Wednesday. We made it to Wednesday everybody. Well, we’re now well into this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and if you’re reading this it means that the UK based team of VRFocus is still alive and hasn’t died of sleep deprivation just yet.
Which brings us neatly back around to the topic of this week’s Life in 360°, namely sleep and relaxation. On Monday we took to the beach in Hawaii for a beautiful sunrise with the sound of the waves lapping at the beach. It was very serene. Today, while still sticking with our topic, we’re taking a different approach with it. One slightly more emphasising the importance of sound.
Have you ever wondered why exactly it is that some sounds are more relaxing than others? An example of this is rain. The sounds of rain can be very relaxing. Now, lots of rainfall, a storm, can be the opposite of this. Very agitating. But rainfall in general has been known to aid with sleep. Scientifically it’s in part due to the frequency of the sounds, but it is also a sound we trust from an instinct.
“These slow, whooshing noises are the sounds of non-threats, which is why they work to calm people,” Orfeu Buxton, an Associate Professor of Biobehavioural Health at Pennsylvania State University explained to Live Science back in 2016. “It’s like they’re saying: ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry.’ The type of noise defines if you will wake up or not, controlling for the volume, because the noise information is processed by our brain differently.”
In this video – which at ten hours long is quite possibly the longest we’ve ever had on Li360 – you’re inside a car. Rain falling all around you as the night flows by. It’s by no means a 360 degree photo. You can watch the rain hitting the windows. The lights flickering on outside. The night is alive. Even if you just have it on as background noise for the sound, it certainly is effective.
VRFocus will be back at the same time Friday with another Life In 360°.
It’s a sound we trust and not one we are afraid of.
via Mint VR