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[umiman]

I have never heard complete silence before. Even at the dead of night or in the middle of a desert, I will have this strange tone or white noise playing in my ear. Is this normal? Do other people hear this as well when there's nothing to hear?

[Heron TSG]

Most of the time in silence, there's a buzz, but only due to fireworks.

SOMETIMES though, it's amazing. silence rocks.

[Croquantes]

Yeah. Real, heavy silence makes your ears buzz. I think it's just a side effect of being an urban creature, our brain is so used to hearing and interpreting vast amounts of sound that the absence of the sound makes us generate our own noise, or something. Examples would be...

The kind of silence where you can hear the rustle of leaves and the forest creak in the wind is nice.

The kind of silence where you hear nothing except your own breathing makes my ears buzz and ache for any sort of sound and is uncomfortable.

[umiman]

Apparently it's a medical condition in the same line as a common cold being a medical condition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus

Unless I hear it in only one ear, it isn't a problem. Or so they say.

[Aqizzar]

As far as I know, some of that noise is also caused by your eardrums and internal muscles tightening or relaxing.  Basically, when you're in complete silence, your eardrum stretches taught because it's trained to pick up sounds.  Movement inside the ear gets translated in all sorts of funny ways you don't notice when you're hearing stuff.

[deadlycairn]

Sometimes I get exploding head syndrome (look it up on wikipedia if you don't think its real ) - people tend to look at me funny when I clutch my ears and yell out for no apparent reason. Also, I can't stand tuning forks - they have a similar effect.

[Jack_Bread]

Complete silence sounds like turning a TV on.
Sometimes that sound may be an electronic on or something. I was in my room and I thought my TV was off, but it wasn't.

[Cthulhu]

I had something kind of like exploding head syndrome once, but not that loud.  I was standing there, and suddenly I heard white noise and garbled voices coming from behind me for a few seconds, and then it was gone.  I've also occasionally heard audible responses to thoughts.  They're never anything more than a yes or no, though.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

Yeah I got tinnitus in my left ear. Some kid thought they would be funny and let off some fireworks next to my head while I was sleeping. I will never hear silence... Always this constant high pitched whining. Always.

[Jack_Bread]

Yeah I got tinnitus in my left ear. Some kid thought they would be funny and let off some fireworks next to my head while I was sleeping. I will never hear silence... Always this constant high pitched whining. Always.

Hollywood! Quickly! Turn that into a movie!

[Calvin]

Man.

Silence sounds like rumbles to me, like a building falling or something.
Probably because I have tinnitus, I dunno where it comes from though.

I also randomly get this high pitched ringing noise in my ear, which dissipates over time.

[umiman]

While it's nice to see I'm not the only one who has never heard silence, it's also kinda sad.

But I guess since I don't know what I'm missing, there's nothing to miss.

[Aqizzar]

Consider it a good thing.  The only way to hear perfect silence also ensures you'll never hear anything else.

[Calvin]

Consider it a good thing.  The only way to hear perfect silence also ensures you'll never hear anything else.

You can still "hear" things while you're deaf. They'll just be ghost noise though. Or ringing, depending on the cause of your deafness.

I have slight hearing loss, where simple instructions are just hard for me to understand (Like the directions to the bathroom <.<)

[Muz]

Yeah, I think silence is that Tinnitus ringing sound. They did an experiment with Tinnitus sufferers and compared them to a control group (a bunch of normal people who were locked in a silent, soundproof room). The normal people started hearing the same noise as the Tinnitus sufferers. So, a solution to Tinnitus was that they were trained to ignore the sound, just like people normally ignore the hum of a computer or refrigerator.