Educational reference
About this symptom
Feeling on edge describes a state of readiness that does not switch off: keyed up, unable to settle, alert for something to go wrong. Clinically it is often called hyperarousal.
People describe being unable to relax even when nothing is happening, sitting down and immediately needing to get up again, or scanning a room without meaning to. It frequently comes with disturbed sleep, since the same alertness makes falling asleep difficult.
It occurs in generalised anxiety, where it accompanies persistent worry, and after trauma, where it is one of the recognised groups of experience and may include watching exits, sitting with the back to a wall, or startling easily.
The distinction that matters is between arousal in response to genuine present danger, which is appropriate, and arousal that persists when the danger has passed or was never specific. The second is exhausting, and it is treatable.