Sensory Overload Hangover: Why You Crash the Next Day and How to Recover

A sensory overload hangover is the drained, foggy, irritable, shut-down, or extra-sensitive state that can happen after too much sensory input. It may arrive later the same day, that evening, or even the next morning. You may technically be “out of” the overwhelming environment, but your nervous system has not fully recovered yet.

This article explains what a sensory overload hangover is, why it happens, what it can feel like, how it differs from burnout or shutdown, and what may help you recover. The goal is not to make you tolerate more. The goal is to help you recognize the delayed cost of overload and build recovery into your life before your system has to crash.

🧠 What Is a Sensory Overload Hangover?

A sensory overload hangover is the after-effect of too much input. Your nervous system has processed more than it could comfortably handle, and even after the input stops, your body may still need time to return to baseline. You may feel depleted, raw, foggy, tense, or unusually sensitive.

The word “hangover” fits because the crash can feel delayed. During the event, you may push through, mask, perform, socialize, work, travel, or stay functional. Then later, when you are finally alone or the demand drops, your system reacts. You may suddenly feel exhausted, overstimulated, numb, emotional, or unable to do normal tasks.

A sensory overload hangover often happens after:
🛒 busy shops or crowded places
💼 long workdays or meetings
🚆 travel, airports, trains, traffic, or unfamiliar places
👥 social events, family visits, or group conversations
📱 long screen days or digital overload
🔊 loud environments with layered sound
💡 bright lights, visual clutter, or constant movement
🎭 long periods of masking or “holding it together”

Autistic adults have described sensory environments as overwhelming, including noise, light, smell, and other input affecting daily functioning. Research on autistic adults’ sensory experiences highlights how sensory input can become intense, complex, and difficult to manage in everyday environments.

The important point is that overload does not always end when the event ends. Your body may need recovery time from the processing load. If you ignore that recovery need, the next day may begin with reduced capacity before anything has even happened.

This is why sensory overload hangovers are often mistaken for laziness, moodiness, social withdrawal, or “being dramatic.” From the outside, the event is over. From the inside, the nervous system is still recovering.

🔬 Why Sensory Overload Can Cause a Delayed Crash

Sensory overload can cause a delayed crash because your brain and body have been filtering, suppressing, adapting, and responding to more input than they can easily process. During the event, you may use coping strategies to stay functional. Afterward, the cost becomes visible.

For neurodivergent people, sensory input is not just background noise. Sound, light, texture, smell, movement, crowding, screens, temperature, and social communication can all require active processing. If your system is already managing executive function, masking, emotional regulation, or social navigation, the total load can become very high.

The delayed crash can be shaped by:
🔊 sensory input that exceeded your tolerance
🎭 masking during the event
💬 social processing and conversation load
🧠 decision-making and executive effort
⏳ transitions, travel, waiting, or unpredictability
💛 emotional regulation under pressure
🪫 insufficient recovery before the next demand

The National Autistic Society describes autistic fatigue and burnout as being more likely due to social situations and sensory overload, and notes that autistic fatigue can include increased sensory sensitivity, physical pain, headaches, and shutting down.

A delayed crash can also happen because you may not notice overload while it is building. Interoception differences, masking, hyperfocus, anxiety, or social pressure can make it harder to recognize early signals. You may only realize the cost once you stop.

This is why someone can say, “I was fine while I was there, but I collapsed afterward.” That does not mean the overload was fake. It may mean the person was compensating until they no longer had to.

🪞 What a Sensory Overload Hangover Feels Like

A sensory overload hangover can feel different from ordinary tiredness. It may feel like your system is still too full. You may be exhausted but unable to fully relax. You may crave quiet but feel restless. You may feel emotionally fragile, irritated, numb, or disconnected.

Many people describe the day after overload as feeling “raw.” Sounds are sharper. Light is harsher. Decisions are harder. Social messages feel heavier. Words may be harder to find. Tasks that are usually manageable may feel strangely impossible.

A sensory overload hangover can feel like:
🌫️ foggy thinking or slower processing
🔊 sound sensitivity that is stronger than usual
💡 light sensitivity or visual discomfort
😣 irritability, tearfulness, or emotional thinness
🧱 difficulty starting tasks or making decisions
😶 reduced speech or desire to communicate
🪫 heavy fatigue even after sleep
📵 strong need to avoid people, screens, or input

This can be especially confusing if the original event was positive. A birthday, date, concert, market, trip, or family visit can be meaningful and still overload your system. Enjoyment does not cancel sensory cost.

