KQED News Mind/Shift – Deborah Farmer Kris
“Think about that moment when the dishwasher finishes its cycle or the neighbor shuts off the lawnmower. “You hadn’t even noticed that those sounds were there. But when they are turned off, we breathe the sigh of relief because, from an evolutionary standpoint, sound is our alerting sense.” There’s a reason we are attuned to sounds at night, says Kraus. Our ancestors needed to be able to detect threats in the darkness. Noises, whether we are consciously aware of them, tax our brains because they keep us in a state of alert.” (more)