How To Sleep When You Having Racing Thoughts
If you have trouble sleeping due to racing thoughts and worrisome thoughts, the solution is not in a prescription or supplement.
The solution is aligning and organizing your mind LONG before your head hits the pillow.
Hear me out. I’m a certified sleep science coach, and I became one AFTER I took the long way around solving 20 years’ of insomnia, paralysis, sleep anxiety, and panic attacks.
Part of my issues were like yours. As soon as I went to bed, every thing I “ shoulda woulda coulda” would come up and keep me awake for hours before barely getting 4 hours of sleep if I was lucky!
What I learned recently is there is some science behind that happening. A recent peer-reviewed study discovered that when it’s dark and quiet and you’re alone at night, your brain takes that opportunity to “dump” negative emotions, tapping into the emotionally-centered parts of your brain known as the limbic system.
I suspect this happens more to people who carry a LOT of responsibility for others during the day, like military members, single parents, caregivers, and community mental health workers. Your work doesn’t stop when the clock is punched. It comes home with you in your mind!
I have a short-term strategy that can help now, and a long-term one that takes a little more time but has a more permanent solution.
Fall Asleep Faster With Cognitive Shuffling
The first short-term strategy is cognitive shuffling.
Remember how I said the negative thoughts come out from the limbic system of your brain? Cognitive shuffling re-directs that energy into your more logical, pre-frontal cortex, acting like a healthy distraction that takes less energy and more focus to help you sleep.
What you do is start with a letter of the alphabet.
Then you pick a word that begins with that letter. Finally, start thinking of words associated with it until you run out.
Once you do, switch to the next letter in the alphabet. So let’s say you start with “A” and you choose the word “apple”. You can then start thinking of everything associated with an apple. When you’re done, move to “B”. Keep going, and do it with your eyes closed.
You can also do a different version where you take the letter and think of as many words as possible that begin with it before moving to the next one.
I doubt you’ll reach all 26 letters before you fall asleep!
Long Term Sleep Faster Strategy
The long-term strategy requires you to take actions throughout the day to make sure you’ve anticipated these intrusive thoughts. You’ll have to take these steps repeatedly and eventually it’ll become your norm.
First is to be mindful of situations where you didn’t feel your voice was heard, like in a discussion, when problem solving in a team, etc. If there’s a moment that comes up where you think “I should have said this” or “I could have said that”, make a note to take a break AND say those things, whether out loud in a car or directly to the person. Even if it doesn’t end the way you wanted it to, you’ve addressed it.
Second, take a moment either before you leave work or right after dinner to review what you did today AND what needs to be done tomorrow. That time to review will reveal any potential things you were supposed to do OR what you need to prepare for tomorrow.
This worked well with a client who is a single mom of two and a caregiver to a terminally ill relative. She was all over the place, and kept waking up 2 hours into the night thinking she forgot to do something!
We put this technique into practice and the wake ups did still happen at first; but over time, she fell back asleep much faster after realizing she already resolved the issue. Within a month, those wake ups STOPPED.
Finally, take an hour before you go to bed to do nearly “nothing”. This is when you change into your sleepwear, do some personal hygiene, read a boring book, play a casual phone game…whatever it is, give your brain permission to not think BEFORE going to bed.
Again, this will take some time to set it, but it does work.
You do a lot for a lot of people and it’s okay to do for yourself to get the sleep you deserve!
If you’d like more helpful tips like this, and a free checklist on how to stay asleep, visit my store.