innovation5 min(s) read
Horrifying effect of spending 86 minutes in the world's quietest room where you can hear your own internal organs
Spending time in total silence might sound like a dream for some, but for those who have ventured into the world’s quietest room, it can quickly become a disorienting, even terrifying experience.
The Anechoic Chamber at South Bank University in London holds the title for one of the most soundproof environments on Earth.
Inside, the silence is so intense that visitors can hear the sounds of their own bodies, heartbeats, blood circulation, and even their stomachs gurgling.
A Challenging Record Attempt
YouTuber Callum McGinley, known online as Callux, decided to push the limits of endurance in 2019 by attempting to break the world record for the longest time spent in the Anechoic Chamber.
The challenge was simple yet grueling: stay in the room as long as possible while maintaining complete silence and avoiding hallucinations.
Callum, determined to set a new record, entered the chamber intending to surpass the previous record of 67 minutes.
To add to the difficulty, the rules stipulated that he could only speak for 60 seconds every five minutes, and the sound level within the room had to remain below 25 decibels, about the level of a gentle breath.
A Sensory Overload
While the chamber's silence initially seemed peaceful, Callum quickly realized the intense mental toll it would take.
Just five minutes into the challenge, he began to hear a high-pitched tinnitus ringing in both ears. As time wore on, the effects became more pronounced.
At the 15-minute mark, the YouTuber reported hearing his blood pumping through his veins, a sound so distinct and loud that he initially mistook it for the hum of a passing train.
By 30 minutes, he was even hearing sounds that weren’t there, including the imagined sound of a trolley being dragged across the floor.
"Do you remember that London Underground thing from earlier? That’s my blood travelling around my ear," he explained. "It sounds like someone's dragging a trolley across my ear, and now it feels like the seconds are going slower while I'm talking."
Hallucinations and Mental Strain
As Callum continued in the chamber, the isolation began to take a psychological toll.
By the 53-minute mark, he was convinced that there was a train beneath him, and by an hour, he started seeing things that weren’t there.
"I started to see stuff moving around the room, and you can see with my eyes there, trying to track this thing. It was freaking me out," he confessed.
The hallucinations and overwhelming sense of isolation made him question his decision, and at one point, he seriously considered abandoning the challenge.
However, he pushed through, motivated by the chance to set the record. After an excruciating 86 minutes, Callum achieved his goal and claimed the new world record, surpassing the previous record by 19 minutes.
Why the Silence is So Intense
The eerie experience in the Anechoic Chamber is not just due to the extreme quiet but also the way human ears adapt to such a still environment.
Steven Orfield, the designer of anechoic chambers, explains: "When it's quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound."
The chamber is designed to create an environment where no sound is allowed to enter, and sound reflections are eliminated, creating near-perfect silence.
However, this scary stillness leads to a phenomenon where the brain begins to focus on internal bodily sounds, making them feel much louder than usual.
Orfield has even warned that spending too much time in such an environment can have mental and emotional effects, and he generally recommends limiting exposure to no more than 45 minutes.
Callum’s experience highlights just how challenging prolonged exposure to total silence can be.
Though he set a new record, some viewers noted the psychological toll of being in such an isolated and quiet space.
One comment on his video read: "I’ve been in one of these rooms. The scariest thing about it was the fact that there was no way to get out without someone from the outside opening the door for you. The thought of being trapped in there and not being able to yell for help was terrifying."
Another added: "I can hear my heartbeat and blood circulation in relatively quiet places like classrooms and hospitals. Going into this isolation chamber would be rather interesting. Like I really wanna know if I'll start hearing stuff that I haven't heard before."