mind wandering while trying to sleep

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How to Reduce Racing Thoughts at Night

Ways to quiet your mind and relax so you can get to sleep

• Schedule "Worry Time"
• Address Stressors

Prepare for Sleep

• If You're Still Struggling

If your mind is racing, it may seem like you'll never fall asleep. Racing thoughts at night can be hard to "turn off," since they can only perpetuate the stress or anxiety that caused them in the first place.

Lying awake in bed is unlikely to help. In fact, it's likely to make matters worse. Managing stress , unwinding before bed, and using distraction and relaxation techniques, however, can help you slow your thoughts and get a better night's sleep.

This article walks you through these strategies for reducing racing thoughts at night.

Verywell / JR Bee

Schedule "Worry Time"

Scheduled worry time is a point in your day when you sit down and list what is causing you stress and anxiety, as well as some actions you can take to help address them.

For example:

By writing down your stressors and creating an action plan , you help yourself:

• Put a name to the sources of stress
• Release worries from your mind
• Find ways that the stress can be relieved
• Enjoy a sense of accomplishment when you tackle and review your tasks

If thoughts related to the stress present themselves at night, you can respond by simply telling yourself, " I don't need to think about this right now. Instead, I will think about it tomorrow during my scheduled worry time."

These affirming thoughts can shut down racing thoughts and allow you to get to sleep.

Address Your Stressors

Rather than being overwhelmed, break your stressors down into manageable chunks —and then get to work.

Here's an example: If you have a major project due at work in two weeks and feel overwhelmed or don’t know where to begin, identify the components causing your anxiety and make them part of the action plan. For instance:

• Review the files
• Speak with your coworker
• Schedule a meeting
• Draft the proposal
• Finalize the presentation

As you accomplish the tasks day by day, you cross them off. Eventually, you can remove the stressor itself from the list.

Spend about five minutes before bed writing a quick to-do list for your days ahead. Research suggests this may help some people fall asleep faster . Tell yourself that you wrote down your tasks and you can revisit them tomorrow.

What If I Can't Cross Off a Task?

There may be some items on the list that have no apparent resolution. This ambiguity may cause additional anxiety and zap your energy throughout the day.

If you find yourself stuck in this loop, tell yourself to let it go and come back to it tomorrow. There are other things you can focus on today.

A solution may become clearer with time. And since the item is written down, you don't have to worry that you'll forget about it.

It can be helpful to set aside intentional time to relax before bed to make the night a relaxing time. Good sleep hygiene involves stopping certain activities and establishing a familiar routine that tells your body it's time for sleep.

Your circadian rhythm is the internal clock that tells you when it's time for sleep. These internal rhythms can be thrown off by several things, including lack of sunlight and too much blue light from computer screens.

A few hours before bed, turn off screens, including:

In addition, put your work aside and disengage from social media. There will always be more to do, but you have done enough for today . Now it's time to relax and prepare for sleep.

Spend at least 30 minutes, or perhaps as long as one or two hours, unwinding, and decompressing before bedtime.

Fill this time with relaxing activities, such as:

• Listening to calming music
• Taking a shower or bath
• Meditating or praying

You may find that establishing a nighttime ritual that incorporates some of these activities sends your body signals that it's time to wind down.

Right before bed, or if you find yourself awake at night, you might try some other relaxation techniques, including:

• Breathing exercises
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Guided imagery

These can distract you from the effort of trying to fall or stay asleep. They can also reduce racing thoughts at night.

If You're Still Struggling

If you continue to struggle with sleep, speak with your healthcare provider about additional treatment options.

For example, you might benefit from  cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) , medications to relieve anxiety, or sleeping pills for insomnia.

Our Doctor Discussion Guide can help you start that conversation.

Insomnia Doctor Discussion Guide

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Stress and anxiety can cause racing thoughts at night that prevent you from getting the sleep you need.

By identifying your stress, scheduling time to attend to your worries, and establishing a healthy bedtime routine, you may be able to avoid racing thoughts and sleep more soundly.

Newman MG, Llera SJ. A novel theory of experiential avoidance in generalized anxiety disorder: a review and synthesis of research supporting a contrast avoidance model of worry .  Clin Psychol Rev . 2011;31(3):371–382. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2011.01.008

Scullin MK, Krueger ML, Ballard HK, Pruett N, Bliwise DL. The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: A polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity lists .  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General . 2018;147(1):139-146. doi:10.1037/xge0000374

Wahl S, Engelhardt M, Schaupp P, Lappe C, Ivanov IV. The inner clock—Blue light sets the human rhythm .  J Biophotonics . 2019;12(12). doi:10.1037/xge0000374

By Brandon Peters, MD Dr. Peters is a board-certified neurologist and sleep medicine specialist and is a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

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Why Am I Having Racing Thoughts at Night?

AndreyPopov / Getty Images

• Night vs. Day
• What It Feels Like

Racing thoughts that make it so you can't sleep can be caused by stress, anxiety, mental illness , medications, or excessive caffeine consumption. Such thoughts can be hard to control, cause you to feel overwhelmed, and make it difficult or impossible to sleep. If you experience racing thoughts at night, you are far from alone.

Many of us experience them at one time or another, especially during heightened stress . Others have them as part of a mental health condition such as a mood or sleep disorder. Either way, racing thoughts at night do not have to be your fate. Read on to learn why they happen, as well as helpful and effective ways to cope with and treat racing thoughts at night.

Racing Thoughts at Night vs. the Day

Some people who experience racing thoughts at night also experience racing or anxious thoughts during the day . But many people also have the experience of feeling relatively calm during the day, only to find that their thoughts start to race as soon as they try falling asleep.

The reason for this is that most of us are more easily distracted from our worries and fears during the day. We are working, caring for others , indulging in screen time, and moving rapidly from one activity to another. As a result, we are barely aware of our interior emotional experience.

But when everything goes dark and quiet at night, we find ourselves alone with our thoughts. This provides the opportunity for darker, more difficult emotions and worries to present themselves.

Racing thoughts at night are often a symptom of anxiety, but anyone can experience them when they have worries on their mind.

What Do Racing Thoughts at Night Feel Like?

Racing thoughts are thoughts that come on suddenly and seem to populate your mind without you being able to control them. Some common experiences include:

• A list of thoughts that stream through your mind on a loop
• The feeling that you are watching different thoughts and scenarios play themselves out in your mind, as if on a movie reel
• The thoughts seem to come in quick succession, as though someone is talking too fast inside your head
• You may also be experiencing other signs of anxiety that accompany these racing thoughts, such as a racing heartbeat, sweating, or sped-up breathing

For example, imagine that you’re finally settling in for the night. You’re tired and ready to get some rest. But as soon as the lights go out and your head hits the pillow, your thoughts start racing.

You begin to think about your to-do list or the endless worries you have about the day and weeks ahead. Or maybe you begin thinking about something embarrassing or scary that happened to you years ago. You may be ruminating on a “worst case scenario” situation you imagine happening sometime in the future.

Whatever your thoughts are, you can’t stop them from coming. As the thoughts race, your heart pounds too and it feels like you will never get to sleep. This all feels unfair! The night is supposed to be when you finally get to unwind and relax; however, your racing thoughts make that feel impossible.

What Causes Racing Thoughts at Night?

Life stressors—such as job stress , familial stress , financial stress , or experiencing a major life transition —are a frequent cause of racing thoughts at night. This is likely the case if the experience of racing thoughts at night is new to you and can be traced to a new stressor or stressful event.

Racing thoughts at night can also be attributed to mental health disorders, especially anxiety disorders . Experiencing racing thoughts at night might be something experienced frequently, or intermittently by people with a mental health condition, and can be exacerbated by difficult life circumstances.

Here are some of the most common causes of racing thoughts at night.

Life Stresses and Transitions

Experiencing a job loss , worrying about your financial future, moving, and having a baby . These are all examples of major life changes or stressors that can cause you to experience racing thoughts at night.

Anxiety and Panic Disorder

People with anxiety tend to have more trouble sleeping and may experience racing thoughts at night. Panic disorder can also make you more likely to experience this. Sometimes racing thoughts at night resemble symptoms of a panic attack .

Racing thoughts are one of the characteristics of bipolar disorder , especially during a manic episode. However, simply having racing thoughts does not mean you have bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder has other symptoms as well, including intense mood fluctuations, engaging in risky behavior, and experiencing delusions or hallucinations. Bipolar disorder requires a proper diagnosis from a physician or psychiatrist.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may have racing thoughts. Usually, nighttime isn’t the only time that people with OCD experience racing thoughts. Obsessive thoughts, compulsions, and fixations on things like order and cleanliness are other common characteristics of OCD .

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Experiencing a trauma, either recently or years ago, can cause post-traumatic stress disorder . Symptoms of the disorder include racing thoughts, including at night. In this case, you may fixate on the traumatic event that happened to you and experience flashbacks to it.

Medications

Certain prescribed medications, either for mental health or to treat a medical condition, can cause racing thoughts and insomnia. Additionally, racing thoughts and insomnia can be symptoms of withdrawal from certain medications, including opioids.

If you have recently started a new medication and found that the racing thoughts at night correlate with this, talk to your healthcare provider about this side effect and alternative medication options.

Recreational Drugs

Certain illegal drugs can cause racing thoughts. Examples of drugs that can create this effect include methamphetamine and cocaine.

Caffeine Consumption

Consuming caffeine , especially too close to bedtime, can make it hard to fall asleep and cause your thoughts to race. Some people are more sensitive to the effects of caffeine than others.

Tips for Coping With Racing Thoughts at Night

For many, making a few life changes and adopting some healthy habits to cope with stress can help reduce or eliminate nighttime ruminations and insomnia. Here are some tips.

Keep a “Worry Journal”

Writing down some of your thoughts and fears before you go to bed can be therapeutic and help reduce nighttime stress. Often, our stressful thoughts boil to the surface at night, but they are still in our heads the rest of the day. Having an outlet to “let them all out” when it’s not late at night can really help.

To get started:

• Get a notebook and label it “ worry journal .”
• Take 5-10 minutes a day to list your worries.
• Alternatively, spend 5-10 minutes doing some freewriting about whatever thoughts come to mind.

