We don’t hear our blood pumping through our arteries/veins, our heart beating, our colon digesting. Just to name a few.
EDIT: Thank you for all your responses. I’m going to start listening more closely.
We don’t hear our blood pumping through our arteries/veins, our heart beating, our colon digesting. Just to name a few.
EDIT: Thank you for all your responses. I’m going to start listening more closely.
Comments
We absolutely can. Just find a really quiet room.
We often can but our brain tunes a lot of it out.
Not every function is loud enough to be heard, as well.
My wife would beg to differ.
You can hear some of it if you cover your ears. Your ears obviously point outwards though, so that’s what they pick up more.
We also don’t see the nerves and blood vessels in front of our retinas. The brain knows to filter it out.
“With no audible background noise to cover it up, visitors report hearing the sound of blood pumping in their heads or moving through their veins, according to Caity Weaver of the New York Times Magazine. Or, as Casey Darnell writes for the Star Tribune, you can even hear the sound of your eyelids shutting upon blinking.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/earths-quietest-room-you-can-hear-yourself-blink-180948160/
Pretty neat stuff!
I can hear my pulse.
At one point, I could. It was a whistling sound in time with my pulse. It got worse when I laid down to sleep. I now know this is referred to as “pulsatile tinnitus”.
It turned out to be a big cancer tumor in my gut. Apparently it grew to the point that it was pressing up against some artery, to the point that I could literally hear it in my head. They took the tumor out via surgery and the sound went away overnight.
This reminds me of the anechoic room in Minnesota! https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/earths-quietest-room-you-can-hear-yourself-blink-180948160/#:~:text=The%20quietest%20place%20on%20Earth,sound%20of%20their%20own%20bodies. Sounds awful
Do you mean that the voices arent just in my head? Well, i dont know if that is a relief or more terrifying
Eat enough beans and spicy stuff and your guts will sound like an old boiler room.
We actually can hear some of what’s going on inside our bodies but most of it is either too quiet, too constant, or filtered out by our brains.
Pulsitile tinnitus is hearing blood pumping in your head/ears. I get that. Also hear my eyes blink at times and hear a lot of bodily movements but I am also hyper aware of my skin and what it’s feeling at all times and am autistic, and can hear electricity in walls etc. So yeah, some of us just can’t ignore the things we are meant to tune out.
Because of all the ambient noise around you.
If all that was silent, you’d hear your blood flowing.
You can, it’s just drowned out by the relatively loud background noise we’re usually exposed to.
If you ever get a chance to visit a acoustic anechoic chamber (basically a very sound dampened space) it’s worth doing, but be prepared to feel very uncomfortable.
I can, I have sensory issues and sensitive ears, it’s maddening. Be glad that your ears tune 99% of it out. If you go somewhere very quiet, like a deprivation tank, you will hear it much better.
Trust me. You don’t realise how much noise your heart is making until it suddenly stops. Gives a new meaning to ‘deafening silence’.
Oh some of us can, and it was really nice when I couldn’t and wasn’t as aware of every ache and pain I’m constantly feeling
I got tinnitus so I get this buzzing when it’s quiet. 😭
This is why you don’t listen to music too loudly with headphones.
I get this buzzing in my ears when it’s quiet, this is why you don’t listen to music loudly.
Found out it’s called Tinnitus.
Technically we can. Sort of like how we can feel the chair under our butt.
Basically when we have a constant stimulus we start to ignore it. Its how people can live close to roads, trains, etc and be ok with it. Its why we dont constantly feel our shoes and clothes (unless theyre uncomfortable)
It just wouldn’t be bearable or very practical. Imagine hearing every cell move, every reaction, every change. Any organism that could would be severely impaired compared to an organism that couldn’t, making genes for hearing what goes on inside our bodies much less likely to pass on.
I have pulsatile tinnitus, which comes from the sound of blood in your head. For me it comes through as an uncomfortable pulsing (subdued) roar. Others describe it as a “whooshing” sound.
It really sucks when it’s occurring. It can cause sleep issues and can distract when listening to someone talk.
when i drink something on an empty stomach i can sometimes hear it sloshing about inside and I think it’s so funny.
We do, but our brains choose to ignore it.
