Office noise bothers some people more than others

Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by waterhouse on Monday November 18, 2019 @08:46PM (#21570060)

Your comment seems a bit tongue in cheek and you probably know, but anyway... Theoretically, the brain can get used to certain kinds of regular noise and filter it out, and then, if the disruption is a small sound that occurs irregularly... if you add constant white noise that's louder than the sound, then the sound should get quite literally lost in the noise.

There is an analogy to light that actually applies. Imagine a small green LED in your field of vision that flashes now and then. Might be distracting. But now imagine the room is 100x brighter than that small green LED. You might be unable to perceive the LED anymore. (However, if the problem is, as you state, that there is "too much light", then, yeah, adding more light wouldn't help unless you could somehow create destructive interference.)

Whether all this actually works for a specific person is a different matter. I personally hate listening to white noise, so that wouldn't help me. Perhaps other kinds of noise could work.

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by rtpg on Monday November 18, 2019 @09:14PM (#21570167)

> Theoretically, the brain can get used to certain kinds of regular noise and filter it out, and then, if the disruption is a small sound that occurs irregularly... if you add constant white noise that's louder than the sound, then the sound should get quite literally lost in the noise.

Just an FYI, while this is basically true for neurotypical people, for some people (for example those with ADHD or who might be on the autism spectrum), there's difficulty filtering, so this ends up just adding cognitive load rather than accomplishing a filtering effect.

To use a dumb visual analogy, imagine you tried to hide some carpet stains by putting another rug over it. Some people can partially see through rugs, and so now they have to deal with the rug _and_ the carpet stains.

Of course this stuff is still worth trying out, ultimately a lot of these kinds of things are deeply personal, and it's pretty easy to try.

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by wahern on Monday November 18, 2019 @10:22PM (#21570400)

White noise machines are recommended for people with sound sensitivities who have trouble falling asleep, including those with ADHD and autism. Whether it works well or exacerbates the issue depends on the individual, but assuming that it would simply add to the cognitive load is a stretch, and I wouldn't be surprised if in fact it worked more often than not.

One of the most popular white noise machines is the Marpac Dohm Classic, which many people (including myself) would vouch for.

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by rtpg on Monday November 18, 2019 @11:23PM (#21570631)

I didn't know that this product existed, it's interesting to see such a thing be around in the age of bluetooth speakers:

https://www.amazon.com/Marpac-Classic-White-Noise-Machine/dp...

It's a fan in a box, with a certain shape so that when the fan is spinning it ends up generating a nice sound.

Thanks for the info

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by nvarsj on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @04:05AM (#21571580)

I don’t think you’re correct. Stimulating background music (like EDM or video game OSTs) can do wonders for ADHD sufferers as it helps stimulate their brains which helps them focus (this is a similar mechanism to ADHD drugs).

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by Circeberman on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @07:14PM (#21644096)

chiptone and EDM might work for some but it would drive many people insane- try techno

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by ken on Monday November 18, 2019 @10:31PM (#21570428)

> Theoretically, the brain can

What “theory” is this? Because I’ve tried it (not by choice) in practice, many times, over the decades, and never found it to work at all. I’m genuinely curious why people think it could ever work, when empirically it does not.

Theoretically the brain will adapt to working while hanging 100’ in the air, too. I adapt to height fairly quickly and don’t mind working up in the air. Many people apparently do, and no amount of telling them that it’s “theoretically” possible will make them productive workers there.

It seems patently unfair that modern offices picked the one type of distracting sensory input that happens to be my kryptonite.

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by Kaiyou on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @10:22AM (#21573748)

It's probably a "works for me" mindset accompanied with a mental note of "bug closed".

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by wenc on Monday November 18, 2019 @09:01PM (#21570126)

White noise is actually very harsh. When people say "white noise" they usually mean softer variants such as brown noise.

I sleep to brown noise (have done so for the past 8 years -- so this is not a fad thing for me), and I use a different brown noise with headphones at work to help me concentrate in a noisy office environment.

I use Noisli profiles to generate these noises, but any number of apps will do the job.

I won't claim it works for everyone, but this combination works very well for me.

p.s. Ear plugs at work also work amazingly well. Low tech and effective.

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Re:Office noise bothers some people more than others by teunispeters on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @09:34AM (#21573137)

If you're lucky enough to have that neural protection. Not everyone does. I don't, for instance.

I damaged my hearing trying to have enough sound to drown out the triggering sounds around me. (misophonia got a lot worse during working in open office too)

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