The wind here is unusual! After moving to the grassland, they started to go crazy

In the 19th century, a strange disease appeared in North America: Prairie madness .

Today, we can still find traces of this strange disease in many works that record life at that time. In a newspaper in 1893, a reporter at the time wrote: "In the new areas, farmers and their wives have shown an alarming number of mental disorders."

After settling in the grasslands, everyone went crazy. Image source: NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

At that time, people from the United States and some European colonial countries migrated to Canada and the prairies of the western United States, which meant that they would stay away from their previous social lives and start a new life in sparsely populated areas.

However, they did not expect to encounter the ensuing "prairie madness". Under the intense sense of loneliness and poor living conditions, the new local residents began to suffer from depression . Some of them quickly moved back to their original residences because they could not bear it, while others suffered from insomnia, resentment, and even resorted to violence and suicide.

It was widely believed that this was caused by loneliness. In the past, the places where they lived had rich social lives, and they could interact with many people in the villages to break the monotony of daily life. But as the reporter reported at the time, on the prairie, your nearest neighbor was about 2 kilometers away from you, and it was difficult to quickly establish a trusting relationship with strangers.

At the same time, the scenery on the prairie is very monotonous. "Imagine it. From fishing boats on the bay, green gables, white-walled and red-roofed villages, to a remote cabin on the prairie, it is no wonder that so many Europeans lose their psychological balance."

However, there are other reasons that cause "prairie madness" besides unbearable loneliness and difficult to adapt environment.

In 2022, Melcarriere and his wife recently settled in the prairie, and they also encountered "prairie madness." He wrote on the Internet that life on the prairie is "sunny" and "easy", but "it's not made up, 'prairie madness' is a real thing that happens."

After moving to the prairie, Melcarriere's wife found it difficult to stand the howling winds here, and the locals also told them one thing: the unique winds here are "unusual."

Image source: unsplash.com

He didn't believe it at first, but he gradually felt that this "evil wind" was howling like a banshee, which was terrifying and made people's mood unpredictable and unstable.

A 2022 paper published in Historical Archaeology explained that the insanity was caused by "terrible wind sounds."

The researchers collected environmental sounds from the Great Plains (white noise from wind and rain) and sounds from the city (noise from vehicles, pedestrians, etc.).

According to the human hearing curve, we are more sensitive to sounds between 1000 and 2000 Hz, and the sensitivity suddenly drops between 2000 and 3000 Hz, and then shows a stable sensitivity range between 3000 and 8000 Hz. Therefore, people living on the Great Plains can easily hear any movement.

The curve of people's sensitivity to sound. Image source: Reference [1]

The researchers found that the soundscapes of cities are very diverse, with sounds around 1000 Hz, as well as sounds at 5000, 7500, 8000, 11,000 and 16,000 Hz, which shows that when the sounds in the city are not disruptive to your life, they actually act as very good white noise, which can disperse various sounds. On the prairie, there is no sound to disperse the sound of the wind, which can become annoying and difficult to ignore. Therefore, this kind of wind sound is likely to cause "hearing hypersensitivity" and "misophobia".

People with "hyperacusis" will find some sounds unbearable and become stressed. After hearing certain sounds, they will feel irritated, have headaches, and anxious, and may even develop a psychological disorder called misophonia.

For example, many people will feel irritated when hearing some renovation sounds for a long time.

Some people cannot stand the sound of dripping water or scraping due to some reasons (such as trauma). Some musicians may suffer from hearing allergy due to loud music. Musician Jason DiEmilio even ended his life because he could not stand all kinds of sounds.

On the grassland, the depressive feeling caused by loneliness itself, coupled with the long-term listening to this wind that is difficult to ignore, will make the situation more serious, and it is likely to trigger psychological disorders and affect people's behavior and mental health.

This study also reminds us that in addition to the visible environment, sound is also an important factor affecting our lives. A 2022 report stated that 5% of heart disease hospitalizations in New Jersey were due to the state's high noise levels, and in areas with higher traffic noise, the rate of heart attacks was 72% higher.

Noise may be related to heart health. Image source: pixabay

Although the specific link between noise and heart disease has not yet been established, studies have shown that noise pollution can cause stress, sleep disorders and mood problems, all of which are related to mental health.

When you are in a bad mood or state, you can also consider removing those unpleasant sounds in your life.

Some people have also begun to imagine that if we migrate to Mars, the thin atmosphere of Mars does not transmit sound well. Will people also face possible mental disorders in the silence, just like the "prairie madman"?

After all, we have to face a brand new silent planet... Image source: Pixabay

So there is no way to distract from the noise of the neighbors' renovations...

References

[1] Velez, Alex D. ""The Wind Cries Mary": The Effect of Soundscape on the Prairie-Madness Phenomenon." Historical Archeology 56.2 (2022): 262-273.

[2]https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1893/09/the-isolation-of-life-on-prairie-farms/523959/

[3]https://medium.com/@melcarriere/prairie-madness-an-introduction-to-criminal-insanity-on-the-high-plains-7f6fe0f4e776

[4]https://www.buzzfeed.com/joycecohen/noise-kills-when-everyday-sound-becomes-torture

[5]https://newsbeezer.com/uk/is-the-silence-of-the-great-plains-to-blame-for-the-prairie-madness/

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Source: Bringing Science Home

Author: Skin

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