Meditation, whether right before bed or sometime during the day, can have a strong impact on your ability to fall asleep without overwhelming thoughts. If this is your first time adopting a meditation practice , keep it simple. You can start with just a few minutes a day and then go from there.

If you need help, there are several apps on the market that will guide you through meditation . There is no “right” way to meditate; just closing your eyes in silence for a few minutes a day is enough.

You might find that your thoughts race while you meditate, but meditation is an opportunity to learn to watch your thoughts go by more mindfully before letting them go.

Decrease Screen Time Before Bed

Many of us are addicted to our screens and stay on them all day, through bedtime. Unfortunately, these habits have a tendency to wreak havoc on our ability to fall asleep easily and can cause us to have a racing mind at the end of the day.

Additionally, too much screen time before bed, along with “blue light” emitted from screens, can cause a decrease in melatonin levels . This can make it more difficult to fall asleep.

Be Mindful of Your Evening Media Consumption

Watching scary TV or movies , or reading disturbing books right before bed, can impact our sleep and cause racing thoughts. Many of us have become addicted to “doomscrolling” too, feeling compelled to keep up with upsetting world events and news.

Making a point to replace our evening media consumption with a bath, meditation session, or a heart-to-heart with a loved one can work wonders.

Address Your Life Stressors

Some aspects of life are out of our control, and these situations can contribute to heightened stress and anxiety, along with insomnia. But sometimes, experiencing something like racing thoughts before bed can be looked at as a wake-up call to make life changes to reduce stress .

Maybe it’s time to leave a toxic job or you might need to address the dysfunction in one of your primary relationships. Empower yourself to make changes that will allow you to live a healthier, less stressful life.

Treatment Options for Racing Thoughts at Night

If you are experiencing racing thoughts at night and trying different coping tips doesn’t seem to be helping, it might be time to seek professional help. Engaging in counseling or therapy is a great option for dealing with racing thoughts at night and insomnia. Talking to a psychiatrist or physician about medication options may be a good choice for you too.

Your counselor or therapist can help you figure out what’s causing your racing nighttime thoughts, including what life stressors may be impacting you. They can also help identify whether or not you have a mental health condition that may be contributing to these thought patterns.

One of the most successful types of therapy to deal with anxiety, insomnia, and symptoms like racing thoughts is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) . CBT helps you become more aware of your thoughts and learn coping strategies for quieting them down. CBT also helps you manage your anxiety and begin to recognize signs of it before it is able to take completely over.

If you are experiencing chronic anxiety, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, or another mental health challenge, there are medications available to help you manage your feelings. Common medications for anxiety include anti-anxiety drugs like benzodiazepines and antidepressants.

These medications can also help you fall asleep more easily. Your healthcare provider may also be able to prescribe you sleeping pills to help with racing thoughts and falling asleep.

Final Words

Having racing thoughts at night doesn’t have to be your reality forever. You might feel hopeless, as though you will never get a chance again to settle easily into sleep. If you feel basically “fine” during the day, you may think that pursuing methods for reducing your racing thoughts at night isn’t important or worth it.

But having difficulty falling asleep, experiencing heightened stress at bedtime, and not getting enough sleep can impact your physical and mental health. There are effective solutions out there to address your racing nighttime thoughts, and you deserve a peaceful night’s sleep.

Weiner L, Martz E, Kilic-Huck Ü, et al. Investigating racing thoughts in insomnia: A neglected piece of the mood-sleep puzzle? Comp Psychiatry . 2021;111:152271. doi:10.1016.j.comppsych.2021.152271

Cleveland Clinic. How to stop your mind from racing and get to sleep .

National Institute for Mental Health. Anxiety disorders .

American Psychiatric Association. What are bipolar disorders?

National Institute for Mental Health. Obsessive-compulsive disorder .

National Institute for Mental Health. Post-traumatic stress disorder .

U.S. National Library of Medicine. Caffeine .

Black D, O’Reilly G, Olmstead R, Breen E, Irwin M. Mindfulness meditation and improvement in sleep quality and daytime impairment among older adults with sleep disturbances: A randomized clinical trial . JAMA Intern Med . 2015;175(4):494–501. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8081

By Wendy Wisner Wendy Wisner is a health and parenting writer, lactation consultant (IBCLC), and mom to two awesome sons.

How to Shut Off a "Wandering Brain" When You’re Trying to Sleep

Do you often find yourself lying in bed wide awake, unable to sleep at 3 a.m. because of a wondering brain? Research has shown that people with insomnia have difficulty shutting down mind-wandering brain regions at night, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to fall asleep.

Racing thoughts at night not only disrupt your sleep, they also interfere with your ability to function the next day. One study found that insomniacs had to work harder at their jobs during the day than normal sleepers because they had trouble turning on brain regions necessary to perform memory tasks. [i]

Further, the people with insomnia had trouble shutting down brain regions used for daydreaming even during the day (so it’s no wonder their minds continued to wander at night, too). Dr. Sean Drummond of the University of California, who lead the study, said: [ii]

“Some aspects of insomnia are as much a daytime problem as a night-time one.”

Proper sleep isn’t only crucial for memory and focus during the day, of course. Too little sleep is linked to a shorter lifespan and chronic conditions like obesity, depression, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure.

So if a wandering mind is preventing you from sleeping at night, taking action to quiet it could, quite literally, save your life.

Wandering Brain? 7 Ways to Get Your Sleep Back

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an ‘off’ button for your brain? This way you could simply shut it off when racing thoughts are keeping you awake. The next best thing is to take steps to quiet your brain before bedtime and during the night, should you wake up. By using the tips that follow your brain will be just as ready for restful slumber as the rest of your body.

7. Write Your Worries on Paper

Do this well before bed by simply jotting down all those pesky worries and unfinished tasks in a notebook. This will clear them from your head and lessen the chances of waking up to ponder them. Be sure to make your worry list well before bedtime (you don’t want to write the list right before bed, as they’ll still be fresh in your mind when you want to sleep).

If you still find that you wake up with racing thoughts, keep a notepad by the side of your bed to write down thoughts in the middle of the night.

6. Deep Breathing

Quiet your mind chatter by taking slow deep breaths and purposefully focusing on each breath as you do so. Feel your lungs expand, your chest rise, the air flowing through your nose … then slowly exhale and repeat until you’re asleep.

5. Distract Your Brain

If your brain keeps wandering to anxiety-inducing thoughts, distract it by focusing on something else. Try to think of celebrity names that start with “A” or ‘sing’ your favorite song in your mind. Another trick is to put your fingers on the inside of your wrist to feel your pulse, and simply focus all of your attention on that.

4. Remove Disturbances from Your Bedroom

It’s important to minimize things that may wake you up from a sound sleep (allowing your mind to start wandering). Common sleep disturbances include pets, a snoring partner, light pollution, temperature (typically too warm) and noise. Try adding pink noise to your bedroom and using an eye mask to create a quiet, dark environment that is conducive to sound sleep.

3. Think Positive

Turn your wandering nighttime mind from stressful thoughts to positive ones. Focus on an enjoyable event in your life or imagine yourself in your favorite location, such as at the beach or hiking through a forest. Mentally transfer yourself to your happy place.

2. Get Out of Bed

If you’ve tried the above tips and still can’t sleep, don’t force yourself to lie in bed. Get up, grab a cup of chamomile tea and read something (calming). When you feel yourself nodding off, get back into bed.

1. Try GABA — a Natural Brain Quieter

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter known for its inhibitory effect on nerves, essentially helping them to calm down.

Low levels of GABA are linked to mood and anxiety disorders, which is why some anxiety medications and hypnotics like Ambien and Lunesta actually work by increasing GABA activity. These drugs are linked to serious and bizarre side effects (like sleep eating, sleep sex and sleep driving!), so I can’t recommend their use.

However, GABA in its natural form can be invaluable. When taken orally, one study found that GABA worked effectively as a natural relaxant, inducing relaxation and diminishing anxiety within one hour of taking it. [iii] When you don’t have enough GABA, you may have racing thoughts and other feelings of anxiety that make it nearly impossible to sleep. GABA is known for essentially shutting off brain activity and reducing feelings of anxiety that keep you awake.

• Magnesium citrate
• Valerian root
• Lemon balm leaf
• Hops flower
• Passion flower

Just take two capsules of Sleepzyme approximately one hour before bed each night with an 8 oz. glass of water to calm your mind chatter and get some sleep .

[i] Sleep. 2013 Sep 1;36(9):1307-16.

[ii] Daily Express August 31, 2013

[iii] Biofactors. 2006;26(3):201-8.

Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS, MFT

Jesse is the co-founder and visionary CEO of The Healthy Back Institute®, the world-leading source of natural back pain solutions. His mission as a former back pain sufferer is to help others live pain free without surgery and pharmaceuticals.

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4 thoughts on “How to Shut Off a "Wandering Brain" When You’re Trying to Sleep”

Hello, I am a counsellor from Canada (hence the double “L” in counsellor) and have been practicing for over 30 years, Regarding the information about the “Wandering Brain” and sleep problems; these are great tips for promoting a better sleep habit. Tip 3, 5, 6, and 7 also work for feeling “stressed and “anxious” during the day. My observation is that the underlying concept/idea behind these techniques is rarely discussed in a clear way. This is the concept of being “present to the moment”; thus, anything that promotes the application of a present focus, works to calm a “wandering mind”. I think the interesting thing about this unifying concept, is that anything you do that is present focused, helps with sleep and anxiety problems, leaving the door wide open for all sorts of “techniques” and practices, well beyond whatever is written in the literature. And if you have ever slept badly, or are anxious, various “techniques” can all work, but can also fail to work at times, so the more things/techniques you can try out the better. Does your team have any comments about this observation?

I could not agree more, and in 2014 we will be researching and seeking out “all sorts” of techniques to help individuals work toward not only optimal health but also optimal state of being…

Here’s a crazy thing that I read about–and always works for me. Focus on totally relaxing two things: yout TONGUE and the EYEBALLS. I will take ten deep breaths and just focus on one of them. Then I take another 10 deep breaths and focus on the other. If I am not asleep yet, I just do the same and focus on both. It never fails!

A combination of zinc, magnesium and calcium taken together helps induce sleep in most people in 30 to 45 minutes, with no grogginess on wake up. It is the combination that produces the effect in the brain and nervous system. You can purchase them in a combination product from several of the better vitamin suppliers or just combine 1 of each if you already have them separately in your vitamin inventory. Just normal dose for each 35-50 mg zinc, 300-500mg Mag. and 700-1000mg Calcium – and preferably not on a full stomach before bed.

