Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Silence?

There is a phenomenon called the Mozart effect, or it should be more properly called the mood and arousal effect. People who listened to Mozart music before they did creative tasks were significantly better than those who didn't. Creative tasks can seem to be improved by listening to the things that music you like before you do them. There is a relationship between arousal and some basic cognitive performance. The more aroused you become, if you've just run a marathon or really stress your arousal levels are so high, you're stiff-cut to concentrate on that task. Similarly, if you're asleep, someone makes you up and gets you to do something,your arousal levels are quite low. But if you