Some things you do hear. Especially when older. 🥲
We can, but because we’re mostly water, things will sound like it’s moving through water, like if you knock on your skull, it won’t sound different from if you heard some knocking in the water while swimming.
So for starters, evolution would weed-out anything that made noise while trying to stay hidden, so probably significant consideration was made to be as quiet as possible, but we probably also have some amount of built-in mechanism that prevents us from hearing our own heartbeats, as there’s no reason to hear them.
Even if we eliminate sound specifically, our timed access to oxygen should theoretically make us feel different between hearbeats on some level. That’s not the case either because our heartbeats are too fast, or because our brains automatically filter that kind of stuff out.
We can, but our brains tune it out cause the noises are always there. Like if your refrigerator hums, you eventually don’t hear the humming, but someone whose fridge is totally silent could walk into your house and notice it right away
I often hear my stomach rattling.
It would be too overwhelming for us. Like standing in a hurricane. That new Twisters movie is very good.
Farts are the result of what’s going on inside you. lol.
Yes we can, if not why do doctors carry stethoscopes?
Be grateful if you can’t
You can, you also dont notice your nose even tho its always like…right there in front of your eyes because your brain is your editor. Your brain editor also edits out memories of boring and repetative tasks.
You can’t?
I remember learning about rooms with complete sound deadening treatment, where people would go insane because they could hear all of their blood flowing past their eardrums and other bodily functions. Seems horrible
Wrong frequency
They’re just Not loud enough in a “normal” environment
You can. Your brain tunes it out so it focuses on external noise. There are studies of people going to rooms built to be absolutely silent. The people get a bit crazy because they can hear everything going on inside their body
I’m in my 40s and I wish I could stop hearing all the noises my body is making 🤷♀️
There’s a plot point in Doctor Who where one of the characters realizes she’s dead when she notices that she can no longer hear her heartbeat
Yes you can…?
We actually can hear the blood pumping in our ears, but our brains just tune it out to focus on external sounds.
As for food digesting, the sound is dampened by the food itself, which absorbs the sound waves and muffles them from our ears. But when our GI tract is empty, the low rumble of our bowel muscles becomes unnamed and audible. This is the source of “stomach growls”.
We can sometimes but only when it’s quiet, also if we heard that stuff constantly it would drive people insane
You can technically hear it you just tune it out the same way you don’t notice your nose most of the time.
I can hear my blood pumping.
We can, but the environment and our brains block it out. I cannot use ear plugs at night, because the noises in my body are louder than the noises outside of it. I can hear the blood rushing through my ears, the squeak of my head rotating on my spine from any tiny movements I make. Sounds odd, but after two days of it I’ve never worn them again. This was many years ago, nad I now use a noise app that is a huge help.
ponte unos tapones para los oidos y escucha
I have one eye that shakes when I look to far left. I can hear it when it does that. Makes me want to barf
I can actually hear my own heart beating sometimes, like if I’m lying down on my ear I can hear it through my ear
I don’t think people really know what is to hear our own body. It’s when you can feel slight change and know when you need to relax, or eat healthier, or move.
Cause for so many years we got those feeling shut. It’s hard to change now. Just step by step learning to hear it again
Cause it’s quiet in there.
We can, but our bodies are quite small, so the sounds are generally quieter than the environment we are in. It’s like trying to hear a fly while standing near a taking-off plane.
If you find a really quiet place, you can hear your blood. And I’m pretty sure you’ve heard your heart beating – if you’ve ever sprinted in your life, you know the feeling. We can also kinda our body digesting – peristaltic sounds can be loud enough to be heard from time to time if you are in a quiet room
Here’s an other strange fact:
The Brain is the only organ that can Prozess pain, but also the only organ that can’t feel pain itself, due to its lack of pain Rezeptors. That means, that the thing that only is made out of nerves doesn’t have nerves for pain. But all the other organs with just a little amount of nerves have pain nerves but no nerves to really Prozess Inputs (like the brain does).
Because it would make us insane. We are hardwired to tune out stuff that is in the background all the time.
I did a biofeedback session once – it was cool. I could hear what was going on in there, including exploding gas bubbles. It makes me wonder what a baby hears in the womb.