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Does Your Mind Race at Night? Here’s How To Slow Its Pace and Fall Asleep More Easily

Maybe you find yourself thinking about everything you have to get done tomorrow, family obligations, work stress, or even that slightly embarrassing comment you made earlier in the day (or, let’s be honest, back in junior high). In any case, experiencing racing thoughts at night is far from rare. “Many people experience thoughts that are obsessive, rapid, and won’t go away [when trying to fall asleep],” says psychiatrist Allie Sharma, MD , co-founder and chief medical officer of mental health practice Being Health .

While these thought spirals can be a symptom of a mental health condition like generalized anxiety disorder , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) , or bipolar disorder , experts say anyone can experience them. To be sure, “people who have racing or ruminative thoughts before bed usually have some form of anxiety,” says clinical psychologist and sleep specialist Michael Breus, PhD . “But it does not have to be at the clinical level.”

• Allie Sharma, MD , board-certified psychiatrist and co-founder and chief medical officer at Being Health , a mental health practice in New York City
• Kate Kaplan, PhD , clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of sleep difficulties and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine
• Michael Breus, PhD , sleep expert and clinical psychologist
• Nicole Short, PhD , clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Racing thoughts can also be caused simply by the stress someone is dealing with in their daily life, which can trigger the kind of distracted mind-wandering often called “ monkey mind .”

Why is my mind so overactive at night?

Racing thoughts can occur at any time, but there is one key reason they tend to happen more at night: For many people, bedtime is the only time they really get to be alone with their thoughts. “People are often so busy that [nighttime] is literally the first time in the day that they get to stop and think,” says Dr. Breus.

“People are often so busy that [nighttime] is literally the first time in the day that they get to stop and think.” —Michael Breus, PhD, clinical psychologist and sleep specialist

Whether you’re rushing off to an early exercise class before work, taking care of family all day, balancing studying with household duties, trying to get a side hustle off the ground, or some combination of the above, you may spend your days in go-go-go mode with little time to acknowledge the emotions connected with everything going on in your life. That is, until you finally get time to rest, says Dr. Sharma. “By the end of the day, many people have not had time to think or process what happened during the day due to the sheer volume of tasks and overload of responsibilities.”

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The result? All of the stresses of the day can bubble up as racing thoughts at night, says Dr. Sharma, once there’s finally nothing else requiring your attention or focus.

And even on days that aren’t too busy or outwardly stressful, people tend to fill their waking hours with plenty of outside distractions that keep the mind occupied—which is another reason why racing thoughts tend to occur at night, says clinical psychologist Kate Kaplan, PhD , clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. “Without the conversation, work email, or television show to focus on, thoughts may instead take center stage.”

Separately, what you bring into your body can also contribute to racing thoughts. Dr. Sharma says that substances such as stimulants, psychedelics, some prescription pills, alcohol, and marijuana can all lead to racing thoughts, as can caffeine and nicotine, “both the use and the withdrawal.” And Dr. Breus notes that “drinking a lot of energy drinks,” specifically, is another common cause.

What are racing thoughts a symptom of?

Unfortunately for those of us who have dealt with racing thoughts—and in turn, a lack of quality sleep—there’s no one cause to blame. But looking at how frequently someone experiences this issue can help determine whether it’s a symptom of something bigger or just a response to everyday stress.

Clinical psychologist Nicole Short, PhD , assistant professor of psychology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says there’s cause for concern if racing thoughts are persistent or happening more nights than not, adding that “they can be a sign of anxiety, depression, or ADHD.” Other potential root causes include other conditions that alter a person’s thought processes, like bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder , and schizoaffective disorder , according to Dr. Sharma.

Where anxiety is the culprit, racing thoughts tend to occur alongside physical symptoms of anxiety 1 —like faster breathing, a rapid heart rate, and an inability to stay still (hello tossing and turning!)—as well as irrational fears and in some cases panic attacks, says Dr. Sharma. Whereas, with depression, racing thoughts at night are typically present in patients “who are suffering from negative, self-deprecating thoughts that are persistent and cause distress.”

But again, experiencing racing thoughts (at night or otherwise) doesn’t necessarily mean you have a mental health disorder. Yes, racing thoughts “can cause significant distress,” but they “would be one of many symptoms that would have to be present in order to establish any diagnosis,” says Dr. Sharma.

Why does anxiety get worse at night?

Anxiety and sleep issues tend to go hand-in-hand, as just about anyone with anxiety will tell you. In fact, anxiety disorders and sleep disorders are actually considered common comorbidities 2 , and studies show 3 that people with anxiety disorders are more prone to sleep disturbances like insomnia and nightmares.

This doesn’t mean that someone’s anxiety will go away during the daytime, though. There’s just more opportunity for it to rear its head when the outside world is quiet. During the day, anxious people may be focusing their energy on any number of tasks they need to accomplish. But come bedtime, those distractions fade away, leaving more space for the anxiety to take hold.

Essentially, your mind may use the calm of night as an opportunity to “chew over the events of what is bothering you,” whether it’s a stressful situation that happened, say, at work or with your children that day, says Dr. Sharma. When you don’t create the space to think about the situation and feel your feelings during the day, the thoughts can just pile on at night, she says.

There’s also the issue of sleep anxiety , which refers to the particular kind of anxiety that comes from not being able to fall asleep and worrying about not getting enough sleep as a result. Dr. Kaplan notes that this form of anxiety is another contributing factor to racing thoughts at night. “Over time, when one struggles to fall asleep night after night, the bed itself may become associated with worry, anxiety, or arousal, triggering even more of that 'racing mind' at bedtime,” she says.

How to reduce racing thoughts at night

Just because you may be struggling with racing thoughts at night doesn’t mean you’re stuck with them—so, try not to, well, worry about all those worries. Below, you’ll find plenty of techniques you can try throughout the day and in the moment to help keep racing thoughts at bay.

1. Establish a bedtime routine

“Having a good wind-down routine in the hour before bed that’s focused on relaxing, pleasant activities can be helpful,” says Dr. Kaplan. Doing the same things before bed each night signals to your brain that it’s time to rest and can help ease you into sleep.

While the ideal bedtime routine will look different for everyone, there are a few general components you’ll want to include. Going to bed at the same time each night is one of them, as is avoiding too many stimuli in the hour before bed—yes, that means you should be putting your phone and laptop away and shutting off the TV before winding down. You can also consider adding a few self-care elements into your bedtime ritual, like a nice warm shower or bath, an intentional skin-care routine, or a cozy cup of tea or sleepy girl mocktail .

2. Make sure your day is set up in a sleep-friendly way

Having a solid bedtime routine isn’t the only way to help keep racing thoughts at night in check. In fact, Dr. Short says your behavior during the day—including what you do in the morning and in the afternoon —can play just as big a role in setting you up to doze off easily at night.

“People should make sure they are waking up at the same time each morning , using their bed only for sleep (and not other activities), and avoiding naps if they are not tired at night,” says Dr. Short. “It is also important that people are active during the day, so that they will actually be tired at night.”

Creating a workout routine for better sleep might look like doing moderate physical activity at least three hours before your bedtime (if you’re an evening exerciser) or starting your day with vigorous activity (if you’re a morning exerciser) to ensure that, again, you’re sufficiently tired by nighttime and more likely to fall asleep quickly when you hit the hay.

3. Acknowledge stressful thoughts throughout the day

Because racing thoughts at night are so commonly caused by ignoring stressful moments throughout the day, Dr. Sharma suggests being mindful of your worries in the moment when they’re actually arising, as much as you can.

“Try to notice during the day when things bother you,” says Dr. Sharma, “and rather than push [these worries] away, acknowledge them even for a moment, or take a minute to jot down your thoughts on your phone and come back to them later, when you have more time.” The act of turning your attention to your stressors during the day, even if just for a few seconds, can keep them from ballooning to outsize proportions come nighttime.

4. Carve out a worry period during the daytime

If acknowledging your thoughts and concerns whenever they pop up feels like too big of an ask, you can also dedicate a specific time each day to focus directly on them.

“Set aside a 20-minute block of time, ideally at the same time and place each day, where you allow worries to occur,” suggests Dr. Kaplan. This creates a sort of container for the worries that can better train your brain to avoid rabbit-holing when you’re trying to sleep. “If worries come up outside of this block of time, including at night, you can remind yourself to ‘postpone’ these worries for your next scheduled worry period,” says Dr. Kaplan, freeing up your brain for sleep.

5. Add mindful activities to your day

Dr. Sharma suggests adding activities into your daily life that can help promote mindfulness and thus reduce the intensity of racing thoughts at night.

“Deep breathing and relaxation are wonderful ways to decompress, as are meditation and yoga,” says Dr. Sharma. Other people may resonate more with gardening, cooking, or reading, she says—all of which can bring you into the present moment, essentially strengthening the brain’s ability to avoid ruminative spiraling.

6. Get out of bed for a bit

If all else fails and after 15 or 20 minutes, you still find yourself in bed tossing and turning as thoughts spiral through your mind, the best course of action is actually getting up and engaging in some sort of pleasant distraction for a little while, says Dr. Short.

It might seem counterintuitive, but getting out of bed is among many sleep doctors’ top tips for sleep difficulties because it can help the brain avoid associating the bed with a place for wakefulness and help take some of the pressure off of continually trying to fall asleep.

In particular, Dr. Short suggests relocating to the couch or a comfy chair and reading a book or doing something else relaxing in dim lighting for 10 to 30 minutes. “Then try again to go to bed once you actually feel sleepy,” she says, and you might just be surprised at your better luck the second go-round.

How do you get back to sleep when your mind is racing?

If you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night to racing thoughts, there are a few things you can try to help yourself fall back asleep. Dr. Kaplan suggests turning to calming breathing exercises or meditation (perhaps via a meditation app ) to help your body and mind relax again. But she also cautions against putting pressure on yourself to fall back asleep quickly.

“The goal of these techniques is not to make sleep happen—sometimes the more we try to sleep, the more performance anxiety we create and the more it backfires—but rather to turn the channel from racing thoughts onto more relaxing topics, which might then set the stage for sleep to occur,” says Dr. Kaplan.

