Sound Pollution

Sound pollution is a specific type of pollution,. However sound pollution unlike many pollutants it directly affects everyone who is even around it, and can cause extremely detrimental health issues. sound pollution is often associated with light pollution as the two pollution's are quite similar, not in only how they're produced, but how they affect us. but how is sound pollution created? Sound pollution is created when unnatural or artificial sound is created (something not found in nature) such as concerts, construction, traffic etc. how does sound pollution affect us? When animals or humans are exposed to sound pollution (especially from a young age) it can cause many detrimental health issues such as insomnia, high blood pressure, hearing loss, sleep disruption, anxiety and more. Some of the less physical health related effects but much more mental health related issues include extreme anger, stress, breakdowns, anxiety attacks, struggles with focus etc. How does sound pollution work? Sound is measured in a measurement called decimals to put it into perspective a thunder clap is typically around 100-120 decimals while the average concert is also around 120 decimals or higher, the difference? a concert goes on for hours. a sound that is 120 decimals or higher can be so loud it's painful and damaging to the ear and its ability to work effectively, even a sound 75 decimals can be damaging to the ear if it goes on for long enough.

But let's talk more about sound itself, specifically how it affects our sleep. You've most likely heard of white noise since it's often what people will say helps them sleep, but what is white noise? I think we're all aware sleep is one of the most important needs as humans now i know most people hear that you need roughly 7 hours or more of sleep but as they say “quality is just as important as quantity”(to some extent) while i wouldn't recommend sleeping really well for 10 minutes, sleeping 8 hours while having helicopters and sirens and cars outside can be even worse, you'll find that you wake up tired and unalert even though you slept. Also there's not just white noise there's actually pink and brown noise too. But first lets better understand white noise so what is white noise, white noise is “noise containing many different frequencies of equal intensity” while pink noise is similar to white noise but not the same it contains and relies much less on higher frequencies for example the ocean or rain so if you prefer low pitching sound you will most likely prefer pink noise. Now what's brown noise? Brown noise is the even lower version of pink noise to the point of essentially terminating all high frequencies like rumbling of thunder or bass instruments.