Guide · 7 minute read

Racing thoughts at night: how to quiet your mind

You were tired on the sofa. Then you turned off the light and your mind switched on: the email, the bill, the thing you said in 2014. Here's why that happens, what to do in the moment, and what to change for tomorrow night.

Why does my mind speed up in bed?

For many people, bed is the first time all day that nothing is asking for their attention. No screen, no conversation, no task. Attention doesn't just switch off when it's freed up; it goes looking for something to do, and it usually finds whatever is unfinished or unresolved.

The kind of thinking that follows matters. Planning, rehearsing and problem-solving are coherent, goal-directed thought, and that is the opposite of what minds tend to do as they fall asleep. Research reviewing what people think about before sleep has found that people who struggle to sleep report more planning and problem-solving thoughts at bedtime, and find them more unpleasant, than people who sleep well. Night-time also changes how thoughts feel: in the dark, tired and alone, a manageable problem can seem enormous.

Then a second loop starts: "I need to sleep. Why can't I sleep? I'll be useless tomorrow." Worrying about sleep is one of the most reliable ways to stay awake.

What to do in the moment

1. Don't argue with the thoughts

Telling yourself to stop thinking about something tends to bring it back. You don't need to win the argument or solve the problem tonight. You just need to give your attention something else to hold.

2. Give your mind a small, harmless job

This is where the cognitive shuffle comes in. Picture a random, ordinary object for a few seconds, such as a teapot. Then something completely unrelated, such as a sand dune. Then a shoelace. The idea is that the images take up enough of your attention that worries struggle to get a word in, and because they don't connect, they don't build into a new story. A 2002 Oxford study found that people with insomnia who used an engaging imagery task fell asleep sooner than people given no instructions; the shuffle builds on the same idea. You can do it in your head with a seed word, or let Sleep Shuffle hand you a new word every few seconds, spoken aloud if you want to keep your eyes closed.

3. Slow your breathing down

Breathing out slowly, a little longer than you breathe in, is a simple way to settle your body while your mind is busy with something else. Don't count obsessively; just let each out-breath be long and unhurried.

4. Park it on paper

If one specific task keeps returning, keep a notepad by the bed, write it down in a few words, and tell yourself it will be there in the morning. This works best in dim light, without picking up your phone to do it.

5. If you're wide awake, get up

If you've been lying there frustrated for what feels like a long time, get up and do something quiet and dull in dim light, such as reading something undemanding, and go back to bed when you feel sleepy. Lying in bed while frustrated can teach your body to link bed with being awake. Don't check the clock to decide when; that adds pressure.

What not to do

• Don't scroll. Feeds and messages hand your mind a fresh supply of things to think about.
• Don't do the sleep maths. "If I fall asleep now I'll get five hours" is a guaranteed way to stay awake.
• Don't try to solve the problem. Midnight is the worst time to make decisions. It will look different in daylight.
• Don't make it a test. Any technique, including the shuffle, tends to work better when you stop checking whether it's working.

What helps on the following nights

Give your worries a slot earlier in the evening

Set aside 10 to 15 minutes in the early evening to write down what's on your mind and one next step for each. This approach, called structured problem-solving or constructive worry, gives your brain evidence that things are being handled. In the SLEEP 2016 study of the cognitive shuffle, it was the comparison technique, and the two did about as well as each other.

Build a wind-down

An hour before bed, dim the lights and do something calm. The idea is to arrive in bed already slowing down, rather than going straight from a busy evening to the pillow.

Keep regular hours

Getting up at about the same time every day, even after a bad night, helps your body clock know when to make you sleepy.

When it's more than a busy night

Racing thoughts on a stressful week are normal. But if you have trouble sleeping most nights for several months, or your days are suffering, please talk to a doctor. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the recommended first treatment and works for many people. And if racing thoughts come with persistent low mood, panic attacks, or periods of feeling unusually energetic and needing little sleep, those are worth raising with a doctor too. If you ever have thoughts of harming yourself, contact a doctor or your local emergency number straight away.

Give your mind something calm to do