Sensory Processing Sensitivity - is this you?

When Your Brain Takes in More Than Most

Have you ever come home from a lovely dinner, a satisfying yet busy workday, a riveting conference or a fun family gathering…and felt absolutely spent? Not unhappy, not wishing you could have been elsewhere, not wanting to avoid people, not even necessarily stressed, just very full of all the outside ‘stuff’: conversations, all kinds of noise, facial expressions, other people's emotions, decisions, lights, movement, information, traffic, music, time pressures plus layers of expectations of you constantly giving out.

You may have thoroughly enjoyed yourself, and yet afterwards feel a deep, sometimes desperate need to be somewhere quiet, alone and with no one asking anything of you for quite a while. For some people, this may be explained by a personality trait called Sensory Processing Sensitivity, or SPS - often described more familiarly as being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP).

I came across the concept of HSP 6 years ago. It sounded a little vague, not very scientific, yet I resonated with it so much. It was one of those moments of ‘oh, this is describing me!’, and it helped me make sense of so much about how I relate to the world that appears different to so many others. And now there is some really solid neuroscience, including highly detailed brain scans of the brains of HSPs, that make clear what is going on, and it’s fascinating!

What is Sensory Processing Sensitivity? Well, it isn't a disorder, and it certainly isn't a weakness, it’s not neuro-divergence, it’s simply a more complex way of processing the world which often requires some careful self-care management. Once I understood this, many of my past experiences and current challenges made a lot of sense.

Sensory Processing Sensitivity describes differences in how deeply people who are programmed this way register and process information from both the external environment and their internal world. What has become apparent is that the nervous systems of people with SPS are taking in a lot more information constantly - more subtleties in shifts of people’s energy; more surveillance of individual reactions happening at the same time; shifts in lighting or background noise; smells, fragrance, chemicals that fill the air – all sorts of commonly unnoticed shifts in the immediate environment, activating many regions of the brain and resulting in far more sensory information to process.

Maybe you recognise yourself or someone you know as a possible HSP? A useful way of describing the main characteristics is the acronym DOES:

D - Depth of processing: You may think deeply about things, reflect on conversations long after they have finished, notice implications that others overlook and make connections between new information and previous experiences.

O – Overstimulation: When you take in and process more information, there is simply more for the brain to deal with. Busy, noisy or socially demanding environments may therefore become tiring far more quickly, leaving you mentally fatigued when others appear fine.

E - Emotional responsiveness and empathy: You may feel things deeply and readily pick up changes in another person's mood, facial expression, body language or tone of voice. You may find the suffering of people, animals or the planet incredibly overwhelming and struggle to let go of a thought or image you have been exposed to, carrying the concern or upset with you for a long time.

S - Sensitivity to subtleties: You may notice small changes in light, sound, smell, temperature, atmosphere or physical sensation that others barely register.

The key point is that this isn't just about being sensitive to noise or bright lights, it’s about the depth of perception and processing. If this is you, it is very important that you keep in mind something I read and deeply resonated with:

The deeper your perception, the more important restoration becomes.

With the advancement of brain imaging, it is evident that the highly sensitive brain does work differently. Brain-imaging studies suggest that people with higher levels of Sensory Processing Sensitivity show greater activity simultaneously in multiple areas involved in attention, awareness, empathy, emotional processing and integration of sensory information. Other studies suggest greater sensitivity to subtle changes in visual and emotional information. It’s not that the HSP brain is simply "more active”; that’s too simplistic. A better way to think of it that there is more information getting through the filter – you’re more porous, less protected, more prone to getting saturated more quickly.

Imagine two people at the same dinner party. One is mainly following the conversation in front of them. The other is following the conversation, noticing the music in the background, someone's change of expression, another person's discomfort, the temperature of the room, a loud voice at the end of the table, the lighting, a slight change in atmosphere after one particular comment. Both have been in the same room but they’ve had very different neurological experiences.

This is not the same as being an introvert, a label often applied or assumed. This distinction really matters; they are definitely not the same thing. An introvert generally prefers lower levels of social stimulation and may naturally favour smaller groups, quieter environments or solitary activities. A highly sensitive person may be introverted, but they may also be very sociable. You can love people, you can love a party, you can enjoy speaking in public, intense conversation, busy restaurants, events and new experiences. You can be confident, enthusiastic and outgoing and you can still get home afterwards and desperately need silence because your nervous system needs to recover from the amount of information it has just processed. This is one of the most useful things to understand about sensitivity:

You don't need less of life but you may need more space between the busy bits of life.

