Discover the world’s quietest place where you can hear yourself blink

The most silent place on Earth is so quiet that you can actually hear yourself blink.

This title is held by the anechoic test chamber at Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

In this specially designed room, an ambient noise level of -24.9 decibels A-weighted (dBA) was measured, setting a world record.

Experiencing the Silence

Visitors to the chamber, which is meticulously constructed to eliminate sound, have reported unusual experiences such as hearing their blood circulating, the sound of their eyelids closing, and even feeling nauseous or disoriented.

Record-Breaking Silence

Orfield Laboratories first set the record in 2004, with a background noise level of -9.4 dBA.

After some enhancements, the chamber recorded an even lower sound level of -13 dBA in 2012.

However, in 2015, the record was briefly lost to an anechoic chamber at Microsoft Headquarters in Washington, USA, where the ambient sound level was recorded at -20.35 dBA.

Orfield Labs reclaimed the title in 2021 and has maintained it since.

Science Behind the Silence

This room suppresses 99.99 per cent of external noise, thanks to its 3.3-foot-thick fibreglass acoustic wedges, double-walled insulated steel structure, and a foot-thick layer of concrete.

Orfield Labaroties confirmed: “These days, the quest for silence is an almost impossible battle. But did you know that noise isn’t just what we hear? It’s also the glare that invades our eyesight and the draft that alters the temperature of a room. Noise is all around us.”

Steven Orfield, the founder of Orfield Laboratories, explained: “When it’s quiet, your ears adapt. The quieter the environment, the more you hear. You can hear your heart beating, sometimes even your lungs and stomach making noise. In the anechoic chamber, you essentially become the source of sound.”

Practical Applications

Primarily, the chamber is utilised for research and product testing.

Steven also shared that after spending 30 minutes inside the chamber, he could distinctly hear the mechanical valve in his heart working loudly.