I hear phantom alarms after every hospital shift

Dear Delyara, I am an ICU nurse. When I get home after a shift, I hear monitor alarms that are not there. Beep-beep. Pause. Beep-beep. I turn off the shower because I think I heard one. I wake at night convinced an infusion pump is alarming in the bedroom. My husband says I sometimes reach toward the bedside table as though silencing equipment. We are short-staffed and the actual alarms at work never stop. I know auditory aftereffects can happen after intense shifts. Knowing has not made them quieter. Yesterday, my six-year-old son’s toy made a similar tone and I shouted, “Turn that off!” so sharply he started crying. I apologized. He asked why the sound makes me mad. I said, “Because Mummy hears it too much at work.” He turned the toy volume down without being asked. That made me feel worse. I do not want my child’s toys learning the rules of an intensive-care unit because my nervous system refuses to clock out.