When you feel jumpy, everything seems a distraction. It doesn’t take much to startle you, and you can’t seem to wind down or get much sleep. It’s tough to get through the day and night like this, and at some point, you want answers.
Here we’ll explore some of the more common reasons you may be feeling jumpy. Some issues may be easier to resolve than others, but we’ll also review several ways to deal with a sensitive startle reaction no matter what the cause.
Experiencing acute stress
Think about the last time you felt noticeably stressed by something. Maybe a last-minute problem happened at work right before a big meeting. Or perhaps your vehicle broke down on a busy street. When you perceive something as a threat or an upsetting surprise, your mind and body go into a stress response.
The two parts of a person's autonomic nervous system work together to manage the fight-or-flight stress response. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the body and gets it ready for action, and the parasympathetic system calms the body down for rest.
The stress response includes physical sensations that prepare you to either fight or flee. Your body sends surges of hormones through your bloodstream and oxygenated blood to large muscles. All of these physical responses are helpful when you’re facing immediate danger, but this can be overwhelming sometimes.
A jammed printer before an important meeting isn’t the same kind of threat as facing an angry bear, but your body doesn’t know any different. It's easy to see how you might be startled by things that usually wouldn't be an issue.
Hypersensitive nervous system
If a person can’t resolve their reaction to stress in the short term, their nervous system may feel like it’s in overdrive. When a person experiences short-term stress, both systems work together to get the body ready for the threat and to settle down when it passes.
But with chronic stress, the sympathetic system keeps the body amped up with less help from the parasympathetic system. This imbalance can make a person feel like they are always at the ready and can't relax. The body goes with the path of least resistance. With more practice staying alert than calming down, it’s likely to remain in a state of hyperarousal.
