Extreme Sensitivities

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I cannot sleep if I can hear bass playing anywhere... even if it's the faintest sound that my husband can barely detect. I am okay with crickets and cars and ... faraway trains passing by... I cannot sleep with a TV on or music. It's the worst when I can hear muffled TV voices because my brain starts trying to figure out what they're saying even though I don't care what they're saying and couldn't hear it if I wanted to. And I can't sleep to "white noise" because it is electronic. I think it's electronic noise that bothers me, really. Mechanical noise is okay, like cars and fans. Natural sounds like crickets are okay, too.

And I can't sleep with ear plugs because the feeling of having them in my ears bothers me... probably because I have TMJD, so my ear canals are often a bit swollen.

My husband's parents sent us some fuzzy bed sheets last year, and I could not sleep on those. The concept sounds great and comfy, but I can't sleep unless I have a plain sheet under me and on top. Also, just a blanket won't do. Has to have a sheet between me and it. I also have trouble sleeping with socks or pajama pants on, even when it's cold and I need them.

And yeah... there is bass playing right now. It's making me sorta ill thinking about trying to sleep. And the fan isn't drowning it out at all. Need a house in the country.

Misophonia is - or can be - such an extreme form of sound sensitivity.

Typically people with misophonia react with a sharp spike of anger or stress to particular sounds, such the sounds of eating, drinking, slurping, chewing gum, etc. Even when these sounds are soft, they are excruciating to the person with misophonia, who typically wants to cover their ears and run away. Some people do complain of bass music as a trigger sound, although "mouth sounds" are the most common type of "trigger sound".

For me (one of quite a few people here with misophonia), it is easier to handle being in a noisy restaurant with lots of people eating (where the eating sounds are drowned out by all the background noise) than to be in the same room as one person eating when it is otherwise dead quiet ("hear a pin drop" quiet). So I can eat out at a restaurant with my wife, but can't eat with her at home (the two of us alone and no background noise). Usually I sit in the same room, but on the sofa in front of the TV (deliberately switched on to create background or "masking" noise).

So, yes. There are other people who react to sounds even when they are soft, and the experience can be excruciating.

Yep, that sounds like misophonia.

You can read more about it at these websites:

http://www.misophonia-uk.org/
http://www.misophonia.info/

YouTube has a number of interesting videos about it - including an 8 minute segment from the Today show. If you search for "misophonia" in Youtube, you should find them.