Every week we ask a health question to a medical expert. This week: helps white noise or white noise against worrying? Psychologist and researcher Myrthe Faber: “White noise is a mush of sound. As a result, the brain adapts after a while.”
Sometimes I can’t stop grinding. How is it possible that we worry?
“Why we worry is not yet completely clear. It is probably a reaction to uncertainty. We are naturally inclined to look for solutions to problems. There is nothing wrong with that. It only becomes annoying if you get stuck with a negative thought and can’t get rid of it when you end up in the worry mode.”
I sometimes feel that one worrying thought provokes another. Before I know it, I’m in a vicious circle of worry.
“Many people suffer from that. I always explain it as follows: sometimes thought trains run through our heads. One thought leads to the next and that provokes another thought. It works associatively.”
“That association is often unconscious and with all kinds of detours. Much of what we think about is triggered by things in your environment. For example, you hear the sound of a vacuum cleaner at the neighbors and think of your own house that also needs to be vacuumed.”
Before you know it you’ll be mulling over how to knit it all in the round.
“The train of thought usually doesn’t stop there. The rest of the house also needs to be cleaned. And you have to do the shopping before your in-laws come to visit on the weekend. Before you know it, you’re worrying about how to get it all done.” must knit.”
Someone advised me to listen to white noise. What is that?
“White noise is also known as ‘white noise’. It resembles the sound that television used to make when programs stopped broadcasting and the screen went gray.”
Why can it help against worrying?
“Because white noise contains a wide spectrum of sound. It consists of many different frequencies that also occur in the environment: voices, a neighbor vacuuming, a car driving by… So it masks the ambient noise, as it were.”
But then you might as well turn on the radio or music really loud, right?
“Masking is not the only reason that white noise can help against worrying. There is a second reason: because the volume of all those frequencies is about the same, there is no structure to be detected. It is a mash of sound. The brain adjusts after a while. The brain adjusts to a kind of unity of sound and stops interpreting all kinds of separate aspects.”
Just think of a busy coffee shop. First you hear, so to speak, all the conversations and stirring coffee spoons. But soon all those sounds are no longer noticeable.
“Just think of a busy coffee shop. At first you hear all the conversations and stirring coffee spoons, so to speak. But soon you don’t notice all those sounds at all. That’s why white noise can not only counteract worrying, but also works very well to to concentrate. You are less easily distracted.”
Where can I get good white noise sound files?
“On streaming services like Spotify and YouTube you can find thousands of tracks with white noise. Just pick one and see if you like it.”
Myrthe Faber works as an assistant professor at Tilburg University and researches ‘mind wandering’. She is involved in the Statistical Imaging Neuroscience group of Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging.
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