When to speak to a doctor about racing thoughts at night

While racing thoughts at night may be stressful, medical attention isn’t always necessary, especially if they’re not a common occurrence. But if you experience racing thoughts multiple nights a week or find that your sleep or daytime functioning are being impacted by such overthinking, it’s time to speak to a doctor, says Dr. Short.

“You could start with your general practitioner, but a psychologist specializing in behavioral sleep medicine is ideal to help figure out what's going on,” says Dr. Short.

Finding a sleep professional to help is especially important if the racing thoughts at night create insomnia, says Dr. Kaplan. At that point, “seeking a provider trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) can be helpful,” she says, referring to the first-line treatment for insomnia that focuses on changing the thoughts and behaviors that may be contributing to a person’s sleep issues.

Both the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine have directories of CBT-I providers.

• Gelenberg, Alan J.. “Psychiatric and Somatic Markers of Anxiety: Identification and Pharmacologic Treatment.”  Primary care companion to the Journal of clinical psychiatry  vol. 2,2 (2000): 49-54. doi:10.4088/pcc.v02n0204
• Gao, May et al. “Targeting Anxiety to Improve Sleep Disturbance: A Randomized Clinical Trial of App-Based Mindfulness Training.”  Psychosomatic medicine  vol. 84,5 (2022): 632-642. doi:10.1097/PSY.0000000000001083
• Staner, Luc. “Sleep and anxiety disorders.”  Dialogues in clinical neuroscience  vol. 5,3 (2003): 249-58. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2003.5.3/lstaner

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10 Sleep Experts on What to Do When You Can’t Sleep at Night

Some nights, it’s like you can’t get your brain to shut up long enough for you to fall asleep . You’re mentally reviewing the day you just completed while also previewing the day ahead ; sometimes, your mind may even reach way back into the archives and pull up something embarrassing you did back in high school. So fun! Or maybe you’re dealing with your little ones’ dreaded nighttime routine and the second your head hits the pillow , you’ve already begun stressing about having to run it all back the following day. Nothing like a dose of insomnia to ease your worries.

Racing thoughts or overthinking can be a sign of a serious mental-health condition like anxiety . But these nights also happen to everyone from time to time — and once we’re too old for bedtime stories , it’s not always clear what to do. Since of course there’s no one solution that will work for everybody, we’ve rounded up suggestions from ten sleep experts to help you turn your brain off at night. At the very least, it’s something to read next time you can’t sleep.

Get a little proactive.

“When you lay down at night, you don’t have any of the distractions that surround you during the day — people talking to you, dogs barking, the temptation of your smartphone. Thus, when you go to bed and remove the distractions, simmering concerns and anxiety can rise to the top. If you are struggling with a lot of anxiety, keeping a ‘worry journal’ near your bed where you jot down concerns about 30 minutes before bedtime (or in the middle of the night if you can’t sleep) can help you with this issue. Meditation during the day can also help you deal with the ‘monkey mind.’” — Dr. Craig Canapari, associate professor at the Yale University School of Medicine and director of the Pediatric Sleep Center at Yale New Haven Hospital

Distract yourself with meaningless mental lists.

“The absolute prerequisite for sleep is a quiet mind. Think of something else, rather than what’s worrying you — something with a story to it. It can be anything of interest, but of no importance, so you can devote some brain energy to it without clashing into the real world and going straight back to your worries. I fly a lot, so I imagine I have my own private jet and how would I arrange the furniture on it. If you’re someone who likes going to music festivals, what would your lineup be?” —Neil Stanley, sleep expert

Try to stay awake instead.

“Thinking about sleep and wishing for it to happen is a recipe for staying awake. This is where paradoxical thinking comes in. If you give yourself the paradoxical instruction to stay awake instead, you’ll be more likely to fall asleep. If you can be comfortable with the idea of remaining awake, then the performance anxiety and frustration that are associated with trying to sleep have nowhere to go and your arousal level drops.” —Colin Espie, professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford

Or just get out of bed.

“If 20 minutes has gone by as the mind races and is unable to relax back to sleep, it’s best to get out of bed. Without looking at your phone or any other screen devices, go to another dimly lit room where you keep a notebook. Write down the thoughts that are keeping you awake. Finish with the words, ‘It can wait until tomorrow.’ Then, go back to bed, focus on the breath, and mindfully relax into those words, giving yourself permission to yield to sleep.” —Jenni June, sleep consultant

Lower your heart rate.

“First of all, racing thoughts actually make sense. Think about it: It’s literally the only time of the day that you get where someone is not asking you questions or pulling your attention elsewhere. When the lights go off, the brain unfortunately kicks into gear, and this can be an issue. What most people do not know about entering into a state of unconsciousness is that you need a heart rate of about 60 or below. When your mind is racing, your heart rate is usually much higher. These thoughts are producing anxiety, which releases cortisol and makes it even more difficult to fall asleep. So what can you do?

I teach a breathing technique that helps lower the patient’s heart rate below 60. My favorite is 4-7-7 breathing, or box breathing: in for a count of four, out for seven, hold for seven. This requires concentration, counting, and not focusing on your worries or anxieties. It also mechanically slows your heart rate and gets you into the sleep zone. Meditation can work, or playing simple mind games like reciting the alphabet, etc.” — Dr. Michael J. Breus, clinical psychologist and sleep-medicine expert at Sleep Doctor

Write down whatever’s freaking you out.

“Spend a maximum of 20 minutes just getting everything out of your head and onto paper every day. It’s a therapeutic way to see that you probably don’t have loads to worry about, rather just a few reoccurring things. You can then see which worries are hypothetical (i.e., what if I make a mistake at work and lose my job) or ‘real’ worries (e.g., I made a mistake and have lost my job). For the real worries you can then make an action plan/problem-solve and for the hypothetical ones, learn to let them go.” —Kathryn Pinkham, National Health Services insomnia specialist

Get back in bed and do some deep breathing.

“Deep breathing acts as a powerful distraction technique, particularly if paired with counting. You want to aim to breathe out for longer than you breathe in, and pause after breathing in and out; so you might choose to count for three when you breathe in, then pause and count to five when you breathe out, then pause. Really focus on your breathing and counting, and if your mind wanders off, just take note of that and return your attention to the exercise. You may need to do this for ten minutes or so.” —Christabel Majendie, sleep therapist

Try not to try so hard.

“Try not to struggle or ‘try harder’ to overcome the sleeplessness or get rid of unwanted thoughts, as this can worsen insomnia. One successful approach to overcome this negative cycle is to instead learn to observe and accept these struggles, using mindfulness strategies to help.” —Jenny Stephenson, director of HappySleepers

Or maybe plan how you’ll get some sun in the a.m.

“Getting more sun exposure in the midmorning can help readjust the brain’s internal clock and make it easier to fall asleep later that night. In my book, I write about how sun exposure is now a key part of many professional athletes’ travel schedules, and seen as a way of preventing jet lag. Non-athletes can do similar things. Someone who can’t seem to fall asleep at night may want to try getting as much exposure to natural light in the morning, essentially prepping themselves to fall asleep when they want to.” — David K. Randall, author of Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep

And if all else fails …

“The great era of tinkering with sleep aids was popular in early modern Europe. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Put some blood-sucking leeches behind your ears. When they bore holes in the skin, pull them out and place a grain of opium in each hole. (From 16th-century French physician André du Laurens.)

• Kill a sheep, and then press its steaming lungs on either side of the head. Keep the lungs in place as long as they remain warm. (From 16th-century French surgeon Ambroise Paré.)

• After the evening meal, eat lettuce, drink wine, and rub an ointment made of the oil of violets or camphor on the temples. Dissolve a mixture of poppy seeds, lettuce seeds, balsam, saffron, and sugar and cook it in poppy juice. Then listen to pleasant music and lie down on a bed covered with the leaves of fresh, cool plants. (From 15th-century philosopher Marsilio Ficino.)” —Benjamin Reiss, author of Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World

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Nighttime Mind Wandering: 9 Tips To Break The Habit

Nighttime mind wandering is a key contributor to insomnia and sleep disorders. This mental restlessness not only affects your ability to fall asleep and recharge your internal batteries, but also contributes to difficulty concentrating during the day, reduced task performance, and increased stress.

Nighttime mind wandering often correlates to dwelling on the past, worrying or trying to plan things out for the future. It’s an easy habit to get into and a difficult one to break.

Here are 9 simple tips you can try to help you reel in your nighttime mind wandering and align yourself for better sleep.

1. Identify thought patterns

If you find yourself regularly staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night thinking the same loop of repetitive thoughts, it’s time you become a little more proactive by becoming less reactive .

Instead of getting frustrated or mad that you’re awake, notice which themes keep circulating your mind. Are you stressed because of something work related, is it a relationship issue, health, or family? Instead of trying to control your thoughts or shut them down completely, just take a step back and notice as they pass by.

Once you’ve take the time to acknowledge your thoughts, you can learn to observe them without getting attached. This allows you to become aware of thought patterns and also your tendencies to act on them. Instead of tuning in to your wave of constant mental chatter, you allow the stream to pass by without reacting. Your attention stays rooted in the present and you mindfully disengage from the tendency to get caught up in repetitive thought patterns.

2. Make a list if actionable steps

Sometimes, you just have a lot on the go.

Work, family, relationships, personal life… and at times, it can definitely be overwhelming.

One of the most useful ways to make sense of  your busyness, is to write it all down.

Take a few minutes to sort through your mental chaos by simply sitting down and writing out what needs to be do. Once you have clearly identified what needs to be done, start to focus on the steps you need to take to start getting things off of your list.

Understanding that lack of restful sleep can both cause and be caused by too much stress, it is important to identify and when possible, reduce your stress load.

3. Set a bedtime routine – and stick to it

Kids aren’t the only ones who benefit from having a bedtime routine.

Keeping a nighttime routine including going to bed and waking up at the same time (even on weekends) is beneficial for regulating your sleep .

Try to unwind early from your day before you even enter your bedroom to start sleeping. If your mind is still racing and your body hasn’t had a chance to relax from today’s busyness, it’s going to be hard to fall asleep.

Start a bedtime ritual to help keep you on track. Set a time to start reading, journalling, or whatever it is that helps you get settled before sleep.

