“Silence”, it is said, ‘speaks a thousand words’. It is also common knowledge that couples who can spend their time in silence (and still feel as if they have had the best conversation ever) will always stay together. However, to some people, silence can be downright scary. There is term for this phobia: Sedatephobia. The word originates from Greek ‘Sedate’ meaning ‘silent or sleeping or dead’ and Phobos meaning the Greek God of fear, or dread or aversion. The phobia was relatively unheard of 50 years ago. However, today, it is a fairly common phobia. Expert hypnotists and psychotherapists are seeing large numbers of Sedatephobic individuals in their offices and they believe that these numbers will continue to rise in the coming decades.
For Sedatephobic individuals, darkness might not be scary, but the silence and lack of noise can bring on a full blown panic attack. People suffering from Sedatephobia cannot withstand silence; they constantly need noise and human interaction. This constant neediness can be very harmful to the individual.
Causes of Sedatephobia
Like all other specific phobias, the fear of silence is usually caused by a traumatic or negative episode in the phobic’s life. Some phobics, for example might have been locked up or abused by an adult,(some having been kept in basements or closets for punishment where no outside sound reaches them). The feelings the child has experienced then can get permanently etched on his/her mind. News of a loved one’s death or other traumatic/negative episode associated with silence can also bring on this phobia.
Many experts believe that technology has also given rise to the constant need for sounds around humans. For some people, it is impossible to meditate or sit in a quiet room for even a few minutes as they always need their phone, music, TV, or the noise of traffic around them.
Do you recall the inability to keep quiet in the lower grades, when teachers would insist upon complete silence? Children especially cannot stay without making noise, since they are, by nature, noisy. They also have more energy; hence whispering is also not possible for them. Everything they do has to be loud and amplified. Adults often ask children to keep quiet who often face punishments when they don’t.
Silence is typically associated with the night, forests or other uninhabited areas having complete lack of civilization. To be left in silence can mean being “hunted down by supernatural beings or things that go bump into the night”. It also brings the fear of the unknown. Most sufferers of Sedatephobia also tend to have inherent anxieties. They may inherently be monophobes (the fear of being left alone). The fear of ghosts is also associated with this phobia. Other causes of the fear of silence phobia include adrenal insufficiencies, depression, hormonal imbalances, and delusional paranoia.
Symptoms of fear of silence
Excessive noise can be debilitating and can bring on headaches. However, it is silence that can cause various symptoms in a Sedatephobe. Power cuts can be especially trying to such people, since they are left without technology, noise, music or movies around to comfort them. When left in silence, the phobic might have a full blown panic attack which may be characterized by following symptoms:
- Shivering, shaking, trembling
- Having dry mouth and sweaty palms
- Inability to speak or express themselves: feeling detached from reality and having thoughts of death or dying
- Feeling numb, feeling like crying or fleeing
- Experiencing rapid heartbeat, nausea, gastrointestinal distress etc
Sometimes, a person with Sedatephobia can also feel afraid in a group when people stop talking or there is a lull in the conversation. Exam times can be especially hard for these individuals. Spending time in a library or even trying to sleep alone can be a scary time for the sufferers of fear of silence phobia.
Treating and overcoming the phobia
Family members can play an important role in helping an individual overcome his/her fear of silence. Talking about the fear to a loved one (or in group therapy) can provide relief to some extent. Else it is best to seek professional help from a hypnotherapist, or psychiatrist.
Today, many modern therapies like CBT (or cognitive behavior therapy), NLP or neurolingusitic programming and systematic desensitization therapies are known to help reduce anxiety experienced by the Sedatephobe. All these treatments can help one get to the root of the fear of silence phobia and help the sufferer overcome it once and for all.
So, I’m fourteen years old, I’ve had a fairly stress-free life. I’ve never had to worry about anything really. Until about 11 months ago, My cousin (13) was diagnosed with Cancer this didn’t effect my life greatly except I would sometimes become upset that’s all really. In February of this year, My cousin was starting to recover he had finished his chemo and he was slowly getting better, He still had to live in the hospital. I was obviously happy, so when i returned to school, I spread the news and everyone was happy and excited for him to come home. I remember we had assembly that morning, as soon as I sat down in the seat, I felt my stomach churn and making weird noises almost as if I was hungry, I just shrugged it off, The assembly started and everyone was quiet listening to the teacher, I felt my breathing go funny, and I started shaking I shuffled across to the seat next to me and tapped on a teachers shoulder. I remember asking if i could go to give in a letter or something stupid like that, I said it was super important and was supposed to be in a couple weeks ago, they said yes so i quickly stood but as i was walking out my legs felt like jelly, I felt like everyone was staring at me. As soon as I got out of the hall, My breathing was back to normal and I had stopped shaking. I was so scared I thought something was wrong with me, I dragged out the time it took for me to walk back to my classroom find the letter and hand it into the office. I checked my phone we had about 10 minutes of assembly left. I walked back in through the side entrance and to cause less of a disturbance, one of the teachers told me to sit on the floor near the exit, I felt completely fine. But I feared going back into any of my lessons so I felt “sick” which meant I didn’t have to go into any of my lessons that day.