For some people, the hangover is mainly physical: headache, nausea, muscle tension, sleepiness, pain, or heaviness. For others, it is cognitive: brain fog, poor memory, slow processing, difficulty planning. For others, it is emotional: anger, sadness, shame, anxiety, or shutdown.

The pattern may become clearer when you track it. If you often crash after specific environments, people, or types of input, your body may be showing you the recovery cost of those situations.

🔊 Sensory Overload Hangover vs Social Hangover

A sensory overload hangover and a social hangover can overlap, but they are not exactly the same. A social hangover is the drained state after social interaction. A sensory overload hangover is specifically related to too much sensory input, though social events often contain both social and sensory load.

A party, for example, may involve conversation, eye contact, masking, music, food smells, movement, lighting, unexpected touch, and group dynamics. The next-day crash may come from the social effort, the sensory input, or the combination.

A social hangover may be driven by:
💬 conversation and social processing
🎭 masking or camouflaging
👥 group dynamics and people-reading
✨ rejection sensitivity or emotional monitoring
🧠 remembering what was said and how you came across
🪫 reduced social battery afterward

A sensory overload hangover may be driven by:
🔊 noise, sound layers, or unpredictable input
💡 light, screens, or visual clutter
👕 textures, temperature, smells, or touch
🚆 travel, movement, or crowds
📱 digital input and notification load
🧠 sensory processing effort

The National Autistic Society specifically lists sensory overload, social situations, masking, suppressing stimming, and expectations as possible causes of autistic fatigue. This is why separating social and sensory load can be helpful but should not become too rigid. In real life, they often stack.

A good recovery plan asks: what exactly drained me? Was it people? Noise? lights? travel? masking? decision-making? emotional tension? uncertainty? screens? The answer helps you choose the right recovery.

If the main load was social, you may need low-contact time. If the main load was sensory, you may need quiet, darkness, pressure, comfort, or reduced input. If both were high, recovery may need to cover both.

🧱 Sensory Hangover vs Shutdown vs Burnout

A sensory overload hangover is usually shorter than burnout, but it may include shutdown-like features. You might be quiet, withdrawn, foggy, or unable to communicate much for a while. A shutdown is often a more immediate or deeper response to overwhelm, where speech, movement, processing, or engagement may reduce significantly.

Burnout is broader and longer-term. It develops when demand exceeds recovery over time. If sensory overload hangovers happen repeatedly without enough recovery, they may contribute to burnout risk.

A sensory overload hangover may involve:
🌫️ fogginess after high input
🔊 temporary increased sensitivity
🪫 needing hours or a day of recovery
📵 wanting less contact or stimulation
🧠 lower capacity for decisions and tasks

A shutdown may involve:
🧊 reduced responsiveness
😶 speech becoming difficult or unavailable
🧱 feeling frozen or unable to move
🚪 needing immediate low demand and low input
🪫 recovery after a more complete system collapse

Burnout may involve:
🔥 long-term depletion
📉 reduced functioning across life areas
🔊 persistently lower sensory tolerance
🎭 inability to keep masking
🪫 recovery needing weeks, months, or major changes
🌫️ ongoing cognitive, emotional, and physical depletion

Autistic burnout research describes burnout as involving exhaustion, loss of function, and reduced tolerance to stimulus after chronic life stress and mismatch between demands and supports.

This distinction matters because the support differs. A sensory hangover may need short-term recovery and better planning around high-input days. Shutdown may need immediate safety, reduced input, and no pressure to communicate. Burnout may need deeper demand reduction, environmental change, and long-term recovery.

If sensory hangovers are frequent, intense, or taking longer to recover from, they may be an early sign that your current life rhythm is not sustainable.

⚠️ Early Signs You Are Heading Toward a Sensory Hangover

The best time to prevent a sensory overload hangover is before the overload peaks. But early signs are often missed, especially if you are masking, working, socializing, traveling, or trying not to inconvenience others.

Early warning signs may be subtle at first. You may become quieter, more irritable, more sensitive to sound, more clumsy, less able to follow conversation, or more desperate to leave. These are not random mood shifts. They may be signs that your system is reaching capacity.

