Foas I hope your back pain goes away soon. It can be a kind of pain that is horrible and debilitatng.

Thanks lucillle. Unfortunately I’ve been here before. More leafblowers. Someone please send noise cancelling earphones. And a bidet toilet seat. 😂

Good luck FOAS. Back pain can be so disabling and can be virtually impossible to ignore or push through. You have my sympathies! Sounds like it's not your first rodeo, so hopefully whatever worked before will work again.....

I don't have any sensory processing issues. There are times when loud noises bother me more than others. Unless I'm at a concert, I will almost always prefer a quieter environment over a louder one. I always have ear plugs and ear buds with me whenever I use public transportation of any form - air planes in particular, although subways and trains seem to generally be getting louder over time too. Or again, maybe my tolerances for random loud mixed noises are diminishing.

The volume in stores is usually tolerable for me, but there are other situations where it's much louder and then it's a problem - for my ears and my adrenalin levels.

I do feel concern and empathy for those with misophonia and sensitivity to high volume sounds, and appreciate awareness and consideration for them. I think some folks are just clueless, and some can be unsympathetic as well.

I don't like overly loud music when shopping. Actually, don't really like to shop at all these days. I went for a walk this afternoon, on a new trail. Not too many people out there. I was alone by the time I headed back, it's one mile up and then you turn around and go back. There are homes/farms on each side of the trail, can only see part of one farm, though, because of the terrain and trees. On the way back, alone, there was a loud creaking sound of a door opening. Kinda creeped me out. I did look behind me several times.

I have Meniere's disease and one of the issues is hypersensitivity to sound. As with all things Meniere's it is episodic but really uncomfortable when you are having a flare. I do not use back ground noise in my home. My mother kept the tv on every waking hour and a radio. Mercy. Any way do have some pity for the sound sensitive.

Patriciae Meniere's is my kryptonite also. People have so little understanding of this condition. I dislike it being labeled as disease. To me is a disease is something that is easily identified and runs a somewhat understood course. I read somewhere that it is one illness that no one can relate to unless they have it. When you try to educate people, most tune you out because it's beyond their comprehension of what it is like to live with. Even people with the illness have different experiences and random issues with flares. I've stopped commenting on most hearing related posts because most don't seem to be able to grasp the idea that living with hearing loss has little to do with volume. It's how the ear and the brain works to process what it hears. With Meniere's you have to toss in how visual environments also paly a role. Lighting, sight lines, even things like changes in pavement for some are so very relevant to how well one can cope or avoid an attack.

I’d imagine things like this are done to appeal to the majority. I can’t remember the last time I got into someone’s car and the radio wasn’t on. Look around next time you’re on public transportation, at how many are wearing earphones or earbuds. Also could be in part for the workers. I never concentrated well at detailed tasks with music so I didn’t listen at my “real job” or while studying, but at my more mundane jobs we always had music playing. The clothing store where my daughter works, they “fight” about whose playlist to play.

Like everything in business, demand is a key driver. If they find more people shopping during their sensory friendly times, or even if they just get good press for it, more will be likely to follow suit.

Hugs to people who do have sensory issues!

Food you remind me of my boss. We used to listen to music all the time, which I think we still sort of do just not as much. But there is one time that he always plays Phantom of the Opera full blast with his door shut, and it means do not knock. To everyone. He is trying to put a grant together, and I don't know why he does it, but that's what he does.

It just makes me giggle whenever I hear that opening sequence when he does it. It's been a long time, but we have a huge innovative grant coming up, and I bet I'm going to hear it a lot.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uNUcuZ97FT0

Echoes… 😉

Popular fiction author Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer (Mickey Haller) series) loves music but found that when listening to songs with singing while working, the lyrics distracted his thinking. He became a jazz afficionato, instrumentals only.

I once had a job dealing with money and contracts and other job issues which needed my full attention. That being the case, I kept both the television and the radio in the next room off so that I could concentrate on doing the best job. I was always somewhat puzzled at the number of clients who wanted to know if I didn't have a radio or television to keep me entertained when there weren't clients. They didn't seem to know that I was also busy when clients were not present.

