Is it true that we can't tolerate complete silence for long?

It is because they fear their own thoughts, their own inner voice.
I love silence, nothing to fear. What’s really scary are those that are too afraid to be alone with themselves. Of course we’re talking hours not solitary confinement for days and weeks.

Great question, @Mimishu1995. I have never given it a try, but I rather think I would love it like I love this.

I love silence.

The situation would be similar to being in an isolation chamber.When we are alone in a room,without any sound,after a while our mind will begin to create sights and sounds for us.For example the sound of our breathing,our heartbeats. All these could make some people insane.

What I generally think of as silence, which to me is a very happy, comfortable condition, is not true silence at all but relative quietness. There are always small noises, such as distant traffic, occasional bird and animal sounds, movement of air, my own small interactions with my environment, my breathing and heartbeat, my husband’s chair creaking and keyboard tapping in another room, and so on. I think I would find total absence of sound as disturbing as total absence of light.

And that has nothing to do with fear of my own thoughts. I am entirely comfortable in my own mind and with my own company, and I always have been. In fact, I think one of the greatest benefits of a traditional liberal education is the enrichment of one’s inner life. There’s no better antidote to staleness and boredom than that inner mindscape.

The more I think about this, the more I think it’s generally BS and if there is any such effect, it’s because that the participants have been told what they are “supposed” to do in the absence of any sound. and so they do. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. People born completely deaf do not go crazy 30 minutes after birth. Nor do adults go crazy when some medical condition suddenly plunges them into a world of silence.

Now total darkness is another thing entirely. I was once on a cave tour, deep in some underground cavern and the guide turned off his flashlights and told us that we were experiencing the absolute darkest dark possible. I swear I was starting to freak out after about 30 seconds. haha
He said many a person went insane in these caves in history. I believe it!

I want silence. I live in a townhouse that is so creaky. The stairs creak the pipes creak and the neighbor blares her music 3x a week at random times. Last night it was from 11:15pm until 2:45am. My ears were thumping I had a headache and she doesn’t answer her door.

Right now I take long drives of silence relief. But I’d go in a room no problem.

Take me to the silent room! I suffer from mild tinnitus and would love some pure silence. Maybe I could get some good sleep for a change. Oh does it have a silent toilet? HA!

Consider also the phenomenon of comfort noise. People don’t like utter silence on the line when they’re trying to communicate by voice.

When VoIP was new, it was extremely jarring and distracting to have the line go “dead” during even brief pauses in speech. It was almost like a reflex to keep verifying: “Hello? Are you still there?” Hard to conduct an effective conversation that way. Adding comfort noise created the impression that the line was “open” even when nothing was being transmitted.

@ETpro Aye comrade, I agree with this. First of all perfect silence is extremely hard to achieve, and if one were stuck in a room where this happens and it does drive them nuts…I can’t believe for a second that the person wouldn’t be able to make noise by themselves in order to cause distraction. Tap your foot, sing, make fart noises with your mouth. And as you say, complete silence is probably not that hard to endure, there are worse things in life than that, I’m sure. Humans are very strong, ain’t no fucking silence gonna stop my ass.

We are well adapted to quiet areas where there is still some transient, not disruptive sounds,

Total silence is a form of sensory deprivation. It is experienced as aversive and threatening.

Sensory deprivation has long been know to create severe distress among humans.

Peoples bravado notwithstanding, total silence for extended periods is quit unnerving.

Denying it does not change the observed effects.

I have actually had the experience of going in such a room, back when I was in school. We went there as part of a school trip with the music teacher. I say room, it was more like some kind of capsule.

The reason I mention it, was because the whole point of going there, was to show how there is no such thing as absolute silence, at least for us humans. The only real way to have absolute silence, would be to have the special sound room kept empty.

If you go in to such a room, you will still be able to hear things. Not coming from outside of the room, but rather coming from inside of you. The human body makes all kinds of sounds.

If you go in to such a room, you will be able to hear your own guts digesting and doing their work, as well as a ringing in your ears that is actually your blood flowing in your veins, and a faint humming sound that seems to be far away, but is actually the sound of the electrical current in your own brain.

Maybe it is not the silence that freaks them out, but rather all the different sounds. Your guts have the capability to sound like a creepy old door that needs oiling, like you would hear in a horror film.

I love being by myself. I love silence when I am at work. I could go all day and only speak the pleasantries. Though I can’t go a long time with silence when it is just myself and my s/o.

I’ve worked in an anechoic chamber several times. When i first entered it felt like there was pressure on my head. There wasn’t any. It just felt that way. I enjoyed the experience. I think it was because I had something to do. If I had to sit in a chair with nothing to read and nothing to do except stare at the repetitive pattern that would bother me.
I could do it for a while but I know for sure my limit would be 5 hours. That’s when I’d have to pee.

It is noise I can’t stand. I don’t mind silence and I love little sounds like rain on windows, or the wind rustling through leaves.

The room is an anechoic chamber and there are several in the world, mostly used for research.

Only someone who is deaf knows what silence is, people with functioning hearing organs will always hear sounds – in an anechoicc gamer, you will hear the sound of your breath and your heartbeat/pulse, and sounds from nearly any movement you make. Even people with some degree of hearing loss will hear some body noises or at least hear tinnitus when in a quiet environment.

An interesting book on the topic, which includes the author’s experience in an anechoic chamber, is In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise.

@ETpro – Many people who experience sudden hearing loss are highly disturbed by the experience. We take our hearing for granted, especially in regards to how it connects us to the world beyond what we can see. Even people whose hearing diminishes gradually become more tense and anxious because of feeling less attuned to their environment, but they don’t realize it until we give them the technology to restore that connection.

As I commented previously, I do enjoy silence, but one time I experienced what I perceived to be PURE SILENCE and I never want to do that again.

I was once driving late at night on a narrow, pine tree-lined back road from Sedona north to Flagstaff (I’ve related this story once before) and pulled over to the side to look at the star-engorged sky. I turned off my headlines, and except for those billion stars, I could see nothing but blackness. When I stepped out of the car, I was—believe this or not—literally knocked to my knees by two hair-raising sensations: the immense “weight” of the sky above me (it seemed to be only inches above) and the astoundingly loud “sound” of silence surrounding me. It was both exciting and harrowing.

Maybe if you are out going, maybe you couldn’t stand silence for long, but if you like going to the library and read books and you know, be quiet, just maybe you can handle silence for longer than others.

Odd how many people on this thread are making no distinction between monastic silence or library silence, which isn’t silence at all, and a chamber of absolute echoless soundlessness, void of any ambient auditory stimulus.

@hearkat Of course any rational person would be distressed about the sudden loss of their sense of hearing, or any of the four other senses as well. I don’t think it is fair to equate a sudden loss of one of your senses due to some medical condition with willingly stepping inside a room which you know will prevent sound waves from reaching your ears while you are in the room. In the later case, you know leaving the room will “restore” your hearing.

I love silence but not pure silence. I wouldn’t want to not be able to hear the TV on low or the noises outside. Those things are comforting.

I would probably love it. My grandfather always said that if you can’t sit on a downed tree for an hour, you weren’t worth a nickel.

It depends upon the person. I like silence most of the time. It helps me to concentrate upon thinking profoundly and my work. I may watch DVDs with the sound off and subtitles on. The “music” on some movies is horrible, so I do not want to hear it. People who cannot think are compelled to fill their heads indiscriminately with chaotic noise. I see people with small phone-like devices that have earphones on airplanes, buses and trains. I pity them.

It’s terrible for people suffering from tinnitus.