Early warning signs may include:
🔊 sounds becoming sharper or harder to filter
💡 light or visual clutter feeling irritating
💬 conversation becoming harder to follow
🧠 slower thinking or difficulty choosing words
😣 irritation, anxiety, or sudden sadness
🧱 wanting to freeze, escape, or shut down
🪫 sudden heaviness or loss of energy
📵 wanting to stop responding to people

Autistic shutdown research has described shutdowns as being triggered by social, sensory, informational, or emotional stressors and involving reduced ability to respond to surroundings. Those same domains are useful warning categories for sensory hangovers: sensory load, social load, information load, emotional load.

A useful habit is to track your yellow-zone signs. The yellow zone is the stage before full overload. You are still functioning, but the cost is rising. If you intervene here, recovery may be shorter.

The intervention does not have to be dramatic. Put on headphones. Leave the shop. Step outside. Reduce conversation. Sit in the car. Dim the screen. Stop multitasking. Cancel the extra errand. Eat something. Drink water. Go home earlier.

🏠 What Can Trigger a Sensory Overload Hangover?

Triggers vary by person, but sensory overload hangovers often follow environments with high input, little control, long duration, and limited recovery. The nervous system is especially vulnerable when several types of input stack at once.

For example, travel may include noise, motion, crowds, time pressure, temperature changes, decisions, social interaction, unfamiliar spaces, and unpredictable delays. A family gathering may include conversation, food smells, touch, background noise, emotional history, and masking. A workday may include screens, meetings, multitasking, lighting, social performance, and commute stress.

Common triggers include:
🛒 supermarkets, shopping centers, or busy streets
🚆 public transport, traffic, airports, or travel days
💼 open offices, meetings, or long screen work
👥 parties, family visits, networking, or group settings
📱 social media, video calls, notifications, or screen marathons
🍽️ restaurants, cafés, food courts, or crowded dining spaces
🏥 medical appointments, waiting rooms, or bureaucratic tasks
🏠 cluttered homes or visually busy environments

Research on sensory processing sensitivity and daily overstimulation found that overstimulation increased in the afternoon to early evening and in the presence of others, with more sensitive individuals reporting higher overstimulation. This is not the same as neurodivergence, but it supports a practical point: overstimulation can fluctuate across daily contexts and social environments.

Triggers are not only about intensity. Duration matters. Control matters. Recovery matters. A loud sound for five minutes may be manageable. A moderate sound for five hours may not be. A social event with an exit option may be manageable. One where you cannot leave may be much harder.

The question is not only “Was it too loud?” It is also “How long did I have to process it, how much control did I have, and how much recovery came afterward?”

💼 Sensory Overload Hangovers at Work

Work is a common source of sensory overload hangovers because work often combines sensory, cognitive, social, and executive demands. You may deal with screens, meetings, interruptions, messages, deadlines, lighting, background noise, emotional regulation, and commute stress — all in one day.

You may get through the workday by pushing, masking, or staying “professional.” Then, after work, your capacity drops. You may become irritable, silent, unable to cook, unable to reply, unable to tolerate noise at home, or unable to do anything except collapse.

Work-related sensory hangovers may happen after:
💼 open-plan offices
📱 long screen days
💬 back-to-back meetings
🔊 noisy environments or constant interruptions
💡 fluorescent lights or visual clutter
🚆 commuting and transitions
🎭 masking professionalism all day
⏳ working without real breaks

This is one reason after-work crashes are so common. The person may appear functional during the day, but the recovery debt appears at home. Partners, children, roommates, or family may then see the collapsed version and misunderstand what happened.

Work recovery may need to start before the workday ends. Short sensory breaks, reduced notifications, headphones, walking meetings, screen breaks, clear meeting boundaries, written follow-up, and transition time before going home can all help.

A useful work question is: “What part of the day creates the most recovery debt?” Meetings? commute? screens? people? lighting? interruptions? unclear tasks? Once you know that, you can target the highest-cost input first.

❤️ Sensory Hangovers After Social Events

Social events can be meaningful and still create a sensory overload hangover. This is one of the hardest things to explain. You may enjoy the people, appreciate the event, and still crash afterward. The crash does not mean the event was bad. It means the event was costly.

Social events often involve multiple layers of input: conversation, facial expressions, group timing, background noise, food, lights, smells, clothing, travel, emotional expectations, and masking. Even when each layer is manageable, the total can become too much.

After social events, you may notice:
🪫 needing a full day to recover
📵 avoiding messages afterward
😣 feeling emotionally raw or irritable
🔊 needing silence after conversation
🌫️ replaying what happened while feeling foggy
🛌 sleeping more than usual
🚪 needing to cancel the next thing

This is especially common when you mask heavily. If you spend the event appearing engaged, calm, friendly, flexible, and socially available, the recovery cost may come later. People may not see the overload because the mask worked.

