A Yorkshire woman says she is close to a nervous breakdown and has even had to quit her job due to being tortured by a mysterious humming noise in her home.
Now, after almost two years of being plagued by the incessant noise, Yvonne Conner is hoping to finally find out a little more about the so-called 'Holmfield Hum'. Have a listen for yourself down below:
Yvonne's home has since been the focus of an investigation by Calderdale Council’s Environmental Health department, which she is hoping will finally provide some answers next month.
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Yvonne, 51, who lives in Holmfield, near Halifax, says she feels 'exhausted' due to disturbed sleep which she says has caused severe stress and has had a knock-on effect on her physical health.
The lack of sleep and 'intolerable' humming has been so detrimental that it even led her to quit her job due to stress.
Yvonne said: "It's really hard because I don't sleep properly for about three nights in a week.
"I wake up at 2am, 4am, 5am and I can't get back to sleep."
She says her only respite is to listen to music on headphones.
She continued: "Last week I listened to three Coldplay albums back to back. By Thursday and Friday, I am exhausted."
Yvonne, a self-employed dog walker, says she sometimes has to manage with only three hours of sleep a night, and the stress, coupled with her lack of rest, is starting to have a seriously detrimental effect on her health.
Among other ailments, Yvonne says that the hum has caused her to suffer from a skin rash, a throat condition, and she has also started to clench her jaw whilst asleep due to stress.
Along with other residents who can hear the hum, Yvonne has been campaigning for months for action to be taken and says Calderdale Council is still investigating.
In January, the council said the cause of the hum had been narrowed down to three possible sources and officers had been keeping complainants updated.
Yvonne is hoping to find out more soon.
She said: "Environmental Health put a monitor in my house in December. They came back in January to monitor it again."
She is expecting to hear the findings next week. It's not clear if she will find out more about the possible source of the hum or whether the report will focus on the nature of the sound.
She said: "It's an industrial noise.
"It is a low, resonating frequency. This is not a mysterious thing - it's controlled by somebody; it changes in tone."
In the meantime, she continues to be angry and distressed by it all.
Sometimes she thinks about moving house, or buying a caravan in the country so she and her partner can get away for regular breaks.
She added: "I am stressed all the time. I nearly had a nervous breakdown and I had shingles.
"I wake up every day feeling tired. I don't know where this ends."
Topics: UK News
Tom Sanders