these are all very scary to the average person.

But could another one of our fears be silence?

Hey everyone, Laci Green here for DNews.

Sometimes I'm sitting in my apartment trying to write,

and, before too long, I'll find myself

putting on a YouTube video, or the TV, in the background.

And it's not as if I'm actually listening to the TV.

I'm just hearing it.

It's not loud.

It's just softly droning on in the background.

I guess, to me, there's something

mildly uncomfortable about sitting

too long in total quiet.

A six-year study done on 580 undergrads

found that, hey, I'm not crazy.

This is a widespread phenomenon.

And although they haven't confirmed it yet,

scientists suspect that this discomfort in silence

might be something that's learned.

Perhaps it's a product of the media bombardment

that we're faced with in day-to-day life.

Perhaps it's the airplanes and helicopters,

and buses and cars, air conditioners,

heating systems, computers, refrigerators,

distant conversations.

At any given moment there are 30 to 60 decibels

of sound humming away in the background of life.

Just stop and listen.

You'll hear it, even if you didn't even

realize it was there.

We're so used to this unquiet, perhaps

we're even starting to prefer it.

But according to science and things,

this preference might not be so good.

The International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental

Health reports that this ongoing low level background

noise could have negative effects on long term cognitive

learning and unconscious physiological processes.

The ability to memorize and recall information

is disrupted by background noise.

A study at the US Army Engineer Research Center

found that the ideal sound level for test taking

is 28 decibels, about the same as a whisper.

The theory goes background noise, even when it's

low level, subconsciously averts energy and brain

power to process all that junk.

But total silence ain't that great either.

In Minneapolis, you'll find the world's quietest room,

an anechoic chamber in which the noise

levels are negative 9 decimals.

I don't even know how that's possible.

But apparently it is, and it drives

people insane, like, literally crazy.

They start hallucinating and craving human flesh.

OK, maybe not the human flesh part.

But definitely hallucinations.

You're sitting there alone with just your thoughts

and the sound of your heartbeat.

And your brain just can't take it.

So it starts making [BLEEP] up.

The longest someone has lasted in this profound silence

is 45 minutes.

The brain, man, it's so hard to satisfy.

Like, do you want noise or not?

Perhaps the solution to our sound woes

is somewhere in between.

In the comments below, I want to know,

do you guys put on background noise when you're doing stuff?

Or do you prefer the quiet?

Thanks for watching DNews.

guys.

We'll be back again tomorrow.