Learn the Common Signs of a Dysregulated Nervous System, including anxiety, burnout, sleep issues, emotional overwhelm, and chronic stress.
You can be “functioning,” productive, and still feel oddly on edge—and that’s where Common Signs of a Dysregulated Nervous System quietly show up in everyday life.
What Does “Dysregulated Nervous System” Actually Mean?
Your autonomic nervous system (ANS) runs in the background like your internal operating system. It regulates heart rate, breathing, digestion, temperature, and your stress response.
Very roughly, you’ve got:
- Sympathetic branch – “fight or flight”: speeds you up
- Parasympathetic branch – “rest and digest”: slows you down
- Plus more nuanced states described in polyvagal theory, developed by neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Porges, which focuses on how the vagus nerve supports threat responses and social safety.
When your nervous system is regulated, you sit inside what trauma therapist Dan Siegel calls the “window of tolerance”—you can feel stressed, sad, or angry without completely flipping into panic or shutdown.
When your nervous system is dysregulated, you spend a lot of time outside that window:
- Hyperarousal – stuck “on”: anxious, wired, angry, restless
- Hypoarousal – stuck “off”: numb, exhausted, foggy, disconnected
Most people don’t live in just one. They bounce between the two—wired at work, collapsed on the couch at night.
Why So Many People Are Dysregulated?
If you’re living in the U.S. right now, your nervous system is swimming in chronic stressors:
- Rising financial pressure—most workers report significant financial stress and high levels of personal debt.
- Burnout culture—around half of workers say they’ve felt burned out in the last year, often due to long hours, heavy workloads, and understaffing.
- Constant digital stimulation—news alerts, Slack, texts, doomscrolling before bed
- Shaky work–life boundaries, especially for women who are balancing caregiving and paid work and report higher daily stress.
- Unresolved trauma, from childhood or adulthood, that’s never been named or treated
In other words: you’re not just “bad at handling life.” You’re living in a system that keeps your body on edge.
Common Signs of a Dysregulated Nervous System
We’ll break these into three buckets:
- Hyperarousal (fight / flight) – too much activation
- Hypoarousal (freeze / collapse) – too little activation
- Mixed patterns – bouncing between “wired” and “wiped out”
1. Hyperarousal: When Your System Is Stuck on “High Alert”
These signs often get mislabeled as “anxiety,” “irritability,” or “just how I am.”
A) Persistent Anxiety and Racing Thoughts
- Your mind constantly spins worst-case scenarios.
- You rehearse conversations or emails in your head for hours.
- Even on “days off,” you feel on edge, like something bad is about to happen.
Clinicians note that chronic nervous system activation often shows up as anxiety, heightened vigilance, and emotional sensitivity.
B) Startling Easily & Overreacting to Small Triggers
- A door slams and your whole body jumps.
- A Slack ping or email notification feels like an alarm, not a neutral sound.
- You react disproportionately to “small” things: a partner’s tone, a coworker’s feedback, a flight delay.
A dysregulated system often over- or under-reacts to sensory input like noise or sudden movement.
C) Irritability, Snapping, and Low Frustration Tolerance
- You “lose it” over traffic, lines, or tech glitches.
- You feel guilty afterward—but in the moment, it feels like your body hijacked you.
- You describe yourself as “always tense” or “ready to explode.”
This isn’t about being a bad person; it’s what happens when your stress response stays chronically switched on.
D) Chronic Muscle Tension and Pain
- Tight jaw, clenched fists, raised shoulders
- Frequent headaches, neck pain, or back pain
- TMJ issues, grinding teeth at night
Research on trauma and chronic stress shows that the body often holds tension as a way of staying “ready” for perceived danger, contributing to pain and other physical symptoms.
E) Trouble Sleeping (Even When You’re Exhausted)
- You fall asleep late because your brain won’t shut up.
- You wake multiple times at night, heart pounding.
- You wake up feeling like you didn’t sleep at all.
