Sensitivity to noise?

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Are you very sensitive to noise? I don't know if this is specifically an Aspie trait, but I can't stand noise. I have to use foam rubber earplugs when I sleep, and I go to wilderness areas as often as I can to hike and get away from city noise. I know a couple of people who, in contrast, can't seem to function without their TV set on constantly "for company", which drives me bonkers. I can't spend much time in their houses.

Yes, very. I just got back in my home after leaving due to noise from a compressor pump blasting water onto the sidewalks outside my building. The noise was making nauseous and highly irritable, and I was wearing noise-reduction headphones.

You are definitely not alone in this regard. I can't abide by the noise in many people's homes, or even the noise that emanated from some of the neighbors I've lived next to in my life.

Sensory Integration Disorder, sensory issues, synesthesia, and hypersensitivity (or hyposensitivity) all occur in AS/ASDs. You'll find lots of discussion of strategies to deal, and stories of what happens when the threshold is exceeded here on WP.

Note: I've been to Tuscon. It was a fun visit, but a long time ago.

I sleep in foam earplugs, as well. Even if things aren't noisy, if I hear a sudden noise, I waken, adrenaline racing, and can't resume sleep for a long time. Thus, the ear plugs. I try to remember to take a pair with me on high sensory days, because they are great to have when there are obnoxious noises to deal with in a city; drilling, loud car stereos, loud people, etc.

/waves hand.

I use ear plugs too. Noise drives me crazy. Some types of noise more than others: heavy footsteps or people talking late at night when I'm trying to sleep, large trucks, leaf blowers, construction sites, those punk kids and their damn modified car exhausts, angry yelling, drunken revelry, emergency sirens.

I like the sounds of nature very much. We have lots of great hiking trails here in PNW. Come to think of it, I ought to leave town tomorrow. And also I like the sounds of good music so I often use a music player and noise cancelling headphones to cope with external noise.

Very much so. I have the most dificulty with random, intermittent sounds (one of the reasons I can't listen to jazz or most improvisational, cutting-edge music), and I also have problems with high decibel spikes that I have no warning about (these often feel to me like I am being physically attacked).

I take ear protectors (the kind sold in gun stores) with me when I see films in theatres, and I put them on as soon as the lights go down, just in case. Some of the worst noise spikes can be in the previews before the show, even if the movie I'm going to see is relatively "quiet" from a noise standpoint.

Today for some reason my little sisters seemed loud to my ears which I found odd.

OMG yes. Motorcycles going through their gears really tick me off. And really love it when I'm driving and one sneaks up behind me.

I really hate garbage pick up day in my neighborhood, because of the low, vibrating drone of the garbage trucks. I can feel it in the floor, worse than bass notes on ugly music. They take forever to go away, because they are stopping at each house on the street to pick up garbage. Then it gets repeated when still another truck comes for the recyclables.
I usually put on my earplugs or noise canceling headphones when I hear them coming.

My 2 children and I went wilderness hiking 2 days ago, but not even there you cant escape the noisy insults of civilisation, every once in a while a helicopter flying overhead.

Yesterday my son and I went to a local park in the woods. There is a lovely pond that reminds me of a Claude Monet "Water lilies" picture or a tad "Walden pond".

I thought we could enjoy some quite time but hell no, there were dogs barking (3), kids crying and a woman yelling (at the kids)...

then they left and I really hoped to just absorb some pure nature sound ;
it is impossible
you could hear the cars from a nearby road and the odd plane again.

when I am in my hammock in the garden to read a book the 'Country western' music from my elderly neighbours is usually filling up the air, they had their "sound system" installed on their deck as they moved in.
I really like them though , so I do not say anything...
and if it's not their music it is someone's landmower etc.

when my husband is home the TV is on around the clock, he is one of those persons who get up and the first thing is TV on.
Sometimes he is not even in the room , but the TV is running...
when you ask him a question on what was said, he mostly has no clue, so he is not even paying full attention to what he is watching...
Thank God he is mostly absent or I would get insane...

The worst thing to me is when I am reading and the TV is on in another room (even if its not that loud) or when I am watching TV and there is another TV on in another room and I can hear it and then I can not concentrate on what I am watching.

As a child I would freak when the vacuum went on ( but so do prob. a lot of little kids)

My daughter got me an MP3 player for Christmas and it took some getting used to having the sound so close to the eardrum but I do really like it now when I go for a run and I even can listen to the music full blast ( desensitization?).

I have to have the TV on. I cannot stand the sound of the bass from passing cars blasting rap music at full volume. I don't like screaming babies or dogs. I really cannot stand the sound of the kids next door running around the house. I live in a mobile home community and the sounds are all amplified. I don't mind cats meowing, actually I find my cat's meows quite cute and pleasant sounding. I like the sounds of guns and explosions for some reason, I also love the sound my car makes while accellerating. I also like the sound of loud V-8 race cars and the sound of a P-51 Mustang puts me to sleep

I'm very sensitive to acoustic stimuli, but actually, noise doesn't really bother me - it's music I can't stand. The essence of it being that it's rhythmical (that's why it isn't just noise) is what really annoys me. Drums are the worst, given that they are low-frequency noise and their patterns are the most repetitive in a given piece. And when it comes to styles, of course I find rap and the like the most exasperating, given that they are *very* repititive in their patterns.

EDIT: hey, ScottF, that sounds a lot like me (didn't see your post before I posted)

Yes, and selectively so. Like ScottF & others wrote, certain sounds 'feel' good, such as mechanical noise or music, the hum of fans, metronomes, clocks ticking, chimes, etc. But....yes, sound can hurt. Partly because of synaesthesia where my senses overlap. White noise, sonicators, and high-pitched or related do hurt! At my laboratory the microscopy room hurts whilst the lamp is acclimating; I wear ear covers to offset this. Positively hate the sound of someone eating anything crunchy! Certain voices are grating, especially in tandem. Fluorescent lights can emit their signature noise - ouch! Light + sound = overstimuli

Yes, certain noises. I don't like really loud things, especially if they are high-pitched and loud. But some noise i'm fine with.. I usually sleep with the tv on, even. And there's some stuff i'm okay with if i'm expecting it.. like at an amusement park or air show, because there it's not usually something really high pitched. Last time i was at Busch Gardens i was walking by one of the game stands and they rang this really loud obnoxious bell, that made me jam my fingers into my ears and it kind of freaked me out and got me into a very nervous and jumpy mood. But i can usually deal with it, as long as i'm not already in a bad mood. If i'm already feeling really anxious or whatever, then it seems like the noises get to me a lot more and i don't deal with them as well.

I dislike noise very much. To the point of imagining deafness. I can't sleep with earplugs, but I often wear headphones. I hate class because it is very noisy. Exams OTOH have something nice since everyone is quiet. If I however knew that the college was next to a police station, I wouldn't have gone there at all. The sirens of the police cars still freak me out. As does the noise of the road.

I was freaked out most when there was a small accident on the road when I left. It was pretty much in front of me.

The home of my parents has a really bad noise insulation, this means that I can hear my parents walk around in most parts of it. I HATE it!

for me, it's mostly fireworks & popping balloons; things like that.

Noise has never been a problem for me.