Soundscaping for Better Moods

Your ears need a break!  Every day they seem to be bombarded by the sounds of machines and other people that seem like they will drive you mad.

But you can take steps to save your ears.

Don’t think about creating a place that’s silent—a space that’s too quiet is as stressful as one that’s too loud—plus, you’ll never be able to achieve silence anyway.

Add very quietly playing nature sounds to your home—you can source them online, for example.  The ones you want to use are the ones that you’d find in a meadow on a lovely Spring day—a gently burbling brook, peacefully singing birds, gently rustling leaves and grasses, etc.  They’ll help you mentally refresh, which is great for how energetic your mind feels, but also for your mood as well as your cognitive performance. Your brain will work more efficiently and effectively when you’re listening to nature sounds than music, even music that you choose.

If nature sounds make your skin crawl (maybe you’ve had a really terrible experience with ants at a picnic), add some white noise to your space to drown out what you don’t want to hear—again white noise is available online.

You’ll want to keep your sound treatments to about 45 dB(A) if you can—that’s about the sound of a usual conversation—no one yelling, no one whispering, etc.

The most annoying sounds to us are ones that seem like we may need to take action or that are unpredictable—so if you have a distant printer in your home that sometimes springs to action, make sure you can’t hear it when you’re trying to fall asleep!