The next day, I felt slightly better, I was scared to come into school though because I didn’t want to have the feeling I had yesterday. I went to form tutor and as soon as I saw the classroom with everyone sat down my stomach fell, I started to feel how I did yesterday. I decided to just ignore this feeling and carry on with the day, when I was in lessons like Phys Ed or Dance I felt fine: because it was loud in there. Some lessons like geography and English became unbearable so I visited the school nurse, who redirected me to nurse who works for the NHS. The NHS nurse would come in and visit me once a week and I’d tell her how I had been etc. This helped majorly, I didn’t have to go into assembly and if I wanted to leave the class all I had to do was ask to go to the toilet because all of my teachers were told about what I had been experiencing.
I’m on Summer Break at the moment but I’m not getting any sleep at all, when I try to go to sleep my mind is telling me about the classes next year, what if they are quiet? The mock GCSEs are definitely going to be quiet.
If anyone has any concerns or worries about their exams, you can do what I did and visit your GP to receive a doctors note stating that you can sit wherever you feel comfortable, whether that is in the nurse’s room or a different room entirely. I chose to sit at the back of the hall, so my friends wouldn’t complain that it was unfair because that just makes it worse.
Wow I know how you feel for me it was way more embarrassing because every time it gets quiet I panic and start to have hallucinations and can’t breath. One time it happened during a pep rally because the principal said to be silent and I started to panic as soon as all the noise stopped. Mail me if you want professional advice because I visit special counselors who give me advice like for example always carry a note that explains you have Sedatephobia and carry a pair of headphones with a device that let’s you play music like phones, tablets etc.
I think I have this because I can’t go one minute without some sort of sound-any sound, really
I have a mild case of sedatephobia. When it’s silent I find it hard to breath, and become a little paranoid. I watch YouTube to hear some voices and sound in an otherwise silent room, though turning it off to go to sleep causes the silence to appear very suddenly, and eventually I will turn it back on, just to hear some sound. I usually get caught up in this cycle, so I don’t get very much sleep (Sorry, not exactly on the topic) and I think that amplifies my reaction to silence somewhat. This article was very informative, well written and interesting.
Same thing with me
It seems a lot of people suffer from this. I have to sleep with the radio on. I hate the sudden noises,especially with the colder weather coming in and things start expand and contract making sharp creaking and cracking noises. Also sometimes during the day if I’m alone and nothing is going on in my house, I’ll be okay with the quiet for awhile, then I start to get anxious and either turn TV or music on.
Me too. I always have to listen to music before I go to sleep and also I like to hear the TV as well. My mom can’t sleep at night. In classrooms as well if it’s quiet I get myself so worked up. I guess it’s because there’s loads of people not making a sound and it scares me. Then my stomach makes this weird noise and it’s embarrassing and seems to make it a lot worse
I have sedatephobia. I really struggle sitting in silence, especially in classrooms and exams (I’m 17). It’s been the same for at least 2 years, which made my GCSE’s difficult. I have to be listening to music or have the tv on at all times, which is obviously something I cannot do in class. It’s so hard to cope with and even harder to explain to others, which is why finding this article was so helpful in almost giving me a diagnosis, and making me feel less alone, and strange. My stomach rumbles incredibly when I am in silence, which furthers my anxiety of people hearing it and making fun of me, and I don’t know what to do! It’s making me not want to go to school!
Same here! I have small panic attacks before tests in case my belly rumbles…and it almost always does.
That’s exactly why I left college nobody believed me. I never went to geography because that was too quiet and I was alone in there, as in no friends took geography, they kept making me go but I skipped it. In the end they gave up. One of my nice teachers when I told her about it actually helped instead of being in a huge quiet space with like 100 other people I got be In a big room but spaced out and there were about 5 people in there it really helped
Hello I always feel like something is out to get me. When I’m sitting in silence I feel like something is gonna just pop out. Whenever I wake up I have to turn on my tv, turn on a flashlight and make sure someone is awake before I even get out of bed because I feel like something is going to attack me
So I’m 15 and I don’t think I have this fear too badly, but what I really can’t deal with is if there has been noise, and then there’s a sudden silence or a sudden single noise – for example, if there is a technical difficulty on the TV and there’s a sudden high pitched beep; or if a programme has ended and there’s just silence. I think this was brought on when I was very little. I remember one thing I was extremely scared of was Ceebeebies or whatever it’s called. Basically, at the very end of the programme, they’d do a goodnight song in twinkling music, and then as the programme ended, it would just be silence. After a while, I would get scared at the music, knowing what was coming up, and then scramble for the TV remote to change the channel before it got to the silence. I don’t even know why I’m scared of it?? Another thing is phone calls – and I mean the scary voice that would (and still does) make my heart race when it says:
“The number you called has not been recognised. Please check, and try again.”
