You know the classic old saying: "It's quiet... too quiet?"
Microsoft has built a place where that's literally 100% true:
In 2015, Microsoft built what is now in the Guinness Book of World Records as the quietest place on the planet.
Known as the anechoic chamber at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, "ultra-sensitive tests" performed in 2015 gave an average background noise reading of -20.35 dBA (decibels A-weighted — a measurement of the sound pressure level).
Only very few people have been able to withstand being in the room for a long period of time — at most an hour.
"Oh, come on," you say, "only an hour? How bad can it really be??"
Bad, folks. Real bad:
After a few minutes, you'll already start to hear your own heartbeat. A few minutes after that, you can hear your own bones grinding and blood flowing. ...
With no sound from the outside world coming in, the total and utter silence will gradually turn into an unbearable ringing in your ears.
This will likely lead you to lose your balance due to the lack of reverberation in the room, which impairs your spatial awareness.
That's right: You will literally be knocked off your feet by the silence.
Still, you're probably saying: "Can it really be that bad?"
Well, here's a nice video of a young man slowly becoming unglued from reality as he spends a single hour in the pitch-black darkness of the anechoic chamber:
