JACK hammers. Buzz saws. Screaming toddlers. Barking dogs. Horns blaring from incessant traffic jams. Any of these can set nerves on edge, especially if you are subjected to the noise for hours, days or weeks on end.
It’s more than aggravating. Studies show noise-generated stress is bad for the heart and brain. But pandemic-induced shutdowns and social distancing have led to substantially less noise generated by human activity over the past year, and researchers are looking at whether that could translate into human health benefits.
“We know that stress in a variety of forms is unhealthy. Noise is a type of stress we all encounter in our daily lives,” said Dr. Michael Osborne, a cardiologist at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital who has studied how noise enters the brain and harms the body.
Noise and noise-related stress have been linked to health effects such as hearing loss, sleep disturbance, impaired cognition,
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