And then it would loop. Yeah, that wasn’t a good experience for little me.
I think any technical difficulty just freaks me out – including a dream (nightmare) I had once where I was playing my DS, and one of my games decided to go all weird and scary on me.
OOOH, another thing – I remember there was this rage about this hacker on movie star planet called ‘anonymous’. I used to FREAK myself out, thinking that they were out to get me, in the darkness of my bedroom.
Okay, I’ve done enough talking, but I just kind of hope I’m not the only one…?
i am suffering from sedatephobe
please find a solution
Pray to God.
I need help i’m afraid of silence darkness and being alone i think i might know why anyways when i was little about 6-7 my uncle had a room in his house that had no electricity and he always told me never to go in there or a monster with big teeth would eat me (i was a little kid so i believed in such things then) anyways one day my cousin (we were playing hide and seek tag and i ran in there btw my uncle wasn’t home and the babysitter left us) shut the door while i was in there and i couldn’t get the door to open and when i screamed and told him to let me out he ignored me and eventually fell asleep on the couch in the living room on the other side of the house watching cartoons soon after about 30 minutes in there it started to get dark outside and i started crying and i closed my eyes trying to imagine being home with my mother anyways when i finally opened them it was pitch black and i cried loudly as soon as i did the closet door opened a little because of the wind and i instantly got quiet in fear and cried quietly hoping that i wouldn’t get mauled to death or something by the “monster” i had a panic attack because i heard something move in the closet and i started hearing voices in my head i started screaming and hitting the walls while kicking against the door trying to break it open i had another panic attack and ended up also having an asthma attack (i had my emergency inhaler so i was fine) i passed out soon after and woke up screaming after waking up in the dark room my uncle finally coming home and letting me out 5 hours and 37 minutes after my cousin had locked me in there anyways i’m 16 now and i still hear voices when it’s extremely quiet but only if i’m alone i hate being alone and i’m afraid of the dark often giving me panic attacks when the power goes out because i have nobody in my family that’s willing to try and help me due to me being very distant what should i do i don’t want to be like this forever i can’t sleep without a tv on in the background and i can’t sleep in the dark alone either i also can’t sit alone in silence because i start to hear things that aren’t there what should i do?
Ugh My name is Darrian the m was a typo
Find some friends to help. I don’t like going up to other people alone (mainly teachers and strangers) , so mine always go with me. However, they don’t know that I have sedatephobia. In fact, I hadn’t realized until last night, but I plan on telling my therapist. Surround yourself with people who are willing to support and help you. Even if you can’t get over your fear of silence, work on something like your fear of the dark. I hadn’t realized that I had sedatephobia until now because my mind always plays music in my head. It made me even fail an algebra exam because I was trying to remember how the song’s opening went. I didn’t finish the test because I kept thinking about that one song. If my mind is playing it, I can’t do anything else. If my phone plays it I can because I’m not struggling. Algebra is one of my favorite and best subjects. I all ways have that happening to me, so I didn’t know I had sedatephobia. It made me think of a world without music, which is my worst nightmare. I assume I got sedatephobia when I broke my face at age 8, which is a long story that I don’t want to get into, but the car ride to the emergency room was absolutely silent. Some people may treat you like this isn’t a problem and that you need to get over yourself, but it is. Even if you can’t get any family members or friends to help you out, then it’s time to find a therapist. I suggest group therapy because it would provide you with more than just one person having your back, plus it’s cheaper.
I definitely have sedatephobia I’m 13.
When I was younger I had a horrible dream where there were noises only I could hear and only people I could see. In the dream I was screaming at my mum and she would just look confused, the ‘people’ would be hiding in all different places in the house etc so that turned into an OCD for me bc I had to check everywhere in the house before I sleep, my mum would stop me from doing it and said if I don’t I will have to see a doctor. I managed to stop after like 4-5 months.
Now I’m completely terrified of silence and if it is silent while I’m trying to sleep or home alone I will shake and have panic attacks, plus crying. Is the dream I had a separate phobia I really want to know so if you could help me that’s great.
Can you help me? I don’t know if I’m just too frightened of ghosts or I truly have sedatephobia..
I have no traumatic experience but I’m scared of supernatural stuff, especially ghosts. I used to think that I was scared of closed rooms only, but when I tried leaving the connecting door to my parents bedroom open, it didn’t help at all.. In fact a silenced room with a door partially open or wide open just frightened me even more than usual.
