Do you need background noise?

[Helpmechooseausername]

I was reading through a thread about having the radio on in the office and was struck by how many comments there were about either needing silence or noise to be able to work.

It doesn't bother my either way at work because it's a busy, noisy place anyway, but I can't stand my home being silent! Ideally, the radio goes on as soon as I'm up and doesn't go off until I go out / go to bed / watch TV.

It's like I can't function without some music or chatter! I find it hard to cook dinner or wash up or whatever in silence. It's quite unnerving!

What about you? Are you a silence or a noise kind of person?

Depends on what I’m doing, if working from home or even just reading a book at home I prefer silence.
In the office we have music playing over the system all day and I like this.
If I’m at home and we are eating together around the dinner table then I need music, mouth noises make me want to rip my own head off and throw it in the Thames.

Oh god yes! Absolutely need music on when we're eating!!

I have intrusive thoughts and chronic anxiety. I always have an audio book playing quietly at home day and night as I can’t tolerate the silence.
If I am outside I don’t like artificial noise as the sound of birds and wind etc is enough.

No, I’m the opposite! I love listening to music but get too into it so can’t do background noise.
At work if it’s noisy I will stick headphones in but I prefer silence.
Unfortunately Dh is the opposite, he has to have the tv on in the background.

I can't bear constant noise. As I say to my dc, there's no soundtrack to my life. That said, I'm a bit weirded out by absolute silence. If I'm alone all day, especially in winter, I'll often switch on the TV for a bit of background noise.

I certainly can't do brain-work with the ratio on - too distracting.

The office I work in is constantly abuzz with Teams meetings that are just related enough to what I'm doing that if I catch a bit of it, it's distracting. So I listen to wave sounds to drown it out. I also quite like this just anyway as I have quite bad tinnitus.

I generally get distracted a lot more these days than I ever did, not sure why, but music with no lyrics is what I like to retain focus, or sometimes even a Youtube video with no talking.

Generally at home there's a TV or radio on at pretty much all times, but I don't mind silence especially when reading.

This. Definitely need something in the background. I can’t even get to sleep without something playing. Even bought a snooze band so that I can put an audiobook or tv programme on until I fall asleep.

i need noise. I’m surrounded by noise everyday at work so you’d think I’d want peace to relax when I got home but I have the TV on pretty much non stop. I don’t really listen to music unless I’m driving but I have the tv on and potter about doing housework etc. if I’m cooking I have a film or program playing on my phone. The only time I need silence is when I’m going to sleep and I wear earplugs to ensure I get it.

Both. Some days I need silence, other days classical music, other days the sound of a Hoover, other days ADHD relief music, Wicked, ... Just not my colleagues talking!

I need noise to drown out anxious thoughts but equally can't stand repeatative noises as I easily overstimulated by them. Weird combo.

I do tend to have something on in the background most of the time but not always. When I'm working and I'm doing something particularly complicated I need either silence or, if it's noisy in the office, headphones playing quiet music without any singing. If I'm reading then silence is best.

I need to have noise as I find silence distracting (not so much the silence, more the interruptions to the silence like a door creak or footsteps)

I generally prefer white noise to music/TV though e.g a fan or air conditioning.

No.

DH needs constant noise. Constantly. We even sleep to white noise. I rarely get 5 minutes of silence and when I do it’s truly golden. When he’s out in the evening I have nothing noisy on at all. If he’s here and we don’t have the TV or his phone playing background noise, he fills the silence with himself, whistling, humming, chattering nonsense. I actually think that it’ll be the constant sound torture that drives me insane in the end.

I always have podcasts on when I’m alone. They’re great for company keeping.

When I'm working, I would find any background noise distracting. In the car I would have a podcast on, or speech radio, and probably would listen to a podcast if decorating or gardening.

The idea that you can't ever sit down to a meal without music is to me just madness. Can't you just talk? Why do you need music as well?

The only background noise I enjoy is birdsong and then only the sweet little birds, magpies and crows drive me crackers.

Oddly, I can sit in silence on my own in the house, (well, with just the birds tweeting, and cows mooing in the distance,) when I am reading, or writing, or on my laptop...

But even if I am reading, writing, or on my laptop, I can't sit in silence when DH is in the room. I have to put the TV or radio on.

It's weird!

The music isn't on loud and we always sit around the table and chat ... it's just that there's always music in the background!

Yes.

I have to have something constantly. During my a levels I revised listening to audio books (got AAB so it didn’t harm me!), during uni it was football and sports. I need something with voices, or my brain gets bored.

I need silence or my own choice of music, depending on what I am doing.

No, I crave silence. Work is an open-plan busy office where some people don't seem to give a fuck about their noise levels, home is next to a busy road with neighbours who let their dogs bark all day. Sometimes, not to be too dramatic, I actually weep for the want of silence.

Yes I mostly need background growing up radio 4 was pretty much a constant background

I’m okay with noise or silence but when I wfh I tend to have podcasts playing just as some background noise. I can’t put music on as I get to into it 🤣
when I’m in the office I can tune out the chatter (or join in if I fancy it).
I hate the telly on as background at home, dh is a loud person anyway and I end up feeling a bit noised out with the telly on and him yabbering on.
Saying that though I do like falling asleep to the telly on quietly!
I’m a bit of a contradiction really.

@usedtobeaylis I totally get what you're saying. I used to live in a noisy place and would go camping in very remote places just so I could listen to the nothing. Now I've moved to somewhere quiet and when I get home from noisy places I sometimes just go out and stand in the garden to feel the peace wash over me.

Radio X goes on the minute I go downstairs in the morning and is on all day. I also have music on at work all day, unless I need to be super focused in which case it's off for a bit. When driving, I have music on but it goes off if I need to follow an unfamiliar route or am parking in a tricky place.
ETA - I like music as company, but not white noise or chatter.