Do you get distracted by normal sounds outside your room?

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I was just wondering.
My room is downstairs in a spare room, because my mum and dad had split up but had to live together because of financial reasons, but they didn't want to sleep in the same room, obviously, so I said I wanted to move my bedroom downstairs because it's bigger, and let my dad have my old room. I do like being downstairs - but the only problem is I get so distracted by other ordinary every-day noises that goes on in my house, like the kettle from the kitchen, and the TV from the living-room if it's on loud, and people talking loud in the kitchen, and when people are putting their coats and shoes on up the hall (which is right outside my bedroom door). It's so distracting, and it drives me mad. When I'm typing on my computer, I just cannot concentrate when there are noises coming from other rooms. I don't get so distracted much when I'm doing something else in my room - but I do when I'm on my computer, and because I live on my computer, I will get distracted more.

I get very easily distracted by external noise.

My distractability is inversely proportional to 2^n where n = my interest in the task at hand. Quite often, n is a vanishingly small number. Clearly, a large value for n would be a disadvantage when doing something like counting railroad ties while walking on the rail ...

Absolutely. In my bedroom at night I must have a fan running so the white noise blocks out all other noises. I have to do the same thing in my office as well or the conversations from other offices or the hall will distract me to no end.

Same here, especially when working on a song or writing. I need o close my door to make sure I don't get people's conversations in my room while focusing on a project.

I can't do anything in my room without white noise, including sleep. I feel like I have very little control over what my brain pays attention to, and the more noise or sensory information the more divided my attention becomes. Whats also strange is when I try and block everything out with headphones or ear plugs, I become anxious and feel overwhelmingly vulnerable

Ear plugs make me feel as though I am suffocating. Is that common?

I haven't tried headphones or ear plugs (but I will because the noise levels in my house are high enough to constantly overstimulate me lately ), but the rest of this is true for me. I run two fans in my room constantly just to drown out as much external noise as I can. The last time the power went out it took me forever to get to sleep because every. single. little. noise. would bring me back to full wakefulness.



My trepidation about ear plugs is that band aids make me feel confined (among other things) and I suspect ear plugs will be similar.

The only thing I can't bear when I'm in bed is the sound of a murmuring TV from another room. It drives me insane! Before my dad had his ears cleaned out, he was so blocked that he had his TV in his room on really loud, and I could hear the murmuring from downstairs! Luckily he falls asleep with it on, so I crept up to his room and switched it off. But I fall asleep quite easily, so usually I miss the sound of my brother coming in from work at midnight. That doesn't bother me if I am awake to hear him come in, because I'm only laying there so my brain can focus on the sound as much as it wants. It's just more frustrating when I'm trying to concentrate on a task and my brain get too distracted by other sounds.