Soothing music has been found to help improve sleep quality, duration, efficiency and reduced disturbance.

4. Be careful using technology in your bedroom

If you find yourself working from your bedroom or checking messages in bed right before going to sleep, it might be time to ditch the technology.

In addition to emitting electromagnetic radiation , cellphones are also known to disrupt sleep patterns.

A recent study found that extensive use of cellphones, televisions and computers delayed sleep and wake schedules.

Supporting research has found that people who use technology too close to bed time often experience poor sleep. The lack of quality sleep in this study was found to be a predictor of anxiety and depression.

5. Watch your diet

An afternoon coffee might keep you going for a few more hours at the office but can also keep you awake when you’re trying to sleep at night.

Even small doses of caffeine can negatively affect your sleep if taken too late in the day. If you plan on consuming this stimulant for example having a coffee, tea, or chocolate bar, make sure that you have it at least 6 hours before bedtime to avoid disruption.

6. Simplify your sleeping quarters

Messy rooms can be bad for your mental health. In addition to increasing stress levels, they can also adversely affect your sleep and make you more tired during the day.

Remove any unnecessary clutter from your sleeping space. If you don’t have room to store your personal belongings in an organized manner, get rid of it!

Having too much stuff around creates a chaotic environment and can make it harder for your mind to unwind. Reduce the amount of clutter in your room and make sleeping quarters as cozy and comfortable as possible.

7. Get more exercise

If you’re tired and overly busy, even the mere thought of exercising can be exhausting.

Yet if you muster a bit of energy to go for a walk, jog, or spin class, you might be surprised how exercising helps you feel better and unwind at the end of the day.

Exercise and personal fitness are known to improve overall health and lower stress levels .

Physical exercise has also been linked to improved sleep quality , sleep duration and better improved alertness throughout the day.

8. Get outside

Spending time outside is great for your physical and mental health.

Whether you’re out in backcountry camping or taking a jog around your neighbourhood park, exposure to nature has been linked with numerous benefits.

A study conducted in Zurich, Switzerland found that individuals who were spending time outside were seeing great benefits to their health and overall sense of well-being. The research identified that people were recovering from stress, reducing physical discomforts (such as headaches), and feeling an improved sense of balance in their lives simply by spending time in outdoor areas. The benefits experienced were even greater for individuals exercising in these outdoor spaces.

9. Practice being at home

If your life is full of to-do lists and hectic deadlines you’re likely to fall into a schedule of go-go-go.

For many people, busyness has simply become a way of life. The continual act of doing whether at work or at home can make it very hard to unwind.

Some people even feel guilty about taking time to sit and  be when they have so much on their plate.

Unfortunately, this kind of pressure and associated thinking can create lots of stress, late night mind wandering.

It’s important that you find time to practice being at home. This includes following your return from work, or even after finishing your chores in your living space. Take pleasure in whatever it is that makes you happy in this familiar and special place. Enjoy a quiet cup of tea, reading a book, walking your dog, or gardening.

Not only can this help you unwind at the end of the day, but it can bring you a lot of mental peace and promote relaxation.

Nighttime mind wandering can become a difficult habit to break.

In addition to interfering with your sleep, it can negatively impact your cognitive function, work performance and health.

Learning how to disengage from your mental chatter mindfully is an effective way to help you regain more peaceful rest and relaxation.

Try these 9 tips and let us know which ones work best for you!

Photos by  Ben Blennerhassett and  Alexandre Godreau

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Why your brain may be "sleeping" when your eyes are wide open

A new understanding of sleep may explain why the mind wanders.

The classical idea of sleep is that it's an all-or-nothing phenomenon. If someone is responsive, they are awake. If they are not awake, they are in snooze-town.

This concept is bolstered by what we observe in the brain. Tests that detect electrical activity show this activity looks different during wakefulness and sleep, and especially during deep sleep. Slow wave activity is most common during our deepest moments of slumber, a beating rhythm of neurons linked to memory and learning consolidation.

But this view of one of, if not the most , quintessential parts of life is changing. Recent research suggests various parts of the brain can be in different sleep states, regardless of whether a person is, from a behavioral perspective, awake or asleep.

This idea lends itself to an emerging concept — the phenomenon of “local sleep,” explored by Thomas Andrillon and colleagues in a study recently published in the journal Nature Communications .

During local sleep, brains can show signs of the slow waves seen in deep sleep despite the person whose cranium holds that brain being awake. This study suggests slow waves during waking hours may predict when the mind wanders or when it goes blank.

It also means the relationship between sleep and consciousness is more tangled than previously realized.

“Sleep, from a brain perspective, is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon,” Andrillon, a research fellow at the Paris Brain Institute and Monash University, tells me.

“In particular, sometimes, different parts of the brain can be in different wake or sleep states. The boundary between wake and sleep is therefore far more fluid than previously thought.”

Searching for slow waves

When your mind goes blank, it means you’re awake but feel empty of mind; your stream of consciousness has come to a halt. Mind-wandering, meanwhile, is when your focus drifts to thoughts unrelated to the task at hand — like when you’re thinking about what you should have said during an argument earlier in the day while you’re answering emails at night.

“Why do we spend so much time not paying attention to our environment?”

Daydreaming, Andrillon says, is a form of mind-wandering, but it is also “fundamentally different.” Daydreaming is more elaborate than most mind-wandering, and its neural mechanisms could be quite distinct, too. He should know: “I am a frequent, and perhaps too frequent, daydreamer.”

Andrillon’s academic interest in both daydreaming and mind-wandering is rooted in longstanding questions like: Why do we spend so much time not paying attention to our environment? What happens in the brain during these moments?

To determine the answers to these questions and more, Andrillon and colleagues recruited 26 people and recorded their whole brain electrical activity while they completed a boring task for almost two hours. Every 30 to 70 seconds, the researchers interrupted the participants and asked them whether their mental state was mind-wandering, mind-blanking, or task-focused — as well as how tired they were.

The idea here, Andrillon explains, is that mind-wandering, for example, “could be associated with parts of the brain sleeping while the rest is awake,” Andrillon says.

Mind-wandering “could be associated with parts of the brain sleeping while the rest is awake.”

Subsequent analysis revealed that before their minds started to wander, slow waves started emerging in frontal brain areas. Meanwhile, if slow waves appeared in rear regions of the brain, such as the parietal lobe, they tended to be followed by mind blanking.

When these shifts happen in the brain, past research suggests they occur spontaneously — without the knowledge or will of the person.

The study team proposes these states of mind may be explained by “sleep-like, low-frequency, high-amplitude waves” and the occurrence of slow waves predicted the time of attentional lapse.

Local sleep, a concept to explore

There’s a reason Andrillion hedges the findings’ implications. Because of the non-invasive nature of the study, the researchers don’t have complete access to the neural activity of individual brain regions. This makes it difficult to tell if specific regions were actually sleeping and which ones were not.

“What we have is something that looks like sleep, which is an important distinction,” he says.

Andrillion hypothesizes local sleep is a function of saving up energy. It could be “the equivalent of a ‘battery saver,’” he says, something that allows you to “switch off parts of your brain so that you can slow down the accumulation of fatigue and save up your resources for later.”

In a way, this is why his team is interested in examining the brain activity during sleep and wakefulness in individuals with ADHD . Attentional issues often go hand-in-hand with sleep problems if you have ADHD. It’s possible local sleep could help explain why.

The researchers also want to learn if the mechanisms that drive slow waves during wakefulness are the same as the ones produced during sleep — and they want to build ways of predicting these transitions.

“It would be great to see if we could use slow waves to detect mind-wandering and lapses of attention in real-time and in real-life settings,” Andrillion says.

This article was originally published on July 11, 2021

Mind Racing Before Sleep? Here Are Strategies to Fall Sleep Peacefully

Published on June 30, 2020 Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr. Carl Rosenberg

“I just can’t turn my brain off at night.” This is one common complaint among those who struggle with insomnia and others who have difficulty falling asleep. Worrying about daily stressors, like work and finances, counting the minutes that go by, and imagining how tired you will be in the morning…it can be an irritating problem.

If your thoughts are keeping you up at night, the trick is to change the unhealthy pattern. We have provided some information on the cause of this problem and strategies to help you find relief from a racing mind at night.

Racing Mind and Anxiety

Rapid thoughts are often a symptom associated with anxiety. They can make people feel out of control or as if they are going crazy.

When it comes to sleep, this effect of anxiety is a cyclical problem. Because your brain struggles to focus when it is tired, it often leads to racing thoughts. Anxiety and racing thoughts then keep you awake, a lack of sleep is bothersome, and sleep deprivation continues to contribute to anxiety. So, how can we break this cycle of anxiety and sleeplessness?

Find out more about symptoms of insomnia and CBTi – an Effective, Drug-Free Treatment for Insomnia .

This infographic provides some advice for calming your brain and getting to sleep faster.

How to Get to Sleep when Your Mind Is Racing

If you are frustrated and tired, try these cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. You may discover a more relaxing and effective way to get the sleep you need.

Don’t Lie Awake in Bed

This can be a very frustrating problem that seems to become worse the more you think about it. It’s imperative that you break this vicious cycle of poor sleep and worry about not sleeping. For this reason, we recommend avoiding lying awake in bed. If you haven’t nodded off within 20 minutes of putting your head on the pillow, get up. Go back to your relaxing activity – journaling, reading, meditation, listening to music…Then, when you begin to feel sleepy, try to go back to bed.

This CBTi technique is called stimulus control . It may sound counter-productive, but many people find that engaging in a relaxing activity outside of bed helps occupy the brain in a positive way. This works to break the negative association that insomniacs and restless sleepers often develop in relation to bedtime.

Calm Your Mind

Relaxation training is what many commonly associate with calming exercises. Though these methods may feel silly at first, guided imagery, medication, and mindfulness are all beneficial for a racing mind. More specifically, you can focus on slowing your breath and using progressive muscle relaxation to take your mind off stressors.

Free Your Thoughts

It’s difficult to fall asleep when you are making lists of things to do and worrying about family, work, money, and other challenges. Rather than trying to simply ignore these thoughts, try to eliminate them from your thought patterns before bed. In the evening, you should get in the habit of identifying stressors by journaling and writing down lists for yourself. Once the ideas are on paper, you may find that you’ve freed up your mind.