A better approach is social pacing. Shorter events. Exit plans. Quiet breaks. Fewer back-to-back plans. Lower-sensory locations. Recovery time the next day. Clear communication: “I would love to come, but I need a quiet day afterward.”

The goal is not to stop social life. It is to make social life less likely to create a crash.

📱 Digital Sensory Hangovers

Screens can also create sensory overload hangovers. A long day of video calls, social media, messages, tabs, notifications, bright screens, fast content, news, or multitasking can leave the brain overloaded even if you never left the house.

Digital overload is tricky because screens can also feel regulating in the short term. They provide stimulation, distraction, connection, and predictability. But too much screen input can become agitating, fragmenting, and exhausting.

Digital sensory overload may involve:
📱 too many notifications
💻 long screen sessions without breaks
🎥 video calls with facial and social processing load
🧠 too many tabs or information streams
🌀 short-form content loops
📰 news overload
🌙 late-night scrolling disrupting sleep

Video-call fatigue research has examined links between autistic traits, sensory sensitivity, and Zoom fatigue. This fits a broader pattern: digital interaction is not “input-free.” It can include visual, auditory, social, attentional, and emotional processing demands.

Digital recovery may require more than closing one app. You may need lower brightness, fewer notifications, screen-free transitions, audio-only options, scheduled breaks, simplified tabs, or a sensory reset after video calls.

A helpful question is: “Did this screen time regulate me, or did it leave my system more loaded?” The answer may vary by type of screen use.

🪫 Why You May Need Recovery Even After “Normal” Things

One of the most painful parts of sensory overload hangovers is comparing yourself to other people. Someone else goes shopping, attends a meeting, visits family, travels, and then continues their day. You do the same thing and need hours or a day to recover.

This can create shame. You may think you are weak, difficult, dramatic, or not resilient enough. But recovery need is not a moral measure. It reflects the relationship between input and capacity.

Recovery need may be higher when:
🔊 sensory input is processed more intensely
🎭 you mask through the situation
🧠 you manage many decisions or transitions
💛 emotional regulation is already strained
🪫 sleep, food, or hydration are poor
🔥 burnout has lowered baseline capacity
📋 there are no breaks built into the day

A “normal” event can be high-cost if your nervous system is already near capacity. It can also be high-cost if it contains the exact type of input that is hardest for you: noise, unpredictability, crowds, social ambiguity, bright light, or information overload.

This is why recovery planning should not be based only on what the event looks like externally. It should be based on what it costs you internally.

If the cost is consistently high, the plan needs to change. Not because you failed, but because the current demand-recovery ratio is not working.

🛠 How to Recover From a Sensory Overload Hangover

Recovery from a sensory overload hangover usually begins with reducing input. This sounds simple, but it matters. If the system is overloaded, more stimulation, more conversation, more decisions, and more tasks often prolong recovery.

The best recovery depends on your overload type. Some people need silence. Others need pressure, warmth, darkness, repetitive movement, safe food, water, sleep, or low-demand activity. Recovery should match the system state.

Helpful recovery supports may include:
🔊 reducing noise and conversation
💡 lowering light and visual input
🛌 resting without guilt
💧 drinking water and eating something simple
🎧 using headphones or calming sound
🧸 using pressure, warmth, or comfort objects
📵 delaying nonurgent messages
🌱 doing one very low-demand activity

The National Autistic Society’s autistic fatigue guidance emphasizes managing energy levels and notes that rest, time away from school/work, re-energizing interests, and unmasking may help.

Recovery should not become another performance. If you are overloaded, a complicated self-care routine may be too much. Choose the simplest support that lowers demand.

For many people, the first recovery step is basic body care: water, food, bathroom, comfortable clothes, lower light, quiet, and a place to sit or lie down. The nervous system often needs physical safety before cognitive processing returns.

🧭 A Simple Next-Day Recovery Plan

The next day after overload should not be treated as a normal-capacity day if you know your system is still recovering. A sensory hangover day needs lower expectations and fewer transitions where possible.

Think of it as a “re-entry day.” You are not doing nothing. You are helping your nervous system return gradually.

A simple next-day recovery plan can include:
🌅 slow start with low light and low noise
💧 water before caffeine or screens
🍽️ simple food with minimal decisions
📵 delayed messages unless urgent
📋 one or two essential tasks only
🚶 gentle movement if helpful
🛋️ quiet recovery blocks
🌙 earlier wind-down if possible

It can help to divide tasks into three categories: must do, can wait, and should not be done today. This prevents the overload hangover from turning into a shame spiral where you try to catch up on everything while still depleted.

