Unnoticed Noise Stress
In The Home Environment

(Page 2 of Noise Stress)

It can be most debilitating, and can even cause a deadly heart attack .

What is of concern too is that quite often people are not even aware that they are subjecting themselves to noise overload. The result is that not only does your health suffer, but also your happiness.

Is your own home too noisy?

Being at home every evening with family banter going on, television going in the background (or not-so-background), someone playing their music in another room - all these sounds converging into your auditory system can be quite stressful without your even realizing it.

You may notice the effects of this, and perhaps feel a bit frazzled at bed time, or find it difficult to fall asleep, or experience depression. But the association between those symptoms and the cacophony that caused them is often overlooked.

Try this experiment at home this evening

If possible (family considerations being one factor that might make this not so easy), try this out one evening:

• Have the TV tuned to a channel with dialogue and other sounds - like a movie, cartoons or a game show, where there is enough variety in the sounds coming from the box.
• Turn it up loud enough to be an intrusion to any conversation that might be going on at the same time.
• Keep it on for quite a while, preferably until after other domestic sounds have subsided a bit (children gone to bed, or in their rooms with their doors closed, etc.).
• When the house is somewhat settled down a little, keep the TV going a while longer.
• Then consciously turn it off and listen to the quietness.
• Feel what happens inside your mind and in your body. You should feel a sense of relief, a kind of 'peace and quiet'.

This little experiment should show you how simple household noise can actually be a source of stress. Having such a typical home situation every evening, night after night, is eating away at the health and happiness of millions of people worldwide.

Do the experiment this evening

Now, having read about the experiment suggested above, why not set a plan in motion to actually conduct the experiment this evening, and see what you experience.

Stress management strategy

No matter what kind of stress you are experiencing, you should always follow the general stress management strategy that is applicable to all kinds of stress. It is summarized here:

1. Attend to the specific stressors themselves (in this case those things that are causing noise stress)
2. Improve your body's ability to handle daily stressors more easily
3. Get rid of old accumulated deep-rooted stresses

These steps are explained on the page titled Stress Tips - A Core General Strategy . On the next page we'll focus on reducing noise stressors themselves.


To Page 3 - Easiest and cheapest noise stress reducer available