The thing that bothers me the most is going to a restaurant to meet a friend for a meal and conversation and find that the music is so loud that it is impossible to carry on a conversation across the table. Most of these lose my business. I am glad that I am usually able to tune out music while shopping unless I hear a tune that I like.

There’s a restaurant we go to fairly regularly where the music volume is often a bit loud. We’ve requested it lowered and have seen others request this as well. They always oblige.

Gas stations where I live play really loud music once you start pumping gas. It comes out of speakers in the pump. I have to go sit in my car with the door shut while my gas tank is filling just to get away from the noise. I can't believe someone thought this is a good idea and was able to convince others to go along with it.

When I was designing furniture, I always had my own background music playing in my office, but it was never loud. Without it, my tinnitus would bother me, as well as the sounds made by the fluorescent lights in my office.

I had my music on a thumb drive in my computer and brought my own computer speakers for listening to it. When I had someone sharing my office with me, this was not necessary, and I generally did not want to listen to someone else's music.

Country music depresses me, and it was ubiquitous where I grew up in central Texas and endlessly annoying. However, I think country music is not as bad now as when I was a child - Hank Williams was one of the most depressing artists ever, for example, and I don't hear anyone like him today, but then I haven't lived in Texas for decades and therefore have not been exposed to it for a long time.

I have something that beats country music, which I despise. And this is coming from an observant Christian... Christian music. I've heard it in major corporations. It's nauseating. I just feel like it's hypocritical. I'm sorry, but the apostles had nothing, and they shared, each according to their need. Capitalism has no place within christianity, and vice versa

The ice cream truck here plays Christmas music all year, which just seems out of place in the summer heat. What bothers me about it is that the songs get stuck in my head and become annoying earworms.

We don't have an ice cream truck here, because we're two kitschy. We have a Kona truck that plays some sort of steel drum music? I think yours is worse, Lars

Apparently, it's a food truck here?

https://www.foodtrucksin.com/kona-ice-music-city

Not that I'm trying to outdo you. I'm just agreeing. It's so weird what they do to try to attract customers!

Here it’s the Murphy’s Oil Soap song, which has older roots but I’ll stick with Murphy’s Oil Soap.

Anyone else experience sensory friendly environments?

Yes, right now. I’m sitting on my back deck. Trees all around. Fresh air. A bit of a breeze and my bird app has just identified the seventeenth bird.

Perhaps the gas station is playing the loud music to discourage people from loitering? I remember a study about that years ago.

OTOH, I do think that in some instances, it might simply be inertia - IOW nobody thinks to adjust or change anything until prompted. That happens at my work all the time.

I learned to have something to listen to while working in my commercial art classes. I used to listen to music when working/doing chores, but now I prefer podcasts. Tasks involving reading &/or writing just do not combine well with listening to anything with words, IMPE.

P.S. This just popped up in my newsfeed:

"The world is rich with sound — birdsong, rainfall, children playing in a park, traffic on a busy street, a crowd cheering at a sporting event. But for some people, rather than enriching life, sound can make life nigh unbearable.

A condition called hyperacusis, sometimes called sound sensitivity, is a rare hearing disorder in which sounds that typically don’t bother most people seem particularly loud and uncomfortable. Some common sounds that are unbearable to people with hyperacusis are water running in a sink and people having a conversation.

To people without the condition, the sound of pages being turned in a book or the humming of a refrigerator may go unnoticed, but for people who suffer from hyperacusis, these same sounds seem intolerably loud...."

I saw that our Walmart is doing something new in the early morning, but I don't know the details. So many times I've heard the "music" coming out of the speakers and thought, Do you seriously think this is going to make me want to spend more money here? But it's the fluorescent lighting--certainly not limited to Walmart--that bothers me the most. In supermarkets I usually wear a baseball cap and sunglasses, looking as though I don't want to be recognized. If the ceiling is low, bringing the fluorescent tubes closer, I can't stay long.