Dysregulated nervous systems often show sleep disturbance—difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting restorative sleep.
Hypoarousal: When Your System Is Stuck on “Shut Down”
Freeze and collapse states are often misunderstood—especially in hustle culture. People assume you’re lazy, unmotivated, or “not trying hard enough,” when your nervous system is actually in self-protection mode.
A) Heavy Fatigue That Rest Doesn’t Fix
- You wake up tired, no matter how early you went to bed.
- You rely on coffee, energy drinks, or sugar just to function.
- You describe yourself as “tired in my bones.”
This collapse state is sometimes linked to what polyvagal-informed clinicians call dorsal vagal shutdown or hypoarousal—a kind of “playing dead” response when stress feels overwhelming.
B) Emotional Numbness or Feeling “Far Away”
- You struggle to feel joy, excitement, or even sadness.
- You feel like life is happening around you, not to you.
- People describe you as “chill,” but internally you feel disconnected or hollow.
Freeze states often come with dissociation and emotional numbing—ways the nervous system protects you from overwhelm.
C) Brain Fog and Slow Thinking
- You reread the same sentence five times.
- Simple decisions feel like heavy mental lifting.
- You forget words, names, or tasks you truly care about.
Nervous system dysregulation has been linked to cognitive difficulties—including impaired attention, memory, and executive function—especially in the context of chronic stress or trauma.
D) Low Motivation and “I Just Don’t Care Anymore”
- You fantasize about quitting everything—not because you’re lazy, but because you’re cooked.
- Tasks that used to excite you now feel meaningless.
- You procrastinate, then shame yourself for not doing more.
This often shows up in the workplace as burnout, which is currently reported by 45–52% of U.S. workers in several surveys.
Body Clues: When Your Physiology Is Screaming for Help
Your nervous system runs through your whole body. Dysregulation rarely stays “just psychological.”
A) Digestive Issues
- Bloating, IBS-like symptoms, nausea, or alternating constipation and diarrhea
- Stomach pain during stress, conflict, or before work
- Feeling full quickly or having no appetite when stressed
Chronic stress and trauma can disrupt the gut–brain axis and are associated with conditions like IBS and other functional gastrointestinal issues.
B) Frequent Illness or Autoimmune Flares
- You catch “every bug going around.”
- Old injuries or autoimmune symptoms flare with emotional stress.
- Your body feels like it never fully recovers.
The landmark ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) research and later studies show that significant early stress is linked to higher rates of chronic illness, immune problems, and inflammation later in life.
C) Heart Palpitations, Chest Tightness, Shortness of Breath
- Your heart races with no obvious cause.
- Your chest feels heavy or squeezed.
- You sometimes wonder if you’re having heart issues—but your doctor doesn’t find anything structurally wrong.
These can be signs of anxiety, panic, or autonomic dysregulation—but they can also signal heart or lung problems, so these symptoms always deserve medical evaluation.
Subtle Signs People Write Off as “Just My Personality”
These are especially common in American culture, where overfunctioning is glorified and collapse is shamed.
- Needing noise all the time (TV, podcasts, music) because silence feels unsafe.
- Feeling unable to relax on vacation—you stay wired and irritable, even when “off.”
- Overusing caffeine, alcohol, weed, or nicotine to pump yourself up or calm yourself down.
- Constantly scanning what others think of you—your nervous system uses other people’s reactions as its barometer of safety.
- Living in extremes: all-or-nothing work habits, feast-or-famine energy, cycles of overcommitment and total withdrawal.
A dysregulated system is not just about what you feel—it’s how your body has learned to survive your history and environment.
How Trauma Experts Talk About Nervous System Dysregulation
Several leading voices in trauma and mental health have shaped how we understand this:
1. Bessel van der Kolk, MD – The Body Keeps the Score
Dr. van der Kolk’s famous work emphasizes that trauma reshapes brain networks involved in emotion regulation, memory, and bodily awareness, and that many people show trauma primarily through physical symptoms—chronic pain, gut issues, migraines, and more.
