Any way to further dampen noise?

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I stay in the back room in my flat, which makes most traffic inaudible, or at least a very faint consistent hum, but I can easily hear any motor bikes, sirens, and cars that speed up (with modified engines, I think) - and these just drive me crazy, as even though I have music on most of the time it is statistically not that unlikely that any one of those would pass by between the transition of songs. So... there's no way I could dampen those other audible bits that I haven't thought of by any chance, is there? So far I make sure to close all doors to keep as much noise out.

(ps. would you like to know what the greatest irony is? This is gradually maddening me so much that some time ago I actually had to phone in an ambulance due to a panic attack that in all likelihood I developed through all those sirens. But, hey, society is perfectly logical.)

You can't dampen the noise. FEEL the noise

my ipod earphones have those sound isolating bud things. maybe you could stuff them in your ears whilst you listen to music. the ipod doesnt even have to be on- it just mutes the sound anyway. they work better than earplugs which is why i didnt recommend earplugs to begin with.

Turning up the bass of your music should drown out any traffic noise. I don't know how you'd drown out sirens without having your neighbours come angrily knocking..those things are made to be heard whatever the circumstances!

I know exactly how you must feel. I used to be EXTREMELY sensitive to "human" noises, like people talking and laughing, while traffic sounds never really bugged me. However it is really hard to keep out ALL the noise, and if you run around with earplugs all day, you will only get more and more sensitive until one day a low humming sound will drive you crazy.

What helped me was autosuggestion. Like, whenever you hear a noise that bugs you, you think to yourself "This noise is ok for me, I can handle it". Sounds stupid and it's hard not to flee from the noise at the beginning, but after a few days it got better for me, and now I can at least listen to everyday noise without having a meltdown. I still sleep with earplugs though.

It's technically possible that you might be able to take apart some noise cancelling headphones and build noise cancelling speakers. Sadly, the only way to actually block out noise from your room would be to spend a ton of money on insulation, which would also require ripping out all the walls and stuff. Another option might be to check the condition of the weather stripping on your windows, make sure they're sealed nicely, as well as the caulk around them.

Another option, if there's noise in the flat that you can't stand, put some weatherstripping around the edges of your door so it seals between the door and the frame.

covering the windows helps as they are the thinnest parts of the walls. there are very few places with absolute silence.

You could do what I do and use a large fan. The one I have cost me around $50-60 at Wal Mart and is the third one of it's type that I have bought (The other two wore out after a few years). I need it to sleep because it has a marvelous white noise quality to it and is loud enough to block out the sound of all of the annoying dogs my various rear and side neighbors seem to love to have. I am also considering getting all new windows with double pane glass in my house. This should help with energy consumption but they are also much quieter due to the extra thickness.

Another idea I just got would be to cover the windows and walls in eggcrate foam sheets. Have the rougher surface facing into the room and it should help dampen the noise in much the same way it would in a sound studio or soundproof room.

as a very first thing; make sure you have double glazing in your windows; that helps a lot for sound.
beyond that, keeping the windows covered with heavy curtains also dampens a lot of sound.
beyond that, i dont know of any physical methods; but you could place a white noise generator in your room; these will produce a constant static (like tuning your radio in between two stations), which will replace most of the weaker sounds coming from outside, allowing you to tune away the rest with music