Eli5: Why can’t we hear our environment while we are asleep?
In: Biology
The brain filters out a lot of the white noise, tell mine that though… things like a dripping faucet can keep me up all night!
I like to listen to podcasts/youtube videos to fall asleep and I can 100% tell you that there is low level processing going on in the brain when it comes to audio, as what I listen to effects my dreams.
Let’s call it a muffle effect, the brain tends to drown out irrelevant sounds, but anything loud and sudden will wake most people, that is how alarms work. The brain has a good filter for working out what is a regular “nightime” sound and one that is not; it is a survival thing.
I have solo camped a lot and Whippoorwills are annoying as F, but the mind can drown that out; sticks breaking near your tent, the brain goes on alert! Our biology is really amazing!
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