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• Posted March 20, 2026

Does Closing Your Eyes Help You Hear Better?

Everybody’s done it: You’re at a noisy party and someone is telling you something in your ear. You squeeze your eyes shut to focus and try to hear what they’re saying.

For generations, the common wisdom has been that turning off our vision frees up brain power to boost our hearing. But a surprising new study suggests that in a noisy setting, this habit might actually be muting the very sounds you're trying to decipher.

Chinese researchers recently challenged the eyes-closed theory by testing volunteers in various soundscapes.

Twenty-five participants wore headphones and were asked to listen for specific, faint sounds camouflaged under a layer of background noise.

The five specific sounds were canoe paddling, drum playing, larks chirping, train running and keyboard tapping.

After the volume was adjusted until the target sound was barely audible, participants tried to determine what it was. They listened while their eyes were closed, while looking at a blank screen, while viewing a still image and while watching a video that matched the sound. Each sound was played for five seconds.

The results — published March 17 in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America — help to tease out how the brain best processes sound in a noisy environment. 

When participants closed their eyes, their ability to pick out the target sound dropped. 

On the other hand, watching a dynamic video that synced up with the audio made their hearing much sharper.

“We found that, contrary to popular belief, closing one’s eyes actually impairs the ability to detect these sounds,” study author Yu Huang, an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said in a news release. “Conversely, seeing a dynamic video corresponding to the sound significantly improves hearing sensitivity.”

To understand why this happens, the team used electroencephalography (EEG) to track another 27 participants' brain waves. They discovered that closing one's eyes pushes the brain into a state called neural criticality. 

In this mode, the brain is a gatekeeper. While it successfully blocks out background noise, it is so aggressive that it also filters out the quiet sounds you actually want to hear.

“In a noisy soundscape, the brain needs to actively separate the signal from the background,” Huang said. “We found that the internal focus promoted by eye closure actually works against you in this context, leading to over-filtering, whereas visual engagement helps anchor the auditory system to the external world.”

Essentially, your eyes act as an anchor. When you see what is making a sound, your brain has a target to lock onto, which helps it distinguish the main voice or melody from the surrounding chaos.

Researchers noted that closing your eyes isn't always a bad idea. 

When in a very quiet room, shutting your eyes likely still helps you focus on a bird chirping in the distance or a ticking clock. But because modern life is rarely silent and is instead filled with the hum of traffic, air conditioners and crowded cafes, staying visually engaged is usually the better bet.

The team plans to study what happens when the sights and sounds don't match (like seeing a bird but hearing a drum) to see if the brain requires a perfect visual fit to get the hearing boost.

More information

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders provides more information on how the ear processes sound and speech.

SOURCES: American Institute of Physics, news release, March 17, 2026; The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, March 17, 2026