I tried sleeping in the same room with my parents, but if they had fallen asleep before me I spent the whole time trying to calm myself down and couldn’t sleep.
It seems that I don’t need human interaction a lot, oh and having someone sleeping next to me makes it worse. If they move about in their sleep I will be frightened over the slight sound.
I just need music to calm me down. As for TV, that was even worse.. It gave an impression that someone could be talking to me and there are times when I though the people in the TV were looking at me.. If I were to sleep in a room, I must not have any TV in the room, even my laptop screen must be faced downward. I can accept sound that is not from things with a screen, like maybe from a radio or MP3.. I do prefer dark rooms, but both bright and dark rooms must have music playing in order to let me sleep.
I told my parents about this but they said that I watched too many horror movies or that I’m letting my imagination run too freely. I didn’t watch horror shows at all as I’m too scared of them, but the silence does get me a little too unsteady..
Am I just too conscious over the fear of ghosts, or is the silence affecting me this badly?
I feel the same way. Honestly. I’m not a huge fan— I’m not a fan at all of horror. But I have a great imagination.
I also have a problem with falling asleep before everyone else as well. Music can help me. But the dark scares me as well. So, when I fall asleep after everyone I normally fall asleep with the light on.
Otherwise, back to the silence part… I’m the same way, but, if I can hear sounds, unfamiliar to me, I’ll freak out. And my imagination will run wild. Which is why I have a fan in my room. I keep it on low because the high level is too much. But the fan does help I’ve found I can’t sleep without it. If I don’t feel safe or don’t have that fan. I’m bound to wake up a few times.
So, we are in the same boat. I don’t watch horror but I love those show’s like Castle, Psych, crime scene ones. Basically. I’m a hobby writer. I make up ideas. So I come up with a lot of solutions to noises, if I’m scared, I come up with more scary ones. Really bad. I know. I’m up right now. Yeah…
But back to your question I think it’s about your imagination and the silence. And with your parents they’re not wrong scary thoughts can come from horror, BUT they can come from many other things. Like… I tend to remember things I don’t want to when I don’t want to. Like bloody Mary. Never should have seen it. I forget it. Till I’m scared. Yeah. So thoughts and fears can come from the deaths of your mind. Anywhere really. It’s probably mainly the imagination, in my opinion.
To help you, I’d try a fan, try other ways of sleeping. Like I fall asleep towards the door I feel safer(I leave it open), get a light if need be, sometimes I read before bed to get my mind on to something so it doesn’t wonder.
Things like that. Keep doing it till you find the best way.
Let me know how it turns out, if I helped you at all probably not. But. Hope so.
I have sedatephobia. Once up in the country I realized i have this because they don’t have tv’s or noises like radios or phones in the bedrooms so when i tried to sleep, I had a full-blown panic attack. After crying for 20 minutes, I went searching the house to charge my dead phone. I finally did but it was the scariest moment of my life.
Hey, Jacob! I would like to use this page as a source for my research paper on how silence effects our well-being, but I need your last name, the date you published this, ect.
Could you email me your information please? Thank you so much!
Hi Grace
Thanks for your interest. Check your email.
I am writing a thesis paper on Sedatephobia and would love to use your article. I need your name and other things to site it correctly and give you credit where credit is well deserved!
Hi there
I have just sent you an email.
I haven’t been able to sleep without some sound whether it be a TV on or music or a sound machine for a long time, don’t know what caused it. I prefer TV because I don’t feel alone if someone is talking and things are going on. Also if it’s too quiet I hear little noises outside and my anxiety level increases and am overcome with a sensation of wariness.
thats EXACTLY HOW I FEEL as a matter of fact i have a tv going RIGHT NOW! but every time silence happens i panic and sometimes.. even hallucinate (ex: a slender thing? it was dark grey/black too.) also anyone hear pecking/tapping/cracking noises coming from walls or doors?
I also hear noises but I also get hot/cold flashes when it’s really silent so I have to listen to music or paint for most of the day to calm down because I get really worried
I am the same, no traumatic situations in my childhood that I can think of. But I find it really hard to sleep if I can’t hear anything at all. It’s also difficult to be in my house on my own during the day. I have to have music or the t.v on. And I always feel safer outside.
I have sedatephobia and can’t even fall asleep without music, I have suffered no traumatic events and can’t think of anything that could have triggered this fear.
I am the same I am scared of complete silence. I have only told very few people and I have no idea how to get over this or even talk about it to someone. I have not even told my mom.
Same here
I have sedatephobia. My tv is always on and it’s so hard to sleep. I can’t get over the phobia. I feel I’m stuck with it.
I think I really do have Sedate-phobia.