In a world where most of us live in apartment buildings with noisy neighbors, the search for “perfect silence” is the holy grail for a good night’s sleep. We have always been taught that the key to deep rest requires the total absence of noise. However, for a large proportion of the population, absolute silence is ironically their worst enemy.
Millions of people around the world resort to some device that provides white noise every night: a fan, a machine specifically designed for this purpose, or soft music to help them fall asleep and stay asleep. Is this a bad habit acquired to compensate for modern life in shared apartments? Or is there a biological and psychological basis for this habit when it comes to going to bed?
The psychology of comfort and our nighttime routine
Believe it or not, controlled background noise is a very useful tool for protecting our minds from unexpected interruptions while we sleep. The secret to restful sleep lies not in complete silence, but in the right sound. There is a strange connection between our psychology and our biology.
Let’s start with the more intuitive part, the lover. It has been known for decades that silence intensifies internal dialogue and negative thoughts. If you are one of those people who systematically blocks out your inner voice—whether by listening to music all day, listening to podcasts, or having the TV on in the background—it is normal to feel very anxious when you lie down in bed and suddenly feel no external stimuli.
If we have waited all day to be silent, it is precisely when we lay our heads on the pillow that our daily worries appear and anxiety can be magnified. This is why many psychologists strongly advise people to have moments of silence throughout the day.
How to take advantage of silence periods during the day
You don’t have to sit quietly in a library; it’s enough to do some household chores without any external stimuli. It’s good for us to do the laundry, wash the dishes, or vacuum in silence while thinking about how our day went, our worries, or mentally calculating what we have to do. That way, when it’s time to go to bed, we’ll have been able to untangle all the feelings we have inside and we’ll be able to fall asleep more peacefully.
This is why many people choose to have a fan or a music playlist on while they fall asleep. However, what is known as the Pavlovian response also comes into play when we get used to the murmur of a fan or the static sound of a machine not always accompanying us every night, and the brain ends up associating its noise with rest.
This sound becomes an automatic signal that tells our nervous system that it is time to relax and sleep. Ultimately, this familiarity creates a deep sense of security. Unconsciously, our body perceives the environment as constant and familiar and eliminates the uncertainty and nerves that any small creak in total silence causes on a primal level.
Soft music or pink noise can modulate the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the “fight or flight” response inherent in human evolution. Thanks to this noise, there is a decrease in heart rate and respiratory rate. In general, people who systematically use background noise to rest also reduce their cortisol levels.
The evolutionary origin of our keen hearing at night
We must remember that until recently we were nothing more than clans living in caves, preyed upon at night by large beasts. That is why, even when we are asleep, our auditory system never completely shuts down; we always have one ear subconsciously listening for wolves lurking nearby. It doesn’t matter that we live in big cities and have never seen a real wolf in our lives, our DNA is written in such a way that we will always be on alert to a greater or lesser degree.
This feeling of vigilance is what makes it possible to detect threats in our environment, an essential function for the survival of the species. The brain is not awakened by a constant low sound, but by the sudden irregular contrast of noise.
It doesn’t matter if it’s just a dry leaf crunching, it means that someone—or something—has come too close and you and your group. So now you know, if anyone ever criticizes you for needing the fan on or your Spotify playlist playing every time you go to sleep, remind them that you are simply a member of the clan most predisposed to hearing that pack of hyenas stalking you!