Noise Can Mitigate Your ADHD Symptoms

You know when it's really difficult to read a book because you're busy making a list of ingredients you need to make minestrone soup, and where the hell are those jeans I wore on Monday? And how every time you're supposed to listen to someone else, you end up drifting away, thinking about how nice it is to eat Indian food and whether or not you should get a haircut? That, but times 1000 is pretty much what it's like to have ADHD.

In Sweden, around 5 percent of pre-pubescent kids and 2 percent of adults have ADHD. In 2015, 92,540 people were prescribed ADHD medicines such as Concerta, Ritalin, Medikinet and Equasym Depot.

Now, it seems people with attention disorders won't have to depend on medicines anymore. According to a study published yesterday by researchers at Lund University in Sweden and Sogn og Fjordane University in Norway, there's a way for people with ADHD to focus without taking central stimulating pills. And basically, all you need to do is listen to your vacuum cleaner.

Researchers have found that being around a constant noise helped children with ADHD to concentrate better. The study focused on the cognitive performance problems that people with ADHD suffer from – such as issues with memory, attention, and concentration. The results were published in scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology.

"It seems that children with attention problems (ADHD) think better when they hear sounds or create sounds themselves, either by noise in their ears in headphones, or by making sounds, for example, by drumming their fingers, pens and other things in the classroom," said Professor of Special Education at Sogn og Fjordane University Göran Söderlund.

For the purposes of the study, kids were asked to wear headphones that emitted a random meaningless noise that sounded pretty much like a vacuum cleaner. They performed three cognitive tests on memory and attention. The results showed that two out of three tests were completed with a clear improvement, compared to when completed without noise. The researchers also found that the noise sound had a better effect than that of ADHD medication which, it turns out, had no effect at all.

Now, researchers are hopeful that noise can really help people with ADHD. That's why a much larger study is about to be carried out. Until then, there's a free noise sound therapy app available, developed to help people cope with their ADHD.

But if you don't have access to a smartphone and need to think, listening to a vacuum cleaner instead of Frank Ocean, or studying by a window that overlooks a busy street might be just as helpful.

(Photo by Tony Webster)

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