Sometimes I spend entire days working dark-to-dark with my headphones on

... without even listening to anything

And if I happen to be "in the zone", after the whole day of having my headphones on and not listening to anything, I take them off and feel like it's so quiet out of a sudden. It feels like I was in a noisy discussion (with myself) whilst I was "in the zone".

Just sharing my observations :)

It is highly unlikely to experience the required absence of noise in a natural or urban environment. But with good noisedampening headphones, it might be possible to get the ear to ramp up amplificatiion enough to actually make your own blood flow audible.

So yes, you could literally have heared some noise or even pumping while wearing well-insulated headphones - even if the y where unplugged and your brain didn't just invent some background music.

Obviously that noise is gone as soon as the ear adapts to a normal environment - which never is absolutely quiet.

You're lucky if you have the option to actually listen to nothing a whole day long.

The 'right of not being disturbed' is next to inexistent here.

Just my 2 cents but that cannot be healthy. Take a walk outside from time to time, ok. Take care!

@NeatNerdPrime @Oktokolo I've noticed this effect a couple years back already. Whenever I'm deep in the zone and busy writing codes and making stuff, there are lots of thoughts swirling in my head. And when I step out of the zone at the EOD, for those 2 or 3 minutes the silence is blissfully deafening. All these voices in my head, all these ideas, thoughts, pathways of actions to take, this wibbly-wobbly maze rushing around like a freshly kicked ants nest is just *pooft* - .... and gone. And it's quiet out of a sudden. And it's calm. The zone is gone.

I don't think it's something abnormal. Perhaps you just haven't noticed how quiet it gets if you leave the zone quickly.

One of the things I really like about being "in the zone" is the moment I'm stepping out of it :)

@netikras I normally don't get into the flow. But when i do, i don't have a silence experience on or after exit.

It probably is indeed normal that different people experience flow state and the intermediate states differently.