Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• Loud noises can be a nuisance for anyone, but for people with high noise sensitivity, they can evoke much stronger reactions.
• For instance, people with noise sensitivity may experience emotions like anger or anxiety that eventually affect their physical health.
• However, some people are better at tuning out noise than others—and it might be a hidden superpower.

If you’ve ever found yourself irrationally angry at a colleague’s keyboard typing or felt your heart race because of a siren in the distance, you might be living with high noise sensitivity—a condition that is physically hardwired into the brain, scientists are finding.

“Noise sensitivity can involve a wide range of physical, physiological, emotional, and psychological reactions to sound,” says Kristina Bowdrie, AuD, PhD, assistant professor of aural rehabilitation at Case Western Reserve University. “In more severe cases, it refers to the experience of perceiving everyday sounds as extremely uncomfortable or distressing.”

Noise sensitivity is more than just feeling uneasy when you hear a glass shatter, Bowdrie explains. Rather, it’s a consistent negative response to routine sounds in your environment that aren’t typically considered unsafe. In fact, noise sensitivity can even alter your consciousness. It can involve strong physiological or emotional reactions to relatively soft sounds, she says. In these cases, repetitive sounds such as chewing, tapping, typing, or clicking may trigger intense negative emotional reactions, such as anger, anxiety, or disgust—and that can come off like an overreaction to other people, Bowdrie says.

Sound becomes noise when it becomes intrusive and interferes with goal-directed behaviors, such as relaxation, sleep, or cognition, or when it’s at odds with someone’s expectations of their environment, according to Daniel Shepherd, PhD, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the Auckland University of Technology. For instance, if you were at a spa with relaxing music playing and heard a loud crash, the spa music wouldn't be considered noise, but the crash would, because it’s unexpected.

“Noise-sensitive individuals are more susceptible to perceiving everyday sounds as noise, as the sounds are more likely to interfere with tasks,” Shepherd says. “As such, they are more likely to express negative emotions to the sounds.”

Everyone responds negatively to sound in certain situations—have you ever been trying to sleep while your neighbor is mowing their lawn? However, being noise sensitive doesn't necessarily cause a response to unwanted noise, but rather a predisposition to react negatively to it, Shepherd explains.

Noise sensitivity can sometimes develop after long-term exposure to loud noise—like prolonged work in construction or music—or following a head injury, according to Bowdrie.

“In some cases, a person may experience a relatively rare condition known as hyperacusis, a medical term used to describe increased sensitivity or reduced tolerance to everyday environmental sounds,” she says. “In addition to sound sensitivity, people with hyperacusis may also experience sensations such as ear pain, pressure, or discomfort in response to sounds that others perceive to be normal.”

A person can also develop phonophobia, or the fear of sound, Bowdrie says. As such, certain sounds may trigger a fight-or-flight stress response. When the amygdala (the area of your brain that processes emotions) detects danger, it triggers a fight-or-flight response. This, in turn, causes your body to release stress hormones, increase your heart rate and blood pressure, divert blood to your muscles, and sharpen your senses—all while turning off your logical thoughts to enable immediate survival action.

This stress response is beneficial in the short term, as hearing evolved for survival, points out David Welch, PhD, associate professor of audiology at the University of Auckland. Consider how important identifying dangerous sounds—like a predator approaching—would’ve been for our ancestors’ survival. But prolonged stress can cause health problems, Welch explains. For instance, a research article Welch coauthored with Shepherd in the journal Transport Reviewshighlights conditions like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, depression, or anxiety.

People who are good at tuning out background noise have a better natural ability to filter out irrelevant sensory information so they don’t become overwhelmed than people who get easily distracted by it, Shepherd explains. As such, those who are less bothered by these sounds generally have a nervous system that is more effective at staying relaxed, which translates to lower heart and breathing rates while resting, he says. Essentially, the better your brain’s noise filter, the better your body is at staying calm in stressful situations.

“It may be no coincidence that the majority of psychopathologies—like anxiety, depression, or schizophrenia—and brain injury are associated not only with chronically heightened [fight-or-flight response], but they are also associated with noise sensitivity,” Shepherd says. “The same holds for autism.”

If a person has noise sensitivity, treatment may involve sound therapy, which uses low-level and pleasant sounds to help the auditory system gradually become less reactive to everyday environmental sounds, according to Bowdrie.

“The goal is often to retrain the brain’s response to sound over time,” she says. “In more severe cases, treatment may also include cognitive behavioral therapy or other counseling approaches to help reduce the distress associated with certain sounds. These approaches may use strategies such as mindfulness and gradual exposure to help lessen the negative emotional response to triggering sounds.”

Additional coping strategies for those who are sensitive to noise include wearing ear protectors or using noise-canceling headphones, according to Shepherd. Not to mention, if a person develops noise sensitivity following an injury or a medical event, it’s important to follow up with a physician to address any underlying conditions, Bowdrie adds.

Sound is around us all the time, and you can’t choose not to hear things like you choose not to look at things that offend you, Welch says. But you can manage the noises you find distressing so the battle between your ears and brain becomes less intense over time.