Dampening down hypervigilance

I can cope pretty well with emotional regulation when I'm fully conscious but when I'm sleeping I find my sleep gets interrupted a lot still by startle responses to sounds outside (often things like car doors slamming or people loading something into a car in the early hours of the morning). And when I get woken this way it's a real shock and my nerves are on edge for a long time afterwards which makes it hard to get back to sleep (this morning I didn't at all). This is an autonomic reaction so there is no way I can use cognitive coping strategies like I can in the daytime for panic reactions. Neither does it help to put in earplugs as that just makes me feel more vulnerable, I do seem to need to be aware of my environment.

Are there any strategies for this sort of reaction?

Earplugs, it’s the only way, or a fan.

I am sorry Carmina, I can definitely relate to the challenge. Yes, ear plugs might help, a loud fan, once someone suggested getting a tape of ocean sounds. What I ended up doing is I leave the TV on all night, something where it's talking so I don't want to look at the TV. There is also a small box/sound box that therapists use that makes a fan like noise they put just outside their door during therapy so anyone waiting in the waiting room can't overhear a session they are having with a patient.

As I said earplugs are not an option as if I can't hear at all it makes me panicky - I think the whole point of hypervigilance is to feel safe - it just makes it hard to sleep at times. Soundscapes do help me get to sleep (I use TaoMix 2) but I don't keep them on all night as once I'm asleep any sound can wake me, even that. I need to find a way to unwind my woundup nervous system.

I've been discussing this with my therapist today, we think selecting noise that promotes slow-wave sleep might help. I've been exploring the use of structured noise to do this e.g:

Frontiers | Acoustic Enhancement of Sleep Slow Oscillations and Concomitant Memory Improvement in Older Adults | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Also thinking of buying some of these:

SleepPhones v6 Wireless Bluetooth Portable Headband: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

I'm strugling with this too and I'm feeling quite desperate lately...
I've tried different medication, using earplugs, meditation tapes etc. but nothing seems to help.
What kind of therapy are you doing? I'm currently doing talk therapy (psychodynamic), but I'm starting to think that maybe I need to do something different to help me with this.

I find talking on its own of limited value, I'm doing proper art therapy with a therapist working from an embodied relational perspective.

What about doing physical exercise to calm down your nervous system? There's plenty to try : somatic experiencing, yoga, Tai chi, tapping...also mindfulness, especially body scan exercise.
These things might not work immediately but they could help your NS heal over time.

Carmina, I am glad to hear you understand the importance of sleep in regulating your mood and mental health. Is is possible to alter your sleep schedule? How long have you been living like this?

Sometimes, I feel something similar to what you are describing. My mind, relaxed, wonders and corrects itself almost immediately. That happens to me at night and not in the early morning and it is a total bummer. Deep breathing exercises help me with that. Also, I want to try the suggestions mentioned in the previous posts. I think my environment(along with my happy pup) could use Soundscapes, maybe before you know your mind will become hyperactive and search for peace of mind. Have you thought about embracing your hypervigilance?

I have the same issue when asleep and awake. Every sound is distinct and huge to me. I use a noise maker when I sleep-waterfall or stream played on a higher volume. This helps a lot at night, but not during the day. I’m going to try earbuds and nature videos during the day or music. Thanks for bring this up. Also, I can’t deal with it when someone raises their voice. I feel like I have no skin.

Yeah me too - sound seems the best solution but ironically after a few hours it wakes me up again if it's too loud but if it's quiet I hear street noises through it.

Might try getting these when I can afford them

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SleepPhones...1FSJ6WV46MGYVY

I suffered from the same thing for years. Now I live somewhere that is quiet: my neighbours still wake me up but there isn't the same anxiety about it.

I agree with you that it's a somatic problem and needs to be understood on the level of brain/ nervous system malfunction. I was struggling terribly with it at one point in my life when leaving home early and working long hours. I can remember trying to sleep on the floor of the hall of my house so as not to hear vibrations.

I decided to practice sleeping, to train my body to re-member how to sleep. To take every opportunity to reinforce regular sleep. Tai chi exercise to slow down before sleep. Soft toys. Acoustic musis. A warm drink handy nearby. DJ earphones.

Moving to a quiet place was what solved it. Because mostly I'm not woken up. If I do get insomnia - I have it bad at the moment - it's an exception and I get a script for sleeping tablets for a few days.

I've had some crazy conversations with doctors about this in the course of my life.
I try to have routines that promote sleep. When I'm living alone in the house, I try out different bedrooms lol. My bedroom is for peaceful things: problems get left downstairs in the sitting room. I have a burglar alarm so that I know I will be woken if there is a real emergency. I try to actively listen for birdsong or quiet soothing sounds.

Everything in my life prioritises regular sleep routines because if I go without for a day then my body forgets how to sleep all over again. Where possible I warn house guests that I need quiet after a certain time in the evening.

No solution, just my experience of struggling with this. It's a serious problem if you have work commitments.

Lol, one thing that helped while I was travelling recently was becoming friendly with a huge guard dog. Everyone else was scared of him. He used to lean against me, and then he decided that he would like to climb up and sleep on top of me. That was so mutually soothing! And funny. He could have bitten my hand off but instead he wanted to be soothed and to feel companionship just as much as I did.

I'm so sorry you have to put up with this, Carmina I have never experienced this, so unfortunately I don't have a lot of advice to give. Everyone else had some great advice though. I'm glad your therapist was able to help you as well. I think buying some SleepPhones is a great idea! I'd suggest to do that if you can as well. Just writing this to let you know that I'm here for you and I understand how you feel. Feel free to PM me anytime. Let me know if I can do something to help you. Wish you good luck! Let us know how it goes. Sending many hugs to you

Hi Carmina,

I can empathize with you greatly; the hyper-vigilance is not fun.

You are right - there is no way that coping strategies can prevent that physiological reaction, however, the good news is you are aware of your triggers and CAN (albeit, with great difficulty) lessen the intensity once you are triggered through self awareness and coping strategies.

I got triggered a couple weeks ago and my body has been locked in hypervigilance throughout the day since then. I am a lot more sensitive and feel constantly on edge. I haven't been able to shut if off but I have been able to distract and force myself to do something different. My tendency is to sit with the feelings all the time, thinking to myself that the only way to combat the feelings is to sit inside the pain and learn to tolerate it. While this can and does help some of the time, lately I have found the most helpful thing to do in those moments is to get up and move my body. Simply moving can distract my mind (however small) as well as filling my 5 senses with stimuli unlike the trigger.

For myself that could mean putting on a diaper, snuggling my cute teddy bears and turning on a fan, drinking tea, watching a youtube video about cute animals.

These kinds of things help me to feel safe.

Do you have these kinds of strategies once you are in that state? Do they help? I know we cannot necessarily prevent the triggers themselves, but we can try new things to cope. I can see why putting earplugs in your ears would make you feel more vulnerable - I would also not recommend doing that simply for other reasons such as fires or emergency situations.

Thanks,
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