Keep It Positive

To break the cycle of racing thoughts and worrying about lack of sleep , highlight the positive aspects of your life. Keeping a gratitude journal can help disrupt the negative mindset. Making this type of journaling a habit, gives you the opportunity to emphasize the good relationships and features that you are thankful for in your life.

Focus on Your Senses

To take the focus away from stressful thoughts, create a wind-down routine around sensorial experience. Lower the lights and consider a relaxing way to stimulate each of the five senses to find a method that works well for you. Here are some ideas.

• Sight – guided imagery, coloring mandalas , pictures of a peaceful place
• Smell – scented candle, aromatherapy
• Touch – warm bath, weighted blanket , self-massage, light yoga
• Taste – sleep-friendly snack , chamomile tea
• Hear – sound machine, white noise, instrumental music

Make the Bedroom Your Haven for Sleep

It’s important to reserve the bedroom for sleep and make it a relaxing space. This means keeping it neat and furnishing it with colors and textures that you find soothing, rather than stimulating. Keep work materials, computers, and screens out of the bedroom.

Good sleep hygiene includes turning the temperature down in the bedroom and using shades or curtains to make it dark and help induce sleep. To avoid counting minutes and worrying about not having enough time to get the rest you need, keep alarms and clocks away from the bed.

Want more advice? Check out these 10 Tips for Falling Asleep Faster .

Always Feeling Tired? Find the Solution

Contact Sleep Health Solutions of Ohio for a full sleep evaluation and begin the journey to a more rested life.

Written by Dr. Carl Rosenberg

Dr. Rosenberg is specialized in sleep medicine and neurology. He is also certified by the American Board of Sleep Disorders Medicine and the American Board of Psychology and Neurology. Patients with a wide range of issues are referred for sleep studies and he works together with them to find effective solutions that fit their lifestyle.

Dr. Carl Rosenberg frequently blogs for Sleep Health Solutions Read other articles written by Dr. Carl Rosenberg

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How to Stop Your Mind from Wandering

Last Updated: June 24, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Ni-Cheng Liang, MD . Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang is a board certified Pulmonologist and the Director of Pulmonary Integrative Medicine at Coastal Pulmonary Associates affiliated with the Scripps Health Network in San Diego, California. She also serves as a Voluntary Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine while volunteering for the UCSD Medical Student-Run Free Clinic for uninsured patients. With over 15 years of experience, Dr. Liang specializes in pulmonary and respiratory medical concerns, mindfulness teaching, physician wellness, and integrative medicine. Dr. Liang received her Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Liang was voted as a San Diego Top Doctor in 2017 and 2019. She was also awarded the 2019 American Lung Association San Diego Lung Health Provider of the Year. There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 29,851 times.

It’s normal for the human mind to wander. There are so many different things filling your mind and pulling your thoughts in different directions. This isn’t always a bad thing, either. If you’re a creative person, a wandering mind can spark a new creative project. However, wandering thoughts can also prevent you from getting things done, keep you up at night, or hurt your mental health if you spend your whole day thinking anxious thoughts. Luckily, with some practice and the right techniques, you can learn to focus your mind on the present and control your thoughts to keep them from racing all over the place when you don’t want them to!

Doing Exercises and Activities

• You can also look up different breathing exercises , such as yogic breathing or deep throat breathing, and try those out to find something that works for you.

• For example, if you work in an office and you get 15 minute breaks, you could go outside and go for a 10 minute walk around the block to clear your head.
• If you work from home, you could take a 15-30 minute break and clean and organize your home office space. A clean workspace can also help you focus!

• Try combining this period of doing nothing with slow breathing or another type of breathing exercise. This can help keep your mind from wandering for these 10-15 minutes and calm your thoughts down.
• For example, if you work at home and find that you can’t concentrate, take a break and go sit on your balcony or lay down on your bed, away from your laptop and work things. Do nothing for at least 10 minutes and see how it affects your racing thoughts.

Tip : Stay off your phone and other electronics during this time. If you spend the time on social media, for example, you're not giving your mind a rest. Truly try to do nothing at all other than just sit or lay there.

• For example, if you’re feeling stressed, you could use a simple phrase like “everything is OK” or “life is beautiful.”
• Single word mantras you can try include “strong,” “calm,” and “finish.” These could work well if you’re trying to power through something like a run or a chore without getting distracted.

• You can search online for meditation techniques or download something like a mindfulness app to help you if you’re totally new to meditating. Meditation takes practice, but stick with it and you might find that you really benefit from it!
• The classic mantra for focusing on meditation is just “om.” You could try repeating this out loud or in your head while you meditate.

Controlling Anxious Thoughts

• This can also help you organize your anxious thoughts, so you can address their causes later on.
• For example, if you’re having trouble sleeping because you can’t stop thinking about everything you have to do tomorrow, try writing down a to-do list to get the thoughts out of your head and help you get to sleep.

• For example, if you are worried about turning a project in to your boss, think about ways it could help your career if your boss really loves your work.
• Say you’re studying for a test in a topic that you find difficult and you keep thinking about what will happen if you fail the test, so it’s hard to focus on studying. Instead, try thinking about how great you can do on the test and how it will boost your grade if you study hard.

• For example, you might be avoiding putting a big report together at work because it’s slow and tedious, but you find your mind wandering to this task that’s hanging over you. Set aside time in each day to work on the report, so you make progress instead of just dreading it.

• For example, if you can’t seem to focus on anything because all you’re thinking about is your ongoing divorce, maybe seeing a therapist to talk about it would help you control those thoughts.
• If your mind is wandering because you’re frustrated about something at work, maybe getting a coffee with a coworker you trust and talking to them about whatever the issue is will help calm your mind.

Tip : If you think you might have clinical-level anxiety, it’s always best to talk to a professional about it. They can provide you with a professional treatment to help you get it under control.

• For instance, say you’re having trouble focusing on being present with your family over a long weekend because you’re worried about something at work. Try to accept that in this particular moment you can’t do anything about your work tasks and focus on enjoying the family time.

• For example, if your mind is continuously thinking about what it would be like to work in a different job, it might be time to consider a career change and start looking for another position.
• If you keep thinking about a conflict with a colleague you’re having at work, it might help calm your thoughts to sit down with them and talk about it.

Focusing on Tasks

• Any activities you do throughout your day can be considered tasks. For instance, when you’re eating your lunch, try to focus just on your lunch. Don’t try to multitask and work or study while you eat.
• If you’re talking to someone, try to focus 100% on the conversation and not let yourself get distracted by noises or other people around you. After the conversation is over, move on to your next task.
• If you need to put together a presentation for a work meeting, focus on getting the presentation totally done before you move onto another task like checking your email or looking at data.

Tip : Training your brain to focus on 1 thing is just like training your body. It can be hard at first, but with practice you can learn to control your mind and focus it on the task at hand.

• For example, if you work in an office with a bunch of other people around, it can be tempting to look around the room to find the culprit any time someone coughs or sneezes. Don’t let yourself do this!
• If you have to sit next to a window and there is something going on outside that distracts you, such as a building under construction, practice not looking out the window every time a crane moves.
• You can also try removing distractions in settings like classrooms and offices by closing drapes or blinds to block your view or putting in headphones to block out noise.

• For example, you could give yourself a free thinking period from 5:30-6:00 every day. During this time, don’t try to work, study, or get any other tasks done. For these 30 minutes, let yourself think about any worries you have or do any planning you need to do.
• Say you keep thinking about an upcoming vacation and all the things you still need to do to get ready. Instead of letting your mind wander to it all day, designate a time block during which you can do things like making a packing list or researching sites you want to visit, then refocus on your other tasks.

Expert Q&A

Reader Videos

• Mini-interactions with nature can help you feel more calm and focus on the present. For example, if you go for a walk to try and calm your thoughts, try walking barefoot across some grass or touching some trees and leaves in a park. [18] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Everyone has days during which their mind wanders more than normal and it feels impossible to get things done. It’s OK to take a day off work and stay home to help relieve stress, calm your mind, and stay healthy mentally. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Persistent anxious thoughts can be a sign of a bigger mental disorder. If you can’t get your anxiety under control on your own, see a licensed therapist who can help you develop a treatment plan. [19] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ Ni-Cheng Liang, MD. Board Certified Pulmonologist. Expert Interview. 18 June 2021.
• ↑ https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/mindful_breathing
• ↑ https://rachelfintzy.com/20-tips-to-stop-your-mind-from-wandering-and-overthinking/
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-s-mental-health-matters/201604/5-ways-stop-your-racing-thoughts
• ↑ https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_focus_a_wandering_mind
• ↑ https://www.fastcompany.com/90300162/ask-yourself-these-four-questions-when-your-mind-starts-to-wander
• ↑ https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/anxiety-and-panic-attacks/self-care/
• ↑ https://adaa.org/tips
• ↑ https://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/concentration-mind-power/how-to-keep-your-mind-from-wandering/
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-brain-work/200910/easily-distracted
• ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/11/08/7-ways-to-pull-your-wandering-mind-back-into-the-present-moment/#785965da3314

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A Wandering Mind Isn't Just A Distraction. It May Be Your Brain's Default State.

Senior Writer, The Huffington Post

Even if you don’t consider yourself a daydreamer, you probably spend a lot of time in a state of mental wandering ― it’s natural for your mind to drift away from the present moment when you’re in the shower, walking to work or doing the dishes.

In recent years, scientists have been paying a lot more attention to mind-wandering, an activity that takes up as much as 50 percent of our waking hours . Psychologists previously tended to view mind-wandering as largely useless, but an emerging body of research suggests that it is a natural and healthy part of our mental lives.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley conducted a review of over 200 studies to highlight the relationship between mind-wandering ― often defined in psychological literature as “task-unrelated thought,” or TUT ― and the thinking processes involved in creativity and some mental illnesses, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression.

“Sometimes the mind moves freely from one idea to another, but at other times it keeps coming back to the same idea, drawn by some worry or emotion,” Dr. Kalina Christoff, lead study author and principal investigator of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought Laboratory at UBC, said in a statement.

“Understanding what makes thought free and what makes it constrained is crucial because it can help us understand how thoughts move in the minds of those diagnosed with mental illness,” she said.

