Do you need noise in your life?

Things like fans just irritate me, I guess I'm either not used to hearing them or they're just an intrinsically annoying sound. Like now I can hear a little fan whirring away in my iMac and it's like a constant buzz. I just want to turn the thing off to stop it.

My bedtime routine is basically put phone on charge, turn off lights, put on earphones and stick a podcast on until I'm about to sleep. If I don't do that my mind will race as thoughts kinda all come together if it's not occupied. :p

I need noise during the day, especially when I'm working. I'm not one for music on in the background, or at least it has to be a specific type of music, but I usually have my TV on in the background on low volume. Essentially I need something I don't need to actively listen to on but it helps if it's entertaining enough that I can occasionally turn my head and watch whatever is on.

Yes. I don't have Netflix, and I don't talk to people much irl, so it's usually just my fan or a YouTube video playing in the background.

Well shit, I had no idea prior to this thread that the ringing noise I hear all the time is a fairly common medical condition. The more you know, I guess.

Anyway, I wouldn't say I NEED noise, but I definitely prefer to have some low volume noise going on. I used to have fish tanks in my room and the filter noise was surprisingly relaxing for me. (Unless of course the water was too low, then it was loud as fuck and impossible to sleep.) Fans work really too, just hate how cold my room gets.

People say it has something to do with where you grew up. I grew up in a city, in an apartment building, in a shitty neighborhood. If I don't have noise, I can't sleep. My white noise has recently taken the form of old episodes of Unprofessional Fridays. Before that is was old Quick Looks. I'm single now, so it slides. But being in a relationship makes it hard, especially if it is with somebody who needs silence to sleep. I think I've gotten to the point where I can sleep pretty well without sound, if somebody else is in the room. It's all subconscious bullshit. I'm sure I could sleep fine without noise, and I'm sure most people could sleep fine with it, but whatever. I don't know. Fuck.

Complete silence is super rare but i find very appeasing when it happens.

I don't mind fan noise from my desktop but don't miss it either at night with just the laptop on and next to no sound at all in the house.

I have a small fan i keep on all day every day all year round, the white noise is calming and i like the air slightly stirring even when its cold.

I don't know if I need it, mainly because I've never sat and thought about it, but I always have some sort of noise nearby. A podcast, music, a sports game... so yeah, I guess? Silence has no purpose to me, so if I'm home alone then there's company somewhere.

No. I require near silence for at least a couple hours a day, and am most comfortable with as little noise as possible throughout. I frequently wear earplugs to achieve this if I cannot get silence otherwise.

I can't do grocery stores or shopping malls without earplugs. The noise in those places is unbearable.

I have a tough time falling asleep without white noise.

My dog is basically deaf. I wish he could hear again.

Yup. http://rain.simplynoise.com. The wife and I purchased a $500 sound system just for Simply Noise (brown noise and the rain ed.) for when we sleep. You can only imagine how wonderful having it is when you have two children, one being 2 1/2 and the other 7 weeks old.

I like having a bit of white noise in the background. Total silence is too creepy for me. It's the one thing I don't like about hiking in the mountains while it's snowy.

Yes, silence unsettles me, especially if I'm trying to sleep or when I'm in a room with other people.

Also, this is one of my greatest fears

Thanks for that, this seems amazing. I love the sound of rain.

I have a playlist of songs that I've heard a million times that basically functions as white noise which i like a lot (though the song choices are pretty terrible looking back on it, bunch of MGS music and stuff like that)

I like it to be pretty quiet when I sleep. Noises outside are fine but I don't like the hum of my computer or whatever when I'm trying to snooze.

I grew up and still live next to what is technically classified a state highway and I often feel creeped out by houses where I can't hear cars drive by, or feel the subtle shake of the house as a semi passes through. It's to the point where I can't sleep in some quite houses.

Yeah, sound is always nice. I'm always either listening to podcasts or having a fan on.

Apparently the reason for people liking white noise is because it subconsciously reminds people of the womb and their mothers heartbeat. At least that's what I've heard.

This is what I like to use: http://asoftmurmur.com/

I personally prefer the sound of crackling fire, as my house is usually quite cold.

I always have something going in the background be it music or podcasts. Plus I moved to a new house that is far from any traffic and buzz of civilization which is complete opposite to my old place that was in middle of one of the busiest parts of the city. First few months were hell as I couldn't sleep because of the complete silence and lack of any street lights shining in the windows. I've grown accustomed to just leave podcasts\music on when I go to sleep.

