I too live close to a busy freeway. The dust doesn't bother me as much as the sound. The noise is constant, and though closed windows isolate a lot of the sound, for some reason, when I go to sleep, I feel like I can hear everything 3x better than when I'm awake. It took like 2.5 years, but now, I'm starting to have difficulties sleeping.
I thought I'd get used to it, but as the time passed, I got more and more sensitive to it. Strange.
> for some reason, when I go to sleep, I feel like I can hear everything 3x better than when I'm awake.
That's because you stopped making noise yourself. That masks a lot of environmental noise. Ditto of course for a chunk of your neighbors. So then your hearing adapts: it becomes more sensitive so you're more alert in case predators come and visit your cave.
That kept you safe in the stone age, today it will keep you awake at night from traffic.
Constant noise like road noise gives me anxiety but thats a new theory I’d never heard, so its not the noise thats a primary problem, its the fear of missing hearing something else important.
I have the same problem. I can sleep easily during the day. But at night it can be super hard to fall asleep. Even the slightest unexpected sound will get me.
You could try a masking sound, white noise or ocean sounds should mask traffic quite well. Not very loud, just loud enough to even out the variation. Good luck! Loss of sleep is terrible. I wrote about it recently: https://jacquesmattheij.com/dealing-with-insomnia/
I hate road noise so much. They have a large botanic garden near me. The problem is they built it close to the highway and you can hear constant road noise throughout the entire park. It completely ruins the experience of what would be a very nice park.
I thought I'd get used to it, but as the time passed, I got more and more sensitive to it. Strange.