You might hope that we would become habituated to reoccurring noises in our environment, but the opposite has been shown empirically. [1]
The study showed that while regular office workers become habituated to office chatter after 20 minutes of exposure, their habituation resets to baseline after only 5 minutes of quiet (measured via memory tasks). The irregularity of the noise is what kills us.
The only effective solution I've found against ambient ear-shocks is to overpower them via headphones and regular white noise.
The study showed that while regular office workers become habituated to office chatter after 20 minutes of exposure, their habituation resets to baseline after only 5 minutes of quiet (measured via memory tasks). The irregularity of the noise is what kills us.
The only effective solution I've found against ambient ear-shocks is to overpower them via headphones and regular white noise.