You can. But it’s kind of like seeing your nose, it’s always in your vision but you have to try to see it, or your own body odors, for the most part. It’s always there so your brain just sort of tunes it out.
Sometimes I hear static at the back of my neck at the base of my head.
Are you quite sure you’re alive? Because it’s very normal to hear all those things.
You can, your brain just learns very early on to tune it out. Just like you can always see your nose, but learn to ignore it.
Do you want to?
I think we would slowely go insane.
I can hear it all. Digestion, fluid movement, bones & tendons & ligaments creaking and popping. My eyes squeak against my eye sockets. My own eating noises trigger my misophonia 🙁
As far as superpowers go, it’s miserable.
I started hearing some of my bones in my 40’s.
Not a fan
You can. Getting into meditation helps. I can hear my pulse, breathing, and some peristaltic movements. Slight wheezing in my lungs when allergy or a cold hit, super early in the course of the situation so that I can correct it.
Learn to medidate and you’ll be able to hear your body’s sounds. Becoming aware of your heart pumping is super weird at first, then it’s comforting once you get used to it. Transcendental mediation is easy, you will start noticing the sounds after 3-4 into sessions of about 5-min each.
Cheers!
If I concentrate, I can hear the blood pumping through my ears.
Just have a panic attack and you can hear all these things at the same time.
I don’t know about you, but other people can hear my colon digesting.
Just sayin.
Speak for yourself peasant.
Actually, if you exercise and raise your heart rate, you WILL be able to hear your heartbeat, and many people can hear their stomachs digesting a difficult meal, not to mention the audible passing of gas.
I’m laying down in a quiet room right now and I can hear my heart beating. If i cup my ear with my hand, I’ll hear my blood running (yes that’s what that sound is). If I’m hungry or I’m digesting I might hear my tummy make bubbling or squishy noises and of course a fart if it the gas crosses the finish line. I can also hear myself breath very loudly and I can even hear when I blink.
I can hear my pulse in my ear sometimes when my blood pressure is high. Drives me nuts.
i can hear my heartbeat if i close my ears or when im exercising
For the same reason you don’t see your nose unless you’re looking at it. Your brain tunes it out.
I don’t know but I am really fucking glad that we can’t
Every time you swallow you hear a click in your ear.
I read this on Reddit long, long ago and it still lives rent free in my head. Curses on the person who wrote it.
It’s perfectly possible, lay down in a bathtub with your ears beneath the surface of the water and listen, you’ll hear more than you want to if you stay long enough 😉
i’ve been wearing earplugs 24/7 for about six years now (sensory processing disorder). my hearing has gotten stronger to make up for it; i can hear the vibrations of my joints creaking, especially my jaw and neck. if i pop a joint in my upper body really good, i can hear it internally and externally 🙂
Ever covered your ears and heard sounds of the sea? That’s the sounds of your hands
And on the same token, why don’t we heard our bodies slosh when we jump?
It would be overwhelming
I can hear everything going on. It comes through as ringing in my ears all the time. /s
As a kid I used to think I had small men/army marching in my head because I could hear my blood pumping.
You can’t?
You can. That’s what tinnitus is.
My fiance does. He can even hear when ultrasound techs change the color during an ultrasound. Some people’s hearing is better than others.
Try eating too many pot cookies, and you’ll be able to hear everything.
Do you want to go insane because this is how you go insane…
Fold one of your ear into a pillow and you can hear a slight sound of your heartbeat.
The skull is somewhat sound insulated from the rest of the body.
If you lean your ear against your shoulder bones, you can hear your phone vibrating in your hand. Or tap your fingernail on a surface and you can hear it propagate through the bones.
You can certainly hear it. Have to make a conscious effort. Like you don’t think about breathing, but it’s not that you ‘cant’ think about breathing .
I can hear a lot of things – joints pop, cartilage squish as I move around, intestines gurgling…
but the most noteworthy being when bile is released in the morning – my body saying It was time to eat 5 minutes ago. Squiiiiirt!
My wife has chronic IBS and I hear way more than I want to.
I assume the brain just usually filters it out, like how you can always see your nose
I hear my heart beating a lot.. resting heart rate 100+… im toast lol
You can hear it in your ears sometimes.