Tiredness matters. The more depleted we already are, the less capacity we have to filter or comfortably process further stimulation. Something that feels exciting when well rested can feel completely overwhelming after three bad nights' sleep.

When I first began to understand this about myself, I was quite down about it and wrote a rather negative blog about how exhausting it is to be a therapist as an HSP. I now think about it very differently. Sensitivity is not only about what overwhelms us; we also respond more strongly to beautiful, supportive and nourishing environments. The simplest, most fleeting experiences can be truly uplifting: music may affect you deeply; nature can be intensely restorative; a smell, a beautiful room, an extraordinary meal, birdsong, sunlight through trees, a meaningful, albeit brief conversation or a piece of art may land more profoundly. We also have insights and intuition that is far beyond those who are not. So, as I hope I have made clear this time, high SPS is not simply about being more vulnerable and prone to overwhelm. Having hyper-responsiveness, acute perception and a really wide and tuned-up radar, can be an incredible strength if it is managed well.

This makes adequate restoration non-negotiable. If your brain processes more information, you have to become better at deliberately reducing input afterwards. This is not an indulgence, it is maintenance.

Some helpful tips

Build gaps into your day: don't automatically fill every available space. If you have had an intense morning, a meeting, a presentation or several hours with people, try to create even 15 or 20 minutes afterwards when nobody needs anything from you. Those small gaps can be enormously protective.

Be alone without feeling guilty about it: solitude can be restorative rather than antisocial. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do after a demanding day is close the door, stop talking and let your brain catch up. You are not withdrawing from life, you are processing it.

Reduce input: we often think we are relaxing when we sit down and immediately turn on the television while scrolling on our screens, but this is still a lot of information that your brain needs to process. True recovery often requires the simple things: finding quiet, a gentle walk, a bath in peace, gentle music, cooking deeply nourishing food, reading something uplifting, sitting in the garden watching the birds - doing absolutely nothing for ten minutes.

Protect sleep: this, I have come to realise, is huge for me, as everything becomes harder for everyone when we’re tired – even more so for HSPs. Noise is more irritating, people feel more demanding, small problems feel bigger, your ability to tolerate stimulation drops. For a sensitive nervous system, good sleep is not a luxury. It is one of the main foundations of resilience.

Use nature deliberately: sensitivity works both ways, so use that to your advantage. Natural light, trees, water, birdsong, fresh air and beautiful surroundings provide sensory input too - but it is often the kind that restores rather than depletes. For many sensitive people, walking outside is far more regulating than sitting indoors "trying to relax."

Move your body: when the brain has been doing too much, moving back into the body can be immensely helpful. Walk, stretch, do yoga, garden - move in whatever way feels good. It shifts attention away from endless cognitive and emotional processing and gives the nervous system a different job to do.

Watch caffeine and alcohol: if your nervous system is already hyper-stimulated, adding stimulants may not help. Caffeine, alcohol, lack of food, dehydration and unstable blood sugar can all add physiological stress to an already overstimulated system.

And breathe - breathing is one of the simplest ways of changing our physiological state. When you are overstimulated, try making your out-breath a little longer than your in-breath.

For example: Breathe gently through your nose for around four seconds. Then breathe slowly out for around six seconds. Repeat for a few minutes. The breath should be quiet and easy. You don't need to take huge breaths.

You can also use the physiological sigh: Take a breath in through the nose. Take another small breath in on top. Then breathe out slowly and fully. Repeat once or twice.

Breathing practices don't need to become another job on your to-do list. Just a few slow breaths can create enough of a pause for your nervous system to begin to settle and for you to feel some calm.

Understanding Sensory Processing Sensitivity isn't about giving yourself an excuse to withdraw from the world, it is about learning how to stay fully engaged with life without continually emptying the tank. We live in a culture that tends to admire the ability to tolerate more, to do more, to live life to the full by cramming in more experiences, which can leave us HSPs feeling like we’re opting out or missing out, and when we choose to leave early or turn down an invite, it can sometimes feel difficult or like a failure.

Once you accept that you are processing so much of life on many deep levels all at once, it becomes easier to accept that you might be misunderstood by others. But you know that you are not opting out of life’s experiences, you simply need more space between the busy bits.

And remember, the deeper your perception, the more important it is to reflect, restore and appreciate how special your superpower is, providing a unique and precious experience of the world.