Can Silence Actually Drive You Crazy?

*Watch with headphones on!
Is 45 minutes really the longest anyone can stay in a perfectly silent, pitch-black room?

Many stories have circulated claiming the longest anyone has stayed in an ultra-quiet anechoic chamber is 45 minutes, the reason being any longer would drive you insane. To me this sounded like unsubstantiated rubbish, like the claim the Great Wall is the only manmade structure visible from space. So I put my own psyche on the line, subjecting myself to over an hour of the most intense quiet on Earth. No, this was not THE quietest room on Earth (-9dB) but it is one of the quietest, and the truth is once you put a person inside, they are by far the loudest thing in there so the sound rating of the room is irrelevant.

I was not surprised to find that I could stay in there for as long as I liked and feel perfectly fine. What was surprising is that my heartbeat was audible. You can hear it on the sound recording. Now I wasn't consciously aware of the sound of my heart while in the room, but I was more aware of the feeling of it beating.

Huge thank you to everyone at BYU: Duane Merrell, Spencer Perry, Cameron Vongsawad, Jazz Myers, Ann Clawson, and Robert Willes.

[brdane]

Imagine if you're in a band and you record your album in there.... man, that sound would be crystal-clear.

[AlixiaCaesarion]

this looks like an upcoming horror movie about a documentary gone wrong

[lylechatt]

This doesn’t beat when your mom leaves you in the car at a store for 5 minutes

[vinalkumar]

Veritasium casually breaks world record
" I like silence, no big deal":

[RacingMachine]

Imagine he geting out of the room only to find several years have passed somehow and everyone is missing.

[eduardmendoza]

Imagine him going out of the room and everybody in the world was missing.

[Charles-xpmd]

Whenever I go into dead silence my ears actually start ringing. The ringing becomes so loud that I just do something to make the ring quieter. Its weird.

[mattcampbell]

I’ve spent time in these chambers for work, and have to admit I’m completely flabbergasted by the feelings described of claustrophobia or fear. I always found them quite peaceful and have almost fallen asleep.

[mrosh]

"Have fun in silence" that sounds like what a villian would say

[ianthebubbian]

Imagine someone was somehow hiding there, and at the 30 minute mark they jump out and scream in your ear.

[verify]

Little did he know he went crazy and actually never left the room

[lena__speaking]

I think the silence wouldn't freak me out but the dark would. I get really anxious and start panicking when it's pitch black bcs I can't orientated myself anymore. So silence yes, total darkness hell no 😬

[aayzhuhh]

I would be more scared of the floor than the silence

[soulless_mermaid]

extroverts: "this room is so silent it will drive you crazy"
introverts: "it's free real estate"

[toyato]

you walking through the door at the end gave me backrooms vibes. the burst of sound hitting the camera, the buzzing lights and AC units in the background, the well-lit room

[clockworks]

Alternate title: "The room that turns everything into ASMR"

[rurushu]

The silence probably wouldn't drive me crazy. It's the darkness that would.

[Vihnujan]

Imagine after that 1 hour, when he called them, they didn't respond and the door was locked from the outside

[dvsn]

when i was doing my broadcasting engineering degree i had the privilege of going into an anechoic chamber several times with some of my class mates we all varied in how long we could stay in. But i totally heard my blood rushing through my veins. I heard sounds that weren't really there. What surprised me the most the first time though is the deadening of sound like when you talk its hard to explain its like your words get sucked away. We had a couple of people who got really visibly sick and very nauseous. And at least two of my class mates had anxiety of varying levels. If you ever get the chance to experience it though I'd say go for it. It really is a unique experience

[Imcheese]

Imagine meditating in that room. You’d be able to feel every single part of yourself