Hi, FaithHopeLove19, welcome. Some gifted people are especially sensitive to loud sounds. I know my husband is pretty sensitive this way even as an adult; running the vacuum when he is around is a big no-no (not that I mind too much).
I think it is not too out of the ordinary to have stops and starts with good sleep at that age, but with gt kids they do seem to let that imagination fly into high gear and the things they end up imagining can get them pretty scared really quickly, so it does seem 'exaggerated'. At least that is our experience around here.
Our dd3 is now working through the kinks of sleeping in her own room, some nights it's blissful quiet though it still takes a while to get her to stay in her bed at all. Other nights it's much more fraught with out-spoken dissatisfaction over the whole arrangement. If I sit with her for about 10 minutes with my arm in her arms she will usually settle (after 30 minutes of reading, of course).
She offers no guarantees, however, and I have just decided to get ok with the idea that she's not falling asleep anymore at 8:30, more like 9:30, sometimes later. But she/we are getting there, slowly.
Good luck to you!
ps
We have bugs all around our house, and some days it seems like dd is scared of every single one of them, and on bug-patrol to alert me to what I am trying to ignore...there is a bug there, there, no there! Ah. I try to ignore them for the most part they are harmless or good for us, like spiders, but my sister tends to be a bit more 'DEFCON 4' about bugs so that is definitely rubbing off - how you react to bugs etc., could play a role for him.