The Role Of A Wandering Mind

Traditionally, mind-wandering has been defined as thinking that arises spontaneously, without relating to any sort of task or external input. But this definition is only a starting point: Without external focus, the researchers explain, the mind moves from one thought to another ― jumping between memories, imaginings, plans and goals.

This default “spontaneous mode” can be hemmed in in two ways: A person can deliberately turn their attention to a task, or, in the case of someone with a mental health issue, focus can happen because thoughts have gotten stuck on a persistent worry or pulled away by an environmental distraction.

On a neurological level, the brain’s default mode network ― a broad network that engages many different cognitive processes and regions on the internal surface of the brain ― activates when our minds wander. In contrast, when we focus our attention on a goal, plan or environmental stimulus, the part of the brain devoted to external attention is more active.

Specifically, the researchers pinpointed the memory and imaginative centers within the default mode network as being largely responsible for the variety of our spontaneous thoughts.

“You’re jumping around from one thing to another,” Zachary Irving, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and study co-author who has ADHD, told The Huffington Post. “We think that’s the default state of these memory and imaginative structures.”

A Creative Mind Is A Wandering Mind

Creative thinking can be an extension of ordinary mind-wandering, the researchers explained, and a growing body of research has linked daydreaming with creativity . In highly creative people, psychologists have observed a tendency toward a variation on mind-wandering known as “ positive-constructive daydreaming ,” in which has also been associated with self-awareness, goal-oriented thinking and increased compassion.

The free play of thoughts that occurs in mind-wandering may enable us to think more flexibly and draw more liberally upon our vast internal reservoir of memories, feelings and images in order to create new and unusual connections.

“Mind-wandering in the sense of the mind moving freely from one idea to another has huge benefits in terms of arriving at new ideas,” Christoff said. “It’s by virtue of free movement that we generate new ideas, and that’s where creativity lies.”

What Mind-Wandering Can Tell Us About Mental Illness

This type of mental activity can provide an important window into the thinking patterns that underly psychological disorders involving alterations in spontaneous thought.

The mind of someone with ADHD, for example, wanders more widely and frequently than that of an average individual. In someone with anxiety and depression, the mind has an unusually strong tendency to get stuck on a particular worry or negative thought.

“Disorders like ADHD and anxiety and depression aren’t totally disconnected from what normally goes on in the mind,” Irving said. “There’s this ordinary ebb and flow of thoughts, where you’re moving from mind-wandering to sticky thoughts to goal-directed thoughts. ... We think of these disorders as exaggerated versions of those sorts of ordinary thoughts.”

So despite what your elementary school teachers may have told you, it’s perfectly fine to let your thoughts wander every once in a while. But if you find your mind wandering too much or getting stuck on negative thoughts, it may be time to seek help.

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7 ways to tame your wandering mind and achieve better focus

By Caroline Williams

17 May 2017

“I never knew that helped concentration!”

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Mind wandering has long been thought of as the enemy of concentration, but that’s not always true – the right kind of daydreaming can actually help you focus (see “How to daydream your way to better learning and concentration”) . Read on to discover how to take control of your wandering mind, and other simple ways to stay sharp when deadlines are looming.

How to win at work

Make your work work better for you – from dealing with pesky colleagues to taking the perfect break and doing less for more money, 1. give your mind more to do.

Give your mind more to do: Research by Nilli Lavie at University College London has found that adding deliberate distractions – a jazzy border on a page or a bit of background noise – actually reduces distractibility . Her “load theory” proposes this works because attention is a limited resource, so if you fill all the attentional “slots” in your mind, it leaves no room for other distractions.

2. Bribe yourself

The prospect of a treat can keep people focused , but only when it is well-timed, studies show. Offering people small rewards throughout a boring task didn’t stop them from losing focus, but the promise of a larger reward that they would receive at the end of the task kept them alert. This approach probably works best with an accomplice to keep you from caving early, says Michael Esterman , at the Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, who did the research. “It’s hard to fool yourself.”

Read more: State of unrest – Can fidgeting really help you concentrate?

3. test yourself.

We’re currently finding that there’s more than one way your mind can wander, and that knowing how to navigate your daydreams could save you come exam time. One trick is to make sure your mind is wandering about the stuff you need to learn . To do that, test yourself often. People retained more of a boring lecture if they paused to test what they remembered every 5 minutes. Their minds still wandered, but wandered on topic, rather than anything but .

4. Daydream during breaks

Stopping every now and again to give your mind a chance to wander can invigorate focus, says psychologist Paul Seli of Harvard University. “If you say to yourself, now I’m going to think about something unrelated, maybe problem-solve something else that is on your mind, and then come back to your task. That can definitely be beneficial,” he says.

5. De-stress

You might think that an adrenaline boost would focus the mind, but stress actually stimulates the release of hormones, including noradrenaline, which bind to receptors in the cognitive control circuits. This in turn makes it harder for them to keep tabs on mind wandering.

6. Get some zeds

A lack of sleep hammers mental performance in general, and reduces our ability to resist both internal and external distractions. And there’s an added bonus – sleep is also important for memory consolidation. In fact, recent research suggests that if you have an hour spare before an exam, a nap could be a more effective use of your time than spending it revising.

In one study, people forced to listen to a boring voice recording were able to remember more afterwards if they were allowed to doodle. But content is important. Doodling about something related to what you are trying to remember is more likely to qualify as intentional mind wandering, which can help you focus on the task at hand. Don’t be too elaborate, however – if your doodles become too engaging, the whole thing might backfire.

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How to Stop Your Mind From Wandering During Meditation

Active meditation can prevent intrusive thoughts from sabotaging your practice..

Posted March 27, 2018 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

The virtues of meditation and mindfulness are being extolled almost everywhere. Research has shown the practice of meditation can have positive benefits on emotional well-being and physical health and has been indicated for managing serious conditions such as depression , anxiety , heart disease, high blood pressure, sleep problems, and chronic pain . Getting people to try meditation, however, can sometimes be a challenge, particularly for people who have very active minds. They will often say things like: I just can’t sit still. Meditating makes me anxious. I can’t turn off my brain. I’m just bad at it.

Most meditation teachers will tell you that having your mind wander during meditation is perfectly normal and that bringing your attention back to your meditation every time you notice it wandering is simply part of the process. While mind-wandering is indeed quite normal for beginning meditators and even some experienced ones, it can be very frustrating and can result in people giving up before they get to experience the benefits of meditation that they are seeking. There are also times when stopping certain thoughts is the goal of the practice itself. This is particularly true if you are caught up in a spiral of negative thinking and would like to use meditation to alleviate the ruminative process. When you stop flooding your brain with fear and worry about the future or resentments from the past, this has a profoundly positive effect of resetting your emotional state to calm and peaceful. Luckily, there is something you can do to substantially reduce your mind from wandering. It’s called active meditation or focused meditation.

The brain has a limited attentional capacity. This means that you can only think about a certain number of things at any one given time. One of the challenges with meditation is that as you are clearing your mind, you are creating an open space that wants to be filled. Sometimes when people are coping with stressful events, they turn to meditation to calm their mind and find that their mind floods with even more thoughts of what they are trying not to think about. Active meditation helps this problem by giving you a task to do that takes up all of your attention and occupies its working capacity, so that there is much less room for other thoughts to creep in.

Here is an example of an active meditation:

• Pick one word from the list below that describes an emotion you would like to feel more of: Joy, Love, Happy, Peace, Calm, Hope .
• Close your eyes and visualize the word in your head.
• Pick a color that goes with the word and visualize the word in that color.
• Fill the background with another color.
• Now, with your eyes closed and writing in your head, write the word one letter at a time.
• As you are writing the word, say the letters quietly to yourself in your head.
• Write the colored word on the colored background over and over in your head while you say the letters quietly to yourself.
• Set a timer for 10 minutes and keep doing the exercise until the timer goes off.

If you find it challenging to do all the steps at once, do as many as possible to take up all of your focus. Most people report the activity fills their mind so that they have few intrusive thoughts, but if your mind does wander, don’t judge yourself or label yourself as doing it wrong, simply go back to the activity and focus on the vividness of the colors and seeing the word in your head. You can also add in more steps if you need to occupy more of your attention. For example, you can add the step of trying to feel the emotion of the word as you are writing it in your head.

Once you have done an active meditation a few times, you may find it easier to try a more traditional mind-clearing meditation. There are wonderful benefits to both, though in order to experience the benefits you must practice on a regular basis. Once a week won’t get you there, but 10 minutes a day is enough to start to feel the benefit in a matter of a few days. You should subtly start to notice you feel calmer and less stressed; within a week or two things that used to upset you may not bother you so much anymore. You will feel greater clarity in your thinking and ability to focus.

To add a meditation practice into your routine, it is best to set aside a regular time to do it every day. First thing in the morning is a great way to start your day off on a positive note; however, for some, mid-day is a time that offers a needed break, and right before bed can have a calming effect. You can also break it up into small brief meditations throughout the day, three to four minutes in the morning, three to four minutes mid-day, and three to four minutes in the evening can really add up. What is most important to know is that there isn’t a wrong way to meditate, it’s a matter of finding what works best for you.

Jennice Vilhauer, Ph.D. , is the Director of Emory University’s Adult Outpatient Psychotherapy Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science in the School of Medicine.

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Waking Up to Pee at Night? Here’s How to Fix That and Other Common Sleep Issues

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Whether you’re in a panic about feeding your newly vegan kid or managing appointments for a parent’s illness, you likely have a lot keeping you up. Add biology, and if you wake up ready to embrace the day, you’re one of the lucky ones.

I wake up with a headache

Hot flashes — need i say more, i constantly have to get up to pee, ah nightmares, my darling partner keeps me up, my racing mind keeps me awake.

“For most of my patients, when they go to bed their brains are so active it’s like the volume is turned up too loud,” says Shelby Harris, Psy.D., a clinical associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and author of The Women’s Guide to Overcoming Insomnia . If something is on your mind before you hit the hay, she says — an argument with your spouse, impending layoffs at work, a disturbing article you read — chances are it will resurface in the dead of night. As you toss and turn, thoughts like I’m not sleeping; I can’t afford to be a zombie tomorrow! creep in — and boom , you’ve got sleep anxiety (anxiety about not sleeping).

