Katharina Buczek
According to Srinivasan, he and his team aimed to capture the impact of sound on two distinct physiological stress representations.
The first is mainly related to a parasympathetic stress response; meanwhile, the second is a combination of sympathetic and parasympathetic stress responses.
“So, in layman’s terms, it means that when you are stressed, the parasympathetic and sympathetic responses are related to your body’s fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest functions, respectively, to cope with stress,” Srinivasan explained.
This study, led by Srinivasan, was a part of a larger project known as Wellbuilt for Well-being– which was launched by the University of Arizona.
Srinivasan and his team were also assembled to launch this study on behalf of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)– which has over 10,000 employees who manage all U.S. federal buildings.
The GSA was essentially interested in how workplaces could be improved. And through the study, which took place between 2015 and 2016, the researchers ultimately found that neither high nor very low sound levels are optimal for physiological well-being. Instead, the “sweet spot” is approximately 50 dBA.
Still, the team found that the association between sound levels and physiological well-being varies from person to person.
The researchers analyzed employees from various demographics and job roles and discovered that these factors played a key role in physiological responses.
For instance, employees who had high blood pressure were actually more susceptible to noise. On the flip side, employees who participated in computer-intensive work were less impacted by sound.
And for Srinivasan, these findings are monumental for the definition of “well-being.”
“When we think about well-being, typically we think about emotional or mental well-being. We hardly ever consider the physiological well-being or the actual ‘what’s happening in our body,’ which is also important to understand when we are continuously exposed to environmental factors– such as sound,” he said.
