For a good lot of us, falling asleep as soon as our head hits the pillow is something we can only dream of. More often than not, the timeline looks something like this: 10 p.m. lights out, 10:01 p.m. a deluge of thoughts begin making their way to our consciousness. And anyone who’s been in this boat can tell you that thoughts may range from purely rational (I need to file for an extension on my taxes) to completely absurd (maybe I should buy a Scrub Mommy—yes, sometimes being an adult is stupid.) The fact is we’ve got a lot on our plates, and flipping the switch is often easier said than done.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, a little rumination never hurts anyone; we’re only human, after all. However, if those ruminations and random thought patterns persist night after night, causing you to lose sleep, that might be cause for concern. At a minimum, it should be an impetus for action.

Why Does My Mind Race at Night So I Can’t Sleep?

Racing thoughts at night—the seemingly endless stream of thoughts, ideas, worries, and images—are often a by-product of a busy life, stress, or anxiety. In some cases, racing thoughts at night may be a result of anxiety disorders or some other type of mental health condition.

These thoughts often hit us like a freight train at night because there’s nothing there to steal our attention and focus (looking at you, smartphones). It’s an environment primed for replaying conversations, worrying about lengthy to-do lists, and wondering whatever happened to the boy who taught you to draw a ghost in elementary school. In the darkness, it’s just us and our thoughts.

How To Calm Racing Thoughts Before Bed

Again, racing thoughts are normal—to a degree. If the issue persists or worsens over time, there are some things you can do to wrangle your free-ranging thoughts and get some shut-eye.

Pencil In Some Worry Time

If you know that your worrying will start the moment your head hits the pillow, try to get ahead of it by acknowledging and processing those worries in the early evening. By identifying your concerns early, you can reduce your anxiety around them at bedtime and eliminate your need to wrestle with them undercover of night.

Free Your Mind 

In the same vein as scheduling worry time, many people find that keeping a worry journal can be beneficial for calming a racing mind. And this doesn’t have to be elaborate or complicated—a simple notebook and a pen work just fine. Think of your worry journal as a way to offload whatever is weighing on your mind and keeping you up at night. When you can’t seem to turn your mind off, grab a pen and write it down—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Manage Screen Time Before Bed 

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2022 Sleep in America® Poll, 68 percent of people engage in screentime in the evening, and 58 percent said they continue to do so within an hour of bedtime. No doubt, the majority of us use the hours before bedtime to catch up on the latest in news, politics, and family drama (probably because that’s the only time we have to do so), but that choice can wreak a little havoc on our 40 winks.

Why? Because electronic devices beautifully fulfill their destinies. They’re designed to stimulate us and engage our minds, and whether it’s an action-packed thriller or engaging with a new nemesis on IG, boy, do they ever. While we might think our devices help us unwind at night, they often do the exact opposite—they elicit mental engagement, overexcite us, and provoke strong emotional reactions, making it exceedingly difficult to relax, wind down, and fall asleep. When we do manage to fall asleep, those goings-on may also meddle with our sleep quality.

We took the scenic route here, but this is all to say: Nix the screen time at least one hour before bed. This gives your mind and body ample time to relax, unwind, and prepare for restful sleep.

How To Fall Asleep (Even on Your Worst Days)

Just Breathe

Controlled breathing can help calm racing thoughts by activating the body’s relaxation response. Moreover, switching your focus to your breathing helps take your mind off the thoughts free-flowing into your consciousness and delaying your sleep, and you have tons of options here. Common breathing techniques include:

• Deep breathing
• 4-7-8 breathing
• Box breathing
• Alternate nostril breathing

Don’t Lie Awake In Bed

This next one may seem counterintuitive, but rest assured (it writes itself, folks) that lying awake in bed and waiting out your racing thoughts isn’t your best option.

Just hear us out on this one.

Hit the lights; if you haven’t nodded off within 20 minutes, get up. Go to your favorite chair and find a relaxing activity, reading, knitting, meditating, crossword puzzles—whatever works for you. Engage in said activity until you begin to feel sleepy, then (and only then) go back to bed.

Also known as stimulus control, this is a common technique used to treat insomnia. It works because it helps positively engage your brain and breaks the negative associations we often develop with our beds when we lie awake night after night.

Redirect Your Thoughts 

If the idea of getting out of bed to change your focus doesn’t appeal to you, you could try to do so in bed, using the cognitive shuffle method, which incidentally, had become a viral sleep hack as of late courtesy of TikTok.

Created by Luc P. Beaudoin, Ph.D., cognitive shuffling is an exercise where sleepers picture random words and phrases as a means of distraction, ultimately stopping rumination in its tracks.

To try cognitive shuffling yourself:

• Lie down in bed and get comfortable.
• Think of an emotionally neutral word consisting of at least five letters—this is your seed word. (i.e., “CARPET”)
• For each letter of the seed word, think of a word that starts with that letter and picture that item in your mind.
• Repeat the process for each letter.

Racing thoughts at night is a pretty universal problem, but there are plenty of things you can use to calm your mind and get to sleep. If you’ve tried any of the strategies outlined above to no avail, it might be time to speak with your healthcare provider for a personalized assessment and treatment options for more serious sleep issues.