Sensory overload: Weighing us all down

Allegory of the Five Senses (1668 AD)

When people hear the term “sensory overload,” they often equate it with a disability such as Asperger’s Syndrome.  However, because sensory overload - in and of itself - is quite disabling, one does not have to suffer from a DSM-IV illness in order to feel the

devastating effects of too much stimulation.

According to HealthDay, researchers at the University of Antwerp, Belgium recently reported that the use of earplugs “within the first 24 hours after admission to the ICU decreased patients’ risk for delirium or confusion by more than 50 percent.”  In a typical ICU, patients who need their sleep the most are kept intermittently awake by “interruptions of phones ringing and people talking.”  The earplugs helped to offset the severe sleep fragmentation that these patients generally experience.

In businesses (and even households) around the world, people pride themselves upon the ability to multitask.

It has long been thought that multitasking leads to greater efficiency.  Researchers, however, have been

proving that unitasking (focusing upon one task or project at a time) is actually far more effective.  In his Harvard Business Review article titled How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking, CEO advisor Peter Bregman personally attests to the following benefits of unitasking:  It was a delightful experience; stress

dropped dramatically; significant progress was made with challenging projects; tolerance for wasted time

decreased; patience for useful and enjoyable things increased; and – amazingly – there seemed to be no downside to this focused way of doing things.

Bregman also refers to a Hewlitt-Packard study which found that “infomania” (the constant interrupting of tasks in order to check e-mails and text messages) resulted in a 10-point drop in IQ (“more than twice that found in studies of the impact of smoking marijuana”).

If Thich Nhat Hanh were that kind of a Buddhist monk, he might respond to these findings with a resounding “I told you so!”  For years, he has been teaching about the virtues of mindfulness - as well as about the  disadvantages of constantly letting the “monkey mind” swing from stimulating branch to another. 

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_overload

http://news.yahoo.com/using-earplugs-eases-icu-patients-confusion-study-180409439.html

http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4471607.stm

Copyright May 21, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved