4 major reasons why we sometimes need to sit in silence

In 2011, the world health organization released a report that noise pollution called "the plague of the modern world". The authors argued that "clear evidence of the fact that the noisy environment affects the health of the population."

We constantly listen to music, news on TV and radio, various podcasts and plus the fact many sounds that themselves are produced in the "non-stop". Think about how much time each day do you spend in silence. Most likely, a matter of minutes (not counting sleep time, of course).

As soon as our environment is filled with noise more and more, people begin to seek the silence — someone spends ten minutes in silence immediately after waking up, someone's trying to retire for the day.

Silence helps to get rid of stress and tension.

The British nurse and social activist Florence Nightingale of the 19th century once wrote that "unnecessary noise is the cruelest form of neglect, which can cause suffering as great, and a healthy man." She argued that excessive noise leads to ailments, sleep disorders and anxiety States in patients who recover.

In the course of research it was confirmed that noise pollution leads to increase in blood pressure, heart attacks, hearing loss and General health. Loud noise increases the stress level by acting on the amygdala, which leads to the release of the stress hormone cortisol.

Silence noise has the opposite effect — reduces stress and relaxes tension of mind and body.

In the scientific report published in 2006 in the journal Heart shows that just two minutes of silence have better calming effect than listening to "relaxing" music. This is due to the difference in blood pressure and blood circulation in the brain.

Silence can fill our mental resources.

In everyday life we collapse the infinite flow of sensory information. When we finally find ourselves in the silence, the attention centers of our brain get a chance to recover.

The conditions of the modern world require human attention to be "on" almost constantly — and it is a heavy burden for the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for problem solving and decision making.

In result, the resources of the brain associated with attention, are depleted, it becomes increasingly difficult to concentrate, we feel fatigue, lose the ability to solve problems and generate new ideas.

However, we can recover cognitive resources, reducing the level of incoming sensory information — for example, walking in nature in silence.

In silence we can change the brain in a passive mode of operation.

The so-called "self-generated knowledge" is activated when we are immersed in dreams, meditation, fantasy about the future or just let their minds wander where he pleases.

When the brain is freed from external stimuli, we finally get a chance to "connect" to the flow of our inner thoughts, emotions, memories and ideas. This allows us to rethink previous experience, to feel the feelings of others and to adequately assess our own mental and emotional state.

In other words, stay in the silence helps us to think more deeply and baptized.

Silence helps to restore the brain cells.

In 2013, experiments were conducted on mice, the results of which are published in the journal Brain, Structure, and Function. The experiments investigated the effect on the brain of rodents of different kinds of noises and silence. It turned out that two hours a day of silence lead to the formation of new cells in the hippocampus — a key part of the brain responsible for learning, memory and emotions.

As a result, the researchers came to the conclusion that silence has therapeutic properties in the treatment of depression, Alzheimer's disease, etc. — conditions associated with reduced rate of renewal of the hippocampal neurons.