Do you need silence to read/study?

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I can sometimes read/study with background noise (e.g. people having a conversation, music, the TV) but the majority of the time I need silence.

Is silence golden for you?

Yes. Any time I need to focus (read, write, do maths), I need silence. Occasionally I will manage to focus despite background noise, but usually I'll find that I can't focus.
Weird thing is, I didn't need silence for those tasks when I was a kid. It came with adulthood.

Yes, cant study like some people can with headphones on! always perplexes me to how they can listen to music and write/study in that fashion!, generally need silence, or maybe a bit of background music over speakers, but definitely cant wear headset and study!

Need silence and even then, concentration is hard.

If its too quiet i can hear smaller sounds and sudden noises scare me, even if they aren't that loud. I get MORE easily distracted when its quiet.

When its completely silent, its f*****g painful, i have horrible tinitus and it hurst to hear the constant ringing and my racing thoughts get VERY loud. I can sit through the pain but i tend to get distracted anyways.


If its noisey i get distracted.

Listening to music actually helps 90% of the time but theres no guarantee i wont get a drawing idea and completely forget what im studying.

reading is difficult, its partially not noise sensitivity but LIGHT sensitivity causes the trouble, the light reflecting from the pages of a book disorients me and causes the letters of the book to 'vibrate' and move, in dim light reading the words is easier but my reading comprehension is still very very poor. Fiction doesn't work however i was able to read one book, front to back 80% all by myself; perks of being a wallflower, i think its because its in a diary format. unfortunately the book triggered a series of severe meltdowns and panic attacks which caused burnout...

Even reading some of these posts, if the paragraphs are long i can't read them, even if i dim the lighting on my laptop, my challenges in processing written language and the speed it takes to process information is too slow... i just don't have the patience to read anything....

close to it, too many distractions and I can't do anything

Yes, peace and quiet are like gold to me.

A few friends have commented that I'm a bit unusual for not having background music etc. around the house - especially as I am a musician myself. But conversation gets ten times harder if there is background noise. I find as well, that if there is music playing anywhere around me, my mind is irresistably attracted to it - it's extremely hard not to let it become the focus of my attention at the expense of whatever else I'm doing.

I can study with silence or background noise like when my family is talking.

I need silence or white noise. If I'm hyperfocusing, then I won't notice the noise. But first I must reach that point where I am super-focused. It will take a while, but I'll lock onto whatever it is I'm studying or reading, and only really be aware of what I'm doing, instead of my surroundings.

Sometimes I never can focus, because what I'm reading is too boring .

I can read and write with minimal background noise, like a coffee shop that isn't too noisy. The quiet buzz of conversations in those contexts doesn't usually bother me.

Sometimes I'll go work on my writing at the coffee shop and I wear my earbuds to listen to music, but nothing lyrical or intense/ loud. Smooth, easy listening jazz music at low volumes works well for me. I can't concentrate on anything if there's loud music with words or a TV blaring, or if people are talking loudly.

Definitely. Loud sound distract my concentration big time. I'll sometimes turn on white noise on my headphones.

I need silence to help me read and study, but I usually listen to music on my headphones if there is either too much noise, which does not help me concentrate, or background noise. I prefer reading/studying at home rather than school.

I wish. Unfortunately, to actually study or read I need a certain level that's not too quiet nor too loud or variable. A nice droning background, like sitting far off to the side of a place with enough people that individual voices can't be discerned, or the wind/rain/frogs/crickets/waves is perfect b/c I can tune it out and in doing so greatly increase my focus on what I'm doing.

Probably. I do use classical music on low to study and to soothe the savage beast (Waldo) so that I can study. If I don't have to remember anything, then I can do homework with talk radio on.

When it's too noisy I can't hear my own thoughts, so yes. Silence is golden.

I don't know. Sometimes I wish I were deaf, just so little sounds wouldn't bother me.