Thanks for mentioning this, Rob. I'll have to check it out.

voting for a candidate whom wins

bragu, whether I agree or disagree I don't understand what you're saying?

The other day I was in the store and a Moody Blues song was playing. It stayed in my head for four days, I kept singing it and playing it on my phone. I can’t decide if I’d rather they not play ”the music of my life” in the store or keep it quiet.

Otoh, I don’t know how they could tone down a store like Homegoods or Five Below. Just visually, they remind me of Times Square. I lasted about five seconds in Times Square and told Dh i had to get out of there.

I think this is why I prefer my smallish local grocery store chain. The stores are not huge, the floors are kind of cushioned, the lighting is not glaring. t

Now I’m wondering-do the stores around here have music that I tune out? Costco has no music. I think Neighborhood Walmart has music. I remember thinking I like that song while shopping. Music doesn’t bother me unless its too loud to have conversation. Loud people are more bothersome. Screaming kids, people on their phones, etc. When I’m jome alone, I don’t have the TV on. I prefer it quiet. DH comes home from work and he always has the TV on.

Where I shop weekly there's no canned music. Not WM not Aldis not Cash Wise. I do not see the upside of 'dimmed lights'. I like to SEE what I'm buying what I'm doing. I work in a math classroom where the teacher things over head lights are evil. Try helping MS students with their math when they write with graphite pencils and the light is all ambient . It is sooo stressful and the naughty sneaky behaviors increases not decreases. BUT gotta say the nappers LOVE IT.

arcy, I think the point is, everyone is different (with some more different than mainstream would define), and the store that is the subject of this post is offering limited hours in order to accommodate some of those differences. I think it's great. I personally like a well lit environment too (though far prefer natural light), but there are many - migraine sufferers, those on the spectrum, etc. - who can't function well in them. So the "upside of 'dimmed lights'" is for them. Those who prefer otherwise have the whole rest of the day outside of those two hours to shop. Seems like a win for most. I applaud the effort.

Interesting about the lighting thing. I've been concerned that some of our staff like to keep the lights off in rooms where kids are playing, and was just speaking to our supervisor about it this morning. Some staff often turn off the lights when they put on a movie, but it's on a TV screen, and does not need to be viewed in the dark. Licensing rules state that rooms need to be well lit, and looking at it from a parent's viewpoint, I think a dark room filled with kids does not seem appropriate. Staff members cannot easily see what all the kids are doing, and they also miss a lot of messes the kids make.

They do claim it's a sensory thing for them - the staff, not the kids.

I too hate the florescent light whine. DH has moved on to LED in his shop lights.

I have an idea for people who like noise while they shop-bring your own. Who doesn't have portable music these days? You can wear earbuds and make it as loud as you like. Same for restaurants. Of places I routinely shop I am not hearing so much music these days. One place always used some local station that has been looping the same mix of old pop easy listening music for years. I shop to James Taylor singing Fire and Rain. Not bad.

And be blissfully unaware of the people rolling their carts behind you as you stop, maybe saying ’scuse me, because you can’t hear? I find that a lot more irritating than background music. Those, and people unaware because they’re having a phone conversation. Probably on speaker. Restaurants, I suppose if you’re eating alone.

OK, one ear bud.

I never have understood why people think we need to listen to their music. I don't make you listen to my music. And some, I consider noise pollution. Just because you think your taste is great in music doesn't mean I agree with that. I agree with keep your music to yourself.

Food I don't think people that are ignoring are wearing headphones, they are oblivious and self-centered, regardless of headphones nothing would make him do anything other than stand in the middle of the aisle and ignore 🙄

" The other day I was in the store and a Moody Blues song was playing. It stayed in my head for four days, "

Wild guesses out of curiosity, many of their songs have that potential. Nights in White Satin, or Tuesday Afternoon (both from same album) or I'm Just A Singer in a Rock and Roll Band?