You hear your tumyy growl
You hear a fart work it’s way down your colon
I wish I didnt hear my heart beating LMAO
When I tilt my head back I can hear my eyes moving
Unfortunately, I hear/feel my heart beating for like 80% of my day. I have some dysautonomia and get heart palpitations on the regular. It also comes with feeling the blood moving sometimes. -0/10 do not recommend 😂
We actually do hear our bodies sometimes like heartbeat and stomach growls but our brain filters most of it out so we don’t go crazy hearing everything. It’s just like a built in noise cancellation for sanity.
When I go to sleep and have anxiety I can absolutely hear my stomach gurgling and twisting itself into knots and my heart is louder than a drum&bass concert in my ears.
I have an artificial valve in my heart, and at night, when I sleep on my left side and it’s absolutely quiet, I can hear blood pumping through it. That’s the key to hearing your own body. Absolute silence.
Being in a place that’s so quiet it almost hurts
I injured myself once and there was quite some blood dripping, I was so freaked out in instant like a had 10 cups of coffee, and I could hear a very fast, strong pulse pumping and rushing in my ears. (Everything was fine, I dressed the wound, nothing serious.)
I hear my blood pumping every night when I lay down for bed. I have trouble sleeping because of it.
Once when I eat way too many edibles that’s all I heard for like 10 hours. Its was awful
My stomach started gurgling after breakfast. I made a recording and it sounded like walruses arguing back and forth. I really don’t need to audio representation of the inner workings.
There is actually a health condition that causes people to be able to hear inside them….most go crazy because it’s hard to diagnose correctly, and the constant sounds can be hard to deal with long term. It can be corrected sometimes through surgery.
Ha count yourself lucky that you personally can’t. I can feel/hear my heart beat all the time
People with high blood pressure can experience tinnitus when their BP is up. The sound is from the added pressure in the vessels in your auditory system. In lame man’s terms, you can hear your blood pumping when you have high blood pressure. Also, some people with ADHD can experience increased awareness of their internal sounds, which can contribute to a sense of overwhelm
Lol I can. But I’m neurodivergent and really receptive to sound. I can’t be in utter silence because I hear the human body/electronics.
When you hold a seashell or cup to your ear, what do you think you’re hearing?
I have sensory-motor OCD. Unless I’m medicated, I can hear and feel stuff going on in my body. I can even hear needles going into my skin, it’s a squeaky sound.
When everything is silent and you’re walking is your socks or barefoot, listen closely. You can hear the sound of your feet echoing through your body.
I can occasionally hear my pulse/ blood flow/heartrate
Wait you guys can’t hear that shit!??
My IBS sends its regards…
You can actually. You just tune it out or ambient sounds overwhelm the sounds you are making
Superior canal dehiscence can cause a person to hear sounds from inside the body, but most of us have a natural barrier
Bruh i can literally hear my heartbeat and blood flowing in my ear all the time
supposedly some condition
Their is one sound that some people don’t wanna hear and that’s cracking your bones.
I fucking hate the sound of my right knee cracking.
Hold a sea shell to your ear and the sound you hear is blood rushing, not the ocean.
Get a stethoscope and you can hear your heart beating, your intestines working (you don’t hear digestion but motility and its results), air rushing through your trachea etcetera.
You can, and if you concentrate enough you can feel vibrations down to your feet when you talk
I HATE listening to my heart beat. I mean, I’m glad it beats, but I hate hearing it. Every night, I hear it.
I had stupidly sensitive hearing for most of my life. I could hear my fucking eyelids move when I blinked, could hear the electrical hum from a Tv turning on in the next room. Had to have a box fan on high right by my face every night for most of my life to be able to sleep because someone sighing or coughing QUIETLY in another room would wake me from a dead sleep. It’ll make you insane to actually hear everything going on around you. I’m so happy my hearing is relatively normal now.
You don’t? I have to listen to that stuff frequently and I hate it. Trying to sleep is the worst.
I thought we all heard our blood pumping ? My heartbeat becomes a real cacophony during a panic attack.
Because you have layers of muscle, skin and other tissue that sound waves don’t easily propagate through