As you age, you are supposed to :
-lose hearing
-lose signt
-lose taste
lose senseof smell
Well, I am finding that I am getting MORE sensitive, as I age. Take noise-I can’t take blaring TV commercials anymore-I use the “mute” button a LOT!
Same with taste-I can’t tke large doses of salt in food-I prefer my food lightly salted.
And sight-I can’t stand those new ultrabright headlamps (gas discharge types)-find them positively blinding-and particularly annoying on SUVs.
So, loos like I am aging differently.
I’m exactly the same on every point you mention! I’m 52, BTW.
My husband thinks I’m getting hard of hearing, but I don’t want to tell him that I block him out a lot because of his tendency to do stream-of-consciousness blather. Anyway, if I were hard of hearing, why can I hear the television when it’s set at a much lower volume than he likes it?
And the glaring headlights - ugh. I don’t even like to drive at night anymore because I get so dazzled. Is it because of the quantity of SUV’s with their high-set lights, or is it the growing number of those retina-searing blue headlights?
I don’t like lots of salt anymore, but my tolerance for hot spicy food is growing. That’s good, because I’m addicted to Korean and South Indian cooking! Yet I couldn’t take any heat at all when I was younger.
Hate loud commercials. Mute or volume way down.
Hate glaring headlights. Maybe it’s the SUVs and trucks where the lamps are situated higher than my car, or the new blue-tinged whatevers. Whatever–it’s blinding.
I’m trying to cut down on the salt, but…
I’m 43.
I see it as my tolerance for stuff is waaaaay down.
Forgot to add: I find I don’t like sweets nearly as much. I’m moving (quickly) to darker chocolates. Also liking more flavorful foods as well.
I think I’m at an age where I want what I want–and I don’t want to put up with crap to get it. Bluntly said, but true.
10-15 percent of the population is “highly sensitive”, which includes a lot of “symptoms”, such as being very sensitive and intolerant of bright light, loud noise, big crowds, etc. And, indeed, the condition (actually a genetic trait) does get worse with age.
I think it’s a result of cognitive factors that get more developed as time goes by. You lose the actual sensory apparatus but are much more capable of discerning subleties within what you do perceive and have far more developed compensating mechanisms.
It’s the same for me with all of those things except that I’ve never liked salty foods. My desire for sweets has changed and now I want dark chocolate too and things like nutbreads and not cake. I don’t like thick creamy salad dressings because they cover up the taste of the vegetables and I’m a lot more creative and careful about spicing things. I’m 49.
I’m 63. I mentioned in another thread that foods that I’ve been eating for years, now seem to be too sweet or too salty. And yeah, I’m less tolerant of bright lights and loud sounds.
I remember my mother complaining that certain sweet foods were “too sweet,” and now I know what she meant.
It may be something that peaks and then recedes again.
When I go to my parents’ house I find the noise intolerable. The televisions are always cranked up to ear-splitting levels. They leave them on even when not watching, which drives me ape, but even when we’re watching I find it physically painful. They don’t seem to notice. I don’t think loud noises used to bother me that much. I’m 37, they’re in their 60s.
Of course, it may be the TYPE of noise. I like listneing to music on my iPod quite loud.
I also hate Elvis, and his brand of pelvis-thrusting rock-and-roll, and I’m 39.
Great, so by the time I am retired and everyplace has become a Walmart (or taco bell heh) I have to become a shut in!
I guess I can still yell at kids telling them to get off my lawn through the window.
Regretfully, your sensitivity to typos hasn’t increased.
But yours has. A win win in my book 
Land mines will do the trick.
I don’t have any of the symptoms and I am 65. My wife is 55 and refuses to believe her ears are bad. I drop the volume down 4 notches when I use her TV.
Or you just lose tolerance
I think thats some of it. Not just physical sensitivies.
I’ve been saying for years that my BS tolerance is about 0. Not that it was ever that high to start with.
If A NEEDS to be done to do B, thats one thing. If I think A is not really required, frack it!.
Sorry, I was aiming my comment at Ralph124c, who is the sloppiest poster on the SDMB.
Fair enough, but put a smiley after it if you are teasing him playfully. And if you aren’t it kinda looks jerkish, which is what the pit is for. Just saying.