Be
The Change: This week, experiment with spending a few minutes each day in
silence. For inspiration here's a short passage on 'The Rich Experience of a
Quiet Mind".
Sourced
From www.dailygood.org