Yes I need noise in my life. The noise is called my wife.

I definitely need noise. I hate silence and always have to have music/Twitch/youtube/podcast on when I'm doing something mostly in silence. I also can't sleep without a DVD on or the TV.

I can live with dead silence. I don't mind ambient noise, but when you get out into the country and it's just quiet it's something really great.

Tinnitus gives me all the noise I want, and more

i will be honest i'm about 90% of the time listening to the Bombcast or something else when going to sleep.

Do I need noise? I don't know. I live in one of Europe's major cities--in the city center--so noise is an absolute given. It doesn't bother me one bit, in fact, I love it.

I like having a fan when I sleep, it's a little tough to sleep without some noise.

I can't sleep at all without a fan.

I've also grown accustomed to sleeping in a very cold room as a result of this, and it's weird. I'd prefer my room to be borderline freezing when I'm trying to sleep than even a little bit warm. Don't get me wrong, I cover myself in extra blankets, but if the room itself isn't cold, I have a hard time sleeping.

I don't mind silence in the daytime, but at night I absolutely need some sort of noise to sleep. Fortunately I live in the middle of a forest so I have the sound of frogs, wolves, and various other animals to produce all the sound I need.

One of my favorite things is going to sleep while there is a huge party raging outside. For instance, if there are tons of people in my living room and my room is down the hall I love going to sleep when my roommate's party is still going on. It's rare though because i'm usually joining in. lol

I constantly need something playing in the background. My wife sees it as a real issue.

I definitely like falling asleep with the TV on (usually South Park or something that I've already seen) but I also really really really like silence. Just not when I want to sleep...Silence is great though and a hard thing to come by so I really appreciate it when I can experience it.

I always have my ceiling fan on low, even in the winter. Nice to just have the humming noise. Sometimes I'll listen to binary beats when I go to sleep.

I need to have Motorhead blasting in my ears to fall asleep or use the bathroom.

I believe it's about what you are used to. In my office, there is a quiet white noise generator that is great and blocking conversation from traveling across the entire floor. One day, it was out and it was weird. However, at home, I don't care if there is any noise or not. In fact, I play almost all video games on mute with closed captions (ever since Left 4 Dead had amazing captions that let me know when witches and other specials were near).

I like to hear a ticking clock in my bedroom... actually i've ended up with three, but i'm very good in dead silence, sometimes i feel like there's too much noise.

I can't work is silence. It just makes the day drag. I'd love to be living somewhere quieter, though. Fuck the A690.

I need noise. Noise is inspiration to me, and finding rhythms in noises tend to put me in a zone of focus. Plus noise/sounds are healthy for your ears, as long as it's not at unhealthy decibels, because tend to promote healthy hearing throughout your life.

I also need background noise. Total silence makes me feel odd and I guess uncomfortable. I usually keep my TV on really low volume just to have something. When I sleep at night I usually either have the fan on, or have music playing on low volume.

Lived by a freeway my entire childhood life; now it's impossible to fall asleep without some sort of noise. It know this has serious repercussions later on and I've noticed over time I have dreams less and less; but it's sometimes unbearable to NOT have something on in the background.

When I sleep at my in-laws for Christmas the silence always makes me completely unable to sleep.

I works in an old building with 30ft ceilings, it is 19th century lecture hall. The hair condition systems is always running in some form to regulate teh temperature of a huge space with 30 ft ceilings. So when that system turns off the deadly silence in the room is eerie. It is the same as on a submarine movie when the engine stops...the cold chill up your spine of not hearing that possibly annoying - but normal sounds- gets my staff and I every time.

I prefer silence over noise though we live in a society were there's noise around us everyday.

Not sure I would say I prefer silence, but I've learned to appreciate it? I feel like it's healthy to just turn everything off once in awhile and have some peace.

What's interesting is I've heard psychologically that people who usually prefer silence over noise have some pretty bad anxiety problems in their life. Not to go all Freudian on people here...

I don't need noise, but I do need something to occupy my mind. I cannot eat without talking to someone, watching tv or listening to an audiobook, or reading teh back of a cereal box. I cannot do a mindless task unless my brain is occupied. I can't workout in silence unless I start sprinting or working at 100%; otherwise I start humming...nobody needs to hear that.