His book has been hugely influential and has attracted criticism for some scientific claims, so it’s best read as one perspective among many.
2. Stephen Porges, PhD – Polyvagal Theory
Porges’ polyvagal theory proposes that the autonomic nervous system has multiple pathways (ventral vagal for social engagement and safety, sympathetic for fight/flight, dorsal vagal for shutdown) and that our bodies constantly “neuroceive” safety or danger.
When we feel safe—especially with other people—our social engagement system helps calm our heart rate, improve digestion, and support regulation.
3. Peter Levine, PhD – Somatic Experiencing
Levine’s Somatic Experiencing work focuses on how unresolved survival energy (fight, flight, or freeze) gets “stuck” in the body and how gently tracking bodily sensations, then releasing that energy in small steps, can help restore regulation.
Across these frameworks, the core message is similar:
The nervous system is not just a stress “on/off” switch—it’s a living, adaptive system that remembers experience and can be retrained.
How to Start Regulating a Dysregulated Nervous System
You won’t fix a lifetime of overload with one breathing exercise—but there are simple practices that, repeated over time, send consistent “you’re safe now” signals to your body.
Think of it as three layers:
- In-the-moment tools – what you do when you’re spiraling
- Daily habits – how you treat your body and environment
- Deeper healing work – trauma-informed therapy and structural changes
1. In-the-Moment Tools (Acute Regulation)
These don’t replace therapy, but they help you ride out intense waves.
A) Orienting: Let Your Senses Prove You’re Safe Right Now
When your nervous system is hijacked by an old story (“I’m in danger”), orienting helps your body notice the present. Try:
- Look around the room and slowly name: 5 things you see, 4 things you feel, 3 things you hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can taste.
- Turn your head and eyes gently from side to side as if you’re checking a room you fully own, not scanning for threat.
Somatic therapies use this kind of grounded attention to help bring people back within their window of tolerance.
B) Breath with Longer Exhales
Your exhale is directly tied to the parasympathetic “slowing down” system.
- Inhale through your nose for a count of 4
- Exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of 6–8
- Repeat for 2–5 minutes
Longer exhales stimulate vagal pathways associated with calming and can reduce sympathetic overactivation.
C) Temperature and Touch
- Splash cool water on your face or hold a cool pack at your neck.
- Place one hand over your heart and one over your belly; add the slow breath above.
- Wrap yourself in a blanket or weighted throw if you’re in a collapse state.
Physical sensations give your brain concrete evidence of the here-and-now.
For more details, you must read our fantastic piece on How To Regulate Nervous System, here.
Daily Habits That Support Regulation
This is where many Americans struggle, because it requires swimming against a culture of overwork, overexposure, and under-rest.
A) Protect Your Sleep Like It’s Medicine
- Aim for a consistent sleep and wake time, even on weekends.
- Stop doomscrolling 30–60 minutes before bed; blue light and stress both keep your system on alert.
- Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and as quiet as possible; use earplugs, white noise, or sleep masks if needed.
Poor sleep both reflects and worsens nervous system dysregulation and is closely tied to anxiety and depression.
B) Stabilize Blood Sugar and Support Your Gut
- You don’t need a perfect diet; you need a steady one.
- Build meals around protein + fiber + healthy fats to avoid sharp spikes and crashes.
- Limit “stress fuels” like living on caffeine and sugar only.
Include gut-friendly foods like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, or fiber-rich fruits and veggies—chronic stress impacts gut function, and gut–brain health flows both ways.
A calmer gut often supports a calmer mind.
C) Move Your Body in Ways That Feel Doable, Not Punishing
- Exercise is one of the most solidly supported interventions for anxiety and mood issues in general research. Even light movement matters.
Walking outside (even 10–20 minutes) - Gentle yoga, stretching, or tai chi
- Strength training 2–3 times per week (supports resilience and confidence)
If you’re often in hypoarousal, go for slow, rhythmic movement instead of intense HIIT, which might push you further into shutdown.