For a recovery day, ask:
What is truly essential today?
🪫 What can wait without serious consequences?
🔊 What input do I need to reduce?
🍽️ What body care do I need first?
📵 Which communication can be delayed?
🌱 What would help me recover instead of pushing through?

If you have work, parenting, or unavoidable duties, recovery may need to be micro-recovery: shorter meetings, fewer errands, headphones, simpler meals, quiet breaks, less screen input, or asking for help. The plan does not need to be perfect. It needs to reduce load.

📋 How to Prevent Sensory Overload Hangovers

Prevention does not mean avoiding everything. It means planning around sensory cost. If you know certain events create a crash, you can build buffers before and after them. You can reduce input during the event. You can stop treating recovery as optional.

A prevention plan should include three stages: before, during, and after.

Before high-input events:
📅 avoid stacking demanding plans
🍽️ eat and hydrate before you go
🎧 bring sensory tools
🚪 plan an exit or quiet break
⏳ set a realistic time limit
📵 lower digital input beforehand
🧠 reduce decisions where possible

During high-input events:
🔊 use headphones or step away from noise
💬 take breaks from conversation
🚪 leave before the point of collapse
💧 drink water and check body needs
🌱 stim, move, or regulate where safe
📋 reduce unnecessary decisions
🤝 communicate needs simply

After high-input events:
🛌 schedule recovery time
📵 reduce messages and screens
🍽️ use low-effort food
💡 lower light and noise
🪫 do not plan another demanding task immediately
🌱 let the body come down gradually
💛 avoid judging the recovery need

Prevention becomes more effective when you stop asking, “Should this be hard?” and start asking, “What does this usually cost me?” Your real pattern is more useful than what the event “should” cost.

If an event always costs a day of recovery, plan that day. If you cannot plan that day, reduce the event. If you cannot reduce the event, reduce the demands around it.

🤝 How to Explain Sensory Hangovers to Others

It can be hard to explain sensory overload hangovers because other people may think the event is over, so the problem should be over too. A simple explanation helps.

You do not need to justify every detail. The goal is to communicate that your nervous system has a delayed recovery pattern after high input.

Simple explanations can be:
💬 “I enjoyed it, but my nervous system needs recovery after that much input.”
🔊 “Busy environments affect me the next day, so I need a low-demand day afterward.”
🪫 “I’m not upset. I’m overloaded and recovering.”
📵 “I may reply slower after social or sensory-heavy events.”
🌱 “I can join, but I need recovery time built in.”
🚪 “Leaving earlier helps me prevent a bigger crash later.”

These sentences can reduce misunderstanding. They also help you ask for realistic support: fewer back-to-back plans, quieter locations, shorter visits, recovery time, or less pressure to respond immediately.

Some people may not understand. That is frustrating, but you still have information about your body. Recovery needs do not become invalid because they are inconvenient to explain.

The more consistently you plan around your sensory cost, the less you have to repeatedly defend it from a crisis state.

⚠️ When Sensory Hangovers Need More Support

A sensory overload hangover can be part of neurodivergent life, but if crashes are frequent, severe, long-lasting, or worsening, it may be time for more support. Repeated sensory crashes may point to burnout, insufficient accommodations, sleep problems, anxiety, migraine, chronic illness, workplace mismatch, or unsustainable demand.

Support may include occupational therapy, autism/ADHD-informed therapy, workplace accommodations, medical evaluation, sensory profile mapping, burnout recovery support, or practical help with routines and demands.

More support may be needed if:
🔥 sensory crashes happen very often
🪫 recovery takes longer than before
💼 work, study, or relationships are affected
😣 emotional regulation is becoming harder
🧱 shutdowns or meltdowns are increasing
🌧 burnout or depression may be present
⚠️ headaches, pain, dizziness, or medical symptoms are severe or new

If symptoms are severe, sudden, medically concerning, or linked to pain, fainting, neurological symptoms, or major functioning loss, it is important to seek medical advice. Sensory overload can be real and still coexist with medical issues that deserve care.

The goal is not to pathologize every recovery need. The goal is to notice when your nervous system is repeatedly paying too high a cost and needs better support.

