Mystery hum drives people all over the world [video]

A muffled and insistent sound starts late, usually, during the dark night. And if overwhelmed, not to leave you in peace, almost, ever.
Taos New Mexico is famous for the Hum racking portion of the inhabitants.
It is known as “The Hum” (in English, The Hum). A constant, monotonous sound that is heard in places as different and distant as the Taos, New Mexico and Bristol, in England.
But what’s causing it and why it only affects a small percentage of the population, in certain areas, remain a mystery, despite a series of scientific investigations that have attempted to explain the phenomenon.
The reports of a strange hum low frequency started, from time to time, during the 1950s. People who had not complained of any unusual sound before, suddenly claimed that they were tortured by an intense buzzing, like a rumbling.
Since then, all of the reported cases seem to have several common elements. Generally, the Hum sound only indoors and it is stronger during the night than the day. It is also more common in rural or suburban areas. The reports of the Hum are rare in urban centres, probably due to the continuous noise that prevails in the cities.
Only a percentage of around 2% of the people who live in the areas where the phenomenon can hear the Hum and most of them are between 55 and 70 years of age, according to an English study from 2003.
Most people who hear the Hum – sometimes known as “Hearers” or “Υποτονθορύζοντες” – describe the sound as similar to the one that makes a fired engine, when working in close proximity. And the sound of them has lead to the point of despair.
“It’s like torture. Sometimes, you just want to scream,” said the pensioner Katie Jacques, from Leeds, to the BBC. Leeds is one of the many places in Great Britain where the Hum has recently appeared.
“It’s worse in the evenings. It’s hard to go to sleep, because I can hear that sound in the background. You turn around and wrestle with the sheets and you end up getting more and more agitated,” added Jacques. The fact that many “Listeners” are characterized eccentric or whiners by the other, contributes to the deterioration of their misery.
Most of those who suffer from the phenomenon have perfectly normal hearing. Complain of headaches, nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds and sleep disturbances. Until today, at least one case of suicide in the United Kingdom, has been attributed to the Hum, according to the BBC.
The areas of Hum
Bristol, England, was one of the first places on the planet where there have been systematic reports of the Hum. During the 1970s, about 800 people in the coastal city reported listening to a constant sound, like a drum, which was attributed to the movement of vehicles and the 24-hour work of the local factory.
Another area that became famous for the Hum is in Taos, New Mexico, USA. By the spring of 1991, the residents of the area complain of a muffled noise. A team of researchers from the National Laboratory of Los Alamos and the University of New Mexico and other experts have tried to identify the source of the sound, but without result.
The Windsor, Ontario, is another location where the Hum racking part of the population. Researchers from the University of Windsor and the University of Western has obtained, recently, a grant, to determine the cause of the phenomenon.
Experts are also investigating the Hum in Bondi, a seaside area of Sydney, in Australia, for many years. “Drives people crazy here. The only thing you can do is put music on to block it out. Some people leave their lights fans,” said a resident in the Daily Telegraph.
In the US, a study has differentiate the “Hum of the Kokomo”. The research, funded by the municipal government of Indiana, showed that two factories were producing sounds in specific frequencies. However, in spite of the measures to combat the noise, some residents still complain of the Hum.
What is causing the Buzzing?
Most researchers who examine the Hum believe that the phenomenon is real and not the result of mass hysteria. As for the case of the Hum of Kokomo, in the crosshairs of the specific first he enters the nearby industrial equipment.
Other suspected sources are the lines of high-pressure gas, electrical transmission lines and wireless communication devices. But, only in very few cases has been associated the Hum with mechanical or electronic sources.
There is a suspicion that the Hum may be the result of electromagnetic radiation in such a low frequency that can be heard only by specific people. In fact, there are cases in which it was verified that the “Listeners” had a special sensitivity to signals outside the normal range of human hearing.
Experts from the medical field argue that a possible cause of the tinnitus (the perception of sound when no external noise is present), but repeated tests have proven that the “Hearers” have normal hearing.
For the Hum, have been blamed and environmental factors, such as microquakes or very faint vibration of the earth resulting from the movement of the waves in the oceans. Despite the potential and the cases that have been studied, to date, there is no adequate explanation of the phenomenon.
The only solution for those who suffer from the muffled sound is, for the moment, to turn on the white noise (random noise with constant, flat power spectral density) from other sources, in order not to hear the annoying Hum.
“It’s a mystery for 40 years and it is very likely to remain a mystery for much longer”, as the acoustical consultant Geoff Leventhall, on the BBC.