Why do I find silence unbearable?

Is silence blood-curdling or blissful? CrowdScience listener Ziqi finds it intolerable and thinks that there’s a good reason for it – silence is so rare in nature that it could be a signal for danger. Presenter Marnie Chesterton is on a mission to test Ziqi’s theory, starting with her own tolerance for silence. She meets acoustic engineer Trevor Cox in the UK to find out whether silence is something we can measure. To do that she steps into an anechoic chamber, a place that’s designed to absorb all sound. In this most silent of silent places, what does silence actually sound like? Marnie also talks to researcher Eric Pfeifer in Germany, who is exploring the impact of spending time in silence and has evidence to suggest that it could be a positive experience. And neuroscientist Marta Moita in Portugal tells Marnie about how rats use silence to detect a threat in their environment. Her discoveries may hold the answer to Ziqi’s question. Presenter Marnie Chesterton Producer Jo Glanville Editor Ben Motley (Photo:Young woman covering ears ignoring loud noise, plugging ears with fingers annoyed by noisy neighbours - stock photo- Credit: Mariia Vitkovska via Getty Images)

You can listen to Why do I find silence unbearable? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Why do I find silence unbearable? is an episode from CrowdScience by BBC.

This episode is 26:27 long.

This episode was published on Jan 16, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from CrowdScience when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.