Is society becoming noisier and is this affecting our health and wellbeing?
Have you ever gone to a café with a friend only to find that you cannot talk to each other as the background music is too loud to hear each other?
Research studies show that noise can impact our health and wellbeing. As exampled by affecting our hearing, can cause or exacerbate cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, affect our sleep, increase stress and anxiety, and affect our mental health.
Yet the impact is very individual, for example, one person can be affected by a ticking clock when another will not be.
We know that our environments have increased decibel levels, there are more people living closer together, and more traffic. People shared that repeated train announcements, mobile phone ring tones and loud conversations have become the norm since the pandemic. So that something that is there to support our communication and navigation is just another noise in the background of noise.
At Healthwatch West Sussex we are hearing more stories such as the above and would very much like to learn if noise levels are impacting your Health and Wellbeing.
Please support us by answering our short survey.
If you require any support, please do contact our Help desk on 0300 012 0122.