D) Create “Quiet Pockets” in Your Day
- Most Americans are never truly off. Your nervous system needs actual silence.
- No-phone first 15–30 minutes after waking
- 5-minute noise-free pause between meetings
- Commute or walk without podcasts at least once a day
These small gaps give your system a chance to downshift from hyperarousal.
E) Set Boundaries With Work and Screens
This is huge for U.S. workers.
- Stop checking work email after a set time (e.g., 7 p.m.).
- Turn off non-essential notifications.
- If possible, keep your work laptop out of your bedroom.
Burnout research consistently links unrelenting workload and lack of recovery time to exhaustion and mental health problems.
Resetting your nervous system is not that difficult. You can do it easily! How? Find out here!
Deeper Healing: Therapy and Support That Target the Nervous System
If your nervous system has been dysregulated for years—especially from childhood trauma—self-help alone might not be enough. That’s not failure; it just means you deserve more support.
Look for professionals trained in approaches that explicitly consider the nervous system:
- Somatic Experiencing (SE) – focuses on tracking and releasing stuck survival energy through bodily awareness and gentle movement.
Psychotherapy - EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) – uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories.
- Trauma-focused CBT or ACT – combines cognitive tools with emotional and behavioral work.
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) – works with “parts” of you (like the anxious part, the numb part) in a respectful, non-shaming way.
Many therapists now openly describe working with the “window of tolerance,” fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses, and bodily cues as part of trauma-informed care.
Co-Regulation: Letting Other Humans Help Your System Calm Down
Polyvagal theory emphasizes that relational safety—being with people who feel safe, attuned, and kind—is a powerful regulator. When we feel safe with others, our “social engagement system” helps downshift defense states.
This might look like:
- A friend who listens without minimizing your experience
- A partner whose voice, touch, or presence helps you exhale
- A support group where people “get it” and you don’t have to perform
If your history includes relational trauma, co-regulation may feel unfamiliar or even threatening at first. That’s okay. You can start in small doses—short calls, text check-ins, online groups, or time with pets if humans feel too intense.
Environmental Tweaks That Make a Big Difference
You don’t control the whole world, but you do have influence over your immediate environment.
- Sensory boundaries at home: softer lighting, less background noise, clutter reduction in at least one corner that feels like a true “safe space.”
- Rituals around transitions: a brief walk or stretch between work and evening, changing clothes, or lighting a candle to mark “I’m off now.”
- Micro-joys: music that makes your body relax, favorite blankets, scents you associate with calm (lavender, cedar, citrus).
These small cues teach your nervous system: this place is where we rest.
When to Seek Extra Help (or Immediate Help)
Consider reaching out to a professional if:
- You’re having regular panic attacks or feel constantly on edge.
- You’re struggling to function at work or school.
- You feel numb, hopeless, or detached most of the time.
- You’re using alcohol, drugs, or self-harm to cope.
- Loved ones are worried about your safety or functioning.
If you ever have thoughts of harming yourself or others, treat that as urgent: in the U.S., you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or go to the nearest emergency room.
You’re Not Broken. You’re Overloaded.
A dysregulated nervous system isn’t a moral verdict. It’s your body’s way of saying:
“The world, as I’ve experienced it, has not felt safe. I’ve been protecting you the best way I know how.”
The good news is: nervous systems are plastic. They change. They learn.
Every time you:
- Choose rest over one more guilt-driven task
- Slow your breath when your body wants to sprint
- Ask for support instead of disappearing
- Feed yourself something stabilizing instead of skipping meals
- Give your system gentle, consistent cues of safety
…you are rewiring how your body understands the world.
You don’t have to become a perfectly regulated, always-calm person. You’re allowed to be human. The goal is simpler:
Less time in constant panic
Less time in total collapse
More moments where your body feels like a place you can live in, not escape from
That’s what nervous system regulation is really about: not perfection, but building a life where your body doesn’t have to be at war with your reality anymore!