🌱 The Goal Is Not to Tolerate More

Many neurodivergent adults are taught to measure progress by how much they can tolerate. More noise. More social time. More work. More errands. More screens. More unpredictability. But tolerance is not the same as wellbeing.

If you can tolerate an event only by losing the next day, the true cost includes the recovery crash. That does not mean you can never choose high-input events. It means you deserve to choose them with accurate information.

A better way to think about sensory hangovers is:
🧠 not “Why am I so sensitive?”
🌱 but “What does my nervous system need after high input?”
🔊 not “I should tolerate this better.”
📋 but “How can I reduce the total sensory load?”
🪫 not “I wasted the next day.”
💛 but “My system was recovering from real overload.”
🚪 not “Leaving early is failure.”
🔥 but “Leaving early may prevent a bigger crash.”

The goal is not to become someone who can endure unlimited input. The goal is to build a life where your nervous system is not constantly paying delayed costs that nobody sees.

Sensory recovery is not laziness. It is maintenance. It is how you protect capacity for the things that matter.

👉 What’s Next?

If sensory overload hangovers feel familiar, they often overlap with burnout, shutdowns, interoception, sensory processing, social cooldown, and self-care. You may want to explore the article that matches your strongest pattern.

If overload leads to shutdown, read:
⚙️ Autistic Shutdowns
🔊 Sensory Overload and Shutdown
🌱 Shutdown Prevention Self-Care

If recovery takes longer than expected, read:
🔥 Neurodivergent Burnout
🪫 Micro-Burnouts
🌱 Micro-Recovery Moments

If body signals are hard to read, read:
🧠 Interoception and Neurodivergence
🍽️ Interoception and Eating in Neurodivergent Adults
🧩 Sensory Profile

If you need practical tools, read:
🎧 Sensory Toolkit for Adults
🌱 Sensory Diet / Overload Recovery Plan
🧊 Sensory Detox Days

🎓 Want a More Guided Path Through Sensory Overload and Recovery?

Free articles can help you understand one pattern at a time. But sensory overload hangovers often connect with burnout, shutdown, masking, interoception, routines, social recovery, and daily self-care. A guided course path can help you place these pieces into a clearer structure.

A structured sensory recovery path can help you:
🧭 understand your sensory profile
🔊 recognize overload warning signs
🪫 plan recovery before collapse
🌱 build micro-recovery moments
🎧 choose sensory tools that fit
🤝 explain needs to others
🔥 reduce repeated overload-burnout cycles

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✨ Takeaway

A sensory overload hangover is the delayed crash that can happen after too much sensory, social, digital, emotional, or cognitive input. You may feel foggy, irritable, exhausted, extra sensitive, withdrawn, or unable to handle normal tasks for hours or even the next day.

This is not a formal diagnosis, but it is a useful way to describe a real recovery pattern. Sensory overload does not always end when the event ends. Your nervous system may still need time, quiet, low demand, food, hydration, rest, and reduced input before capacity returns.

What matters most is remembering that:
🔊 sensory overload can have delayed effects
🪫 recovery need is not laziness
🎭 masking can hide overload until later
🌫️ next-day fog may be nervous system recovery
📵 communication may need to wait
🌱 recovery should be planned, not treated as failure
🤝 support works best when it reduces input, not pressure

You do not need to prove that something was too much by crashing harder. If you know a situation creates a sensory overload hangover, that is useful information. Build recovery around it. Reduce the load where you can. Leave earlier when needed. Protect the day after. Your nervous system is giving you data — and that data deserves to be taken seriously.

📚 Key Sources

Exploring the relationship between Zoom fatigue, autistic traits, and sensory sensitivity. This study examined video-call fatigue in relation to autistic traits and sensory sensitivity.

The Complex Sensory Experiences of Autistic Adults. This study explores autistic adults’ sensory experiences and describes how everyday sensory environments can become overwhelming.

National Autistic Society — Autistic fatigue: a guide for autistic adults. This guide describes autistic fatigue and burnout, including the role of sensory overload, social situations, masking, increased sensory sensitivity, headaches, pain, and physically shutting down.

National Autistic Society — Autistic fatigue and burnout overview. This resource notes that managing energy levels, unmasking, time off, and re-energising interests may support recovery.

Sensory processing sensitivity and overstimulation in daily life. This 2025 experience-sampling study found overstimulation varied across daily contexts and increased in the presence of others.

A Metaphor Analysis of Autistic Shutdowns. This 2025 study describes shutdowns as commonly discussed by autistic adults and triggered by social, sensory, informational, or emotional stressors.