I never have understood why people think we need to listen to their music. I don't make you listen to my music. And some, I consider noise pollution. Just because you think your taste is great in music doesn't mean I agree with that. I agree with keep your music to yourself.

My father was the most musically intolerant person I’ve ever met. He loved music, but the entirety of the range was from about Renaissance through Classical. Anything else was noise. Watch TV and some music comes on, he’s complaining about the noise. Go to a wedding, the noise. Shopping, the noise. Doctor’s office… you get the idea. Ugh. I’m kind of the opposite, because I like a bit of everything and for the most part that which I don’t like, I tolerate. It did take me being with my wife to like show tunes, in doses. Pretty much the only music that I can’t abide is today’s Latin party music. I’d expect most people are closer to me than my father.

Anyway, the one thing that I probably gained from my father’s intolerance was to respect that others might not want to hear my music. You’ll never catch my playing music so that the neighbors are stuck listening to it. I never take a radio to the beach. Etc.

But when it comes to the light music that’s typically played relatively quietly at stores, seriously what’s the big deal? You’re there for a few minutes. Most people aren’t bothered by this type of music. It’s not gangsta rap and it’s not death metal. It’s just generic music. It’s really not a big deal, or shouldn’t be, for the vast majority of us. And I’m gonna guess that many people like it or they wouldn’t play it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10497766/

Lars - I can so relate to the ice cream truck music which is a frequent visitor in my neighborhood. Typically its only for a few minutes and I tune it out. And to a certain extent it brings back good childhood memories. Yesterday, the truck was stopped near my house for a good 20-25 minutes and for some reason I found it really annoying. I’m currently undergoing chemotherapy and was trying to nap to deal with some side effects. It reminded me of being stuck on the ”It’s A Small World” ride at Disney 🤣. I told DH its the price we pay for being retired and being home all day. And no, I’m not going to complain to the city or anyone else. Hopefully next time, it will have a shorter stay on my block.

And to a certain extent it brings back good childhood memories.

I think this is an example of something worth actively trying to embrace. Think of all the happy kids getting their ice cream. You can smile or you can be annoyed. Well unless they were just sitting there for 25 minutes with no customers, that’d be pretty annoying!

The music example I gave was just one way in which my father was intolerant. When I see that trait coming through in me I try hard to change course. It’s just not worth being aggravated by everything. (This is a general comment, not in response to your ice cream man!)

Best to you with your chemo. It’s been five years since my wife went through that and I know they are trying times.

food, I think I more meant cars on the road or loud music at home, overnight ;) If I can hear it inside my closed window house, it's too loud. Put headphones on. Or, if you're in a car, take it to your own house.

Elmer, it was "Wildest Dreams".

Years ago, I discovered foam earplugs and they've made my life a lot more tolerable. They don't completely block out all noise - I can still hear important stuff like alarms, ringtones and someone speaking to me, but when I'm trying to sleep, they're a lifesaver, since every little noise will wake me up - and hubby's a champion snorer. They also come in handy in super loud environments.

Interesting bpath, thanks. Moody Blues has long been one my favorites. Unique sound and style, many earworm songs that take time to unhear.

Sometimes I would like to hear the music at Walmart above the screaming, crying kids….whose mothers seem unaffected by the noise levels.

They have music at Walmart? 😄

rob:

whether I agree or disagree I don't understand what you're saying?

Just saying, when you vote for someone, say in a primary, who wins that primary, you can get a warm, fuzzy feeling, especially after seeing their opponent's 'performance' in recent years.

I am going to get a warm fuzzy feeling if the guy I vote for wins. On the other hand if the other guy wins I'm going to feel ill.

I thoroughly do not understand why we're talking about candidates amongst discussion of quieter environments.

But okay.

Yeah - that is one big topic swerve!

Wait - I think I get it now - 'sensory friendly environment' ?

I have always loved a good thread drift, but this one confuses me too. I feel like I'm missing the punchline...😆