Many people would say that sitting in silence is their idea of heaven, but how much could they really withstand? One YouTuber, who posts as Callux, decided to find out as he attempted to break the world record for the longest time spent in the quietest room in the world. What he discovered about himself during the experience will likely stay with him forever.
To visit the quietest room in the world, Callux headed down to London’s South Bank University. The school’s “Anechoic Chamber” is soundproofed to the point that sound can only be measured in negative decibels. Those who enter the room are only advised to stay in for 45 minutes if they want to maintain their sanity.
“We challenge people to sit in the chamber in the dark,” says the chamber’s designer, Steven Orfield. “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 previous record for the longest time spent in the room was at 67 minutes, but Callux wanted to do better than that. He brought in an adjudicator who could verify the world record and headed into the chamber with the highest hopes. He even filmed the entire experience and uploaded a video on his channel when all was said and done.
There were a few simple rules Callux had to follow in the quietest room in the world. He couldn’t sleep or faint, he had to be alone, he had to be under supervision the whole time, and the sound had to remain below 25DBa throughout. He was also allowed to leave at any time and he did the entire thing in the dark.
Callux started feeling the effects of the room at only five minutes in. He was disoriented, had severe ringing in his ears, and as time went on, he began seeing things and hearing the sound of his own bloodstream, which he was sure was a London Underground train.
He managed to stay in the room for over an hour and a half, but given that he was allowed to talk for one minute after every five-minute stint, his final record-breaking time was 1 hour and 26 minutes. He’s a new world record holder! Asked what he thought about the experience after it was over, he simply said: “That was f***ing weird.”