Harris suggests envisioning sleep as a dimmer switch, not an on/off button, and starting a snooze-conducive routine hours before bed. If to-do’s keep you up, write a list five minutes before hitting the sack; a Journal of Experimental Psychology study found that this helped people conk out significantly faster than those who instead wrote about tasks they’d completed. The more detailed the list, the better.

While you’re at it, replace favorite bedtime procrastination techniques like doomscrolling , texting and TV binge-watching with activities that calm body and mind such as reading something soothing (on paper, not a screen); streaming relaxing music; and lighting a candle and practicing a mindfulness exercise such as meditation, guided imagery or deep breathing. All these will slow your breathing and heart rate, calming your nervous system, says Sara Mednick, Ph.D., director of the Sleep and Cognition Lab at the University of California, Irvine, and author of The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body’s Own Restorative Systems . If you find yourself awake again after dozing off, dip into your calming-activities arsenal. Avoid checking the clock or any wearable sleep tracker, as doing so will likely just trigger sleep anxiety .

If all else fails, “When you start to notice that you’re frustrated or trying to force sleep to happen, or that your brain is just on fire, that’s the signal to get out of bed” and do something calming in dim light until drowsiness hits, Harris says.

Morning headaches and daytime fatigue are red flags for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition that causes breathing to stop and restart dozens of times a night, says Kuljeet Gill, M.D., a neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, IL. OSA is usually associated with men who snore, snort and gasp their way through the night, but 20% of women have it — and not all people with OSA snore. The risk rises in the years leading up to menopause, when estrogen and progesterone, which have a protective effect on lungs and airways, fluctuate and dwindle, Dr. Gill says.

Your body is hinting that something is off-kilter and you should see a doc. Ninety percent of women with OSA don’t know they have it, so if you regularly wake up with a pounding headache or you feel drained throughout the day, Dr. Gill recommends scheduling a sleep study — at home or overnight in a sleep lab. Apnea is treatable, but left undiagnosed it heightens the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and more.

Eighty percent of women experience hot flashes as they ride the hormonal roller coaster through perimenopause and beyond. These spontaneous combustions result when fluctuating or persistently low estrogen levels cause the body’s internal thermostat to malfunction, says Sharon Malone, M.D. , the chief medical adviser for Alloy Women’s Health and the author of Grown Woman Talk . The hellish bouts can include a heart beating like that of a jackrabbit, a 10K run’s worth of sweat and sometimes a sense of impending doom.

Moisture-wicking “cooling” pajamas and sheets should be in your immediate future. But while these can make night sweats more tolerable, they “don’t treat the root cause,” Dr. Malone says. What does? Estrogen-containing hormone treatments or low-dose contraceptives, which she estimates bring relief to 90% of women and are widely considered safe for most who have hot flashes. (Fun fact: The amount of estrogen in menopausal hormone therapy is half to a quarter of the dose in most common oral contraceptives.) Certain antidepressants and herbal supplements may help too . Research also shows that exercise can improve thermoregulatory control and, as a result, reduce hot flashes.

Two-thirds of women over 40 wake up at least once a night with that dreaded gotta-go feeling. And you know what happens next: “You check your phone to see what time it is,” Mednick says, “and suddenly your mind is off to the races.”

Mednick’s number one way to minimize the need to go number one at night: Limit all liquids starting three hours before bedtime to give your bladder an overnight break. That includes alcohol, which many women use as a sleep aid without realizing that it’s a bladder irritant as well as a diuretic, spurring excess urine output. Asking your liver to metabolize rosé when it’s meant to be in rest mode also lowers restorative sleep.

If you awaken, don’t touch that light switch or phone, which will “wake up the planning, managing, worrying parts” of your brain, says Mednick. Try to maintain a dreamlike state, breathing slowly as you pseudo-sleepwalk to the toilet. Use a warm-tinted night-light to prevent falls.

Nightmares are common among midlife women, in whom they are often tied to stress, undulating hormone levels and certain medications including antidepressants, melatonin and other popular sleep aids. Blood pressure drugs are another common culprit, and anecdotal reports are now linking obesity medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy with vivid dreams.

Though the recommended dose of melatonin is 1 mg or less, many consumers tend to take “super-doses” like 5, 10 or even 20 mg — potentially contributing to nightmares and other side effects, notes Dr. Gill. It’s possible that a much lower dose will help you sleep without causing nightmares, but always consult a medical professional before taking any sleep aid, advises Dr. Gill. That includes melatonin, CBD, herbal supplements and marijuana. “For any med that affects your nervous system, there can be a wide variance in your reaction,” explains Dr. Gill — something that helps your friend snooze well could cause terrifying dreams for you.

If you don’t think it’s the sleep aids that are causing the bad dreams, you might want to see a sleep specialist. Occasional nightmares are normal, but when they become frequent enough to cause lasting distress or anxiety, treatments may help. The doctor might suggest a technique called Image Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) in which you work with a therapist to rewrite recurring nightmares using new imagery — say, a threatening individual transforms into a friendly one, or the dark sky over your childhood home turns bright and sunny. “The new script is then mentally rehearsed during waking hours to replace the old, upsetting narrative,” says Harris. With consistent practice, IRT “can reduce the frequency and emotional impact of nightmares.”

Are you certain they aren’t saying the same thing about you? One in three Americans accuses their bedmate of slumber sabotage. Still, when no one is waking you up early with their annoying morning-person energy or yanking off the covers at 2 a.m., life is so much better.

It’s time to get creative. Some folks initiate “sleep divorces,” a.k.a. sleeping in separate bedrooms: The number of millennials interested in dual primary bedrooms doubled between 2007 and 2018 (from 20% to 40%), per an analysis from the National Association of Home Builders . There’s also the less extreme Scandinavian Sleep Method, which involves co-sleeping with separate comforters: Partner A gets their fluffy duvet, Partner B gets their weighted blanket and when one person rolls themself into a burrito, it doesn’t disturb the other. Mednick is also a fan of earplugs and eye masks to block out partner-related noise (snoring, sleep-mumbling) or light (from their reading or watching TV). Upgrading to a bigger bed may help too, if they kick or flop. If your partner takes offense at change, remind them that it doesn’t need to be permanent and encourage them to give it a shot and see if their own sleep improves in the process.

Leslie Goldman, MPH, is a freelance writer specializing in health, women's issues, and parenting. She is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, O, The Oprah Magazine, Women’s Health , Parents , and more. Follow her on Twitter @lesliegoldman.  

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Home / 2024 / July / Scientists find that small regions of the brain can take micro-naps while the rest of the brain is awake and vice versa

Scientists find that small regions of the brain can take micro-naps while the rest of the brain is awake and vice versa

The study more generally shows how previously ignored fast brain waves define basic patterns of sleep and wake

July 16, 2024

By Emily Cerf

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Last modified: July 16, 2024 195.158.225.244

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How Poor Sleep Affects Your Risk of Dementia

For older adults, too much or too little sleep has been tied to cognitive issues.

By Dana G. Smith

Getting too little sleep later in life is associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. But paradoxically, so is getting too much sleep.

While scientists are confident that a connection between sleep and dementia exists, the nature of that connection is complicated. It could be that poor sleep triggers changes in the brain that cause dementia. Or people’s sleep might be disrupted because of an underlying health issue that also affects brain health. And changes in sleep patterns can be an early sign of dementia itself.

Here’s how experts think about these various connections and how to gauge your risk based on your own sleep habits.

Too Little Sleep

Sleep acts like a nightly shower for the brain , washing away the cellular waste that accumulates during the day. During this process, the fluid that surrounds brain cells flushes out molecular garbage and transfers it into the bloodstream, where it’s then filtered by the liver and kidneys and expelled from the body.

That trash includes the protein amyloid, which is thought to play a key role in Alzheimer’s disease. Everyone’s brain produces amyloid during the day, but problems can arise when the protein accumulates into sticky clumps, called plaques. The longer someone is awake, the more amyloid builds up and the less time the brain has to remove it.

Scientists don’t know whether regularly getting too little sleep — typically considered six hours or less a night — is enough to trigger the accumulation of amyloid on its own. But research has found that among adults aged 65 to 85 who already have plaques in their brains , the less sleep they got, the more amyloid was present and the worse their cognition.

“Is lack of sleep sufficient to cause dementia? Probably not by itself alone,” said Dr. Sudha Seshadri, the founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. “But it seems to definitely be a risk factor for increasing the risk of dementia, and perhaps also the speed of decline.”

People with Alzheimer’s disease may start to develop symptoms in their 60s or 70s, but amyloid can begin to accumulate up to two decades earlier . That’s why it’s important to prioritize sleep, aiming for seven to nine hours a night, starting in your 40s or 50s, if not before, said Joe Winer, a postdoctoral fellow of neurology and neurological sciences in the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford University.

“We don’t have a great answer to, like, does your sleep in your 20s impact your late-life risk?” Dr. Winer said. “But I think that the signs point to probably in midlife , as you head toward your 60s and 70s, your sleep is going to be important.”

Some sleep disorders, most notably sleep apnea , are also associated with an increased risk for dementia. That may be because sleep apnea disrupts people’s sleep, or because it tends to occur in people who are overweight or have diabetes, which are also linked to dementia.

But even when you remove the effect of these other issues, sleep apnea appears to confer its own, independent risk for dementia, said Dr. Diego Carvalho, an assistant professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Sleep Medicine. That may be because sleep apnea limits the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain, which can increase brain inflammation and damage blood vessels and cells.

Too Much Sleep

On the other end of the spectrum, too much sleep also appears to be linked to an increased risk for dementia, though perhaps more indirectly.

If a person is regularly staying in bed for more than nine hours a night, or taking multiple naps during the day, it may be a sign that they are sleeping very poorly, which could raise the risk for Alzheimer’s disease because of the reasons listed above.

Alternatively, needing excess sleep might be related to a mental or physical disability. Mental health conditions , like depression, and physical health conditions, such as diabetes or cardiovascular problems, are associated with a higher risk for dementia , as are physical inactivity, loneliness and isolation .

“At this point, there’s no clear causative role of long sleep in relationship to dementia,” Dr. Carvalho said. “It may be more like a symptom of an underlying problem than the cause of the problem.”

An Early Symptom?

Some of the first areas in the brain affected by Alzheimer’s are those that help regulate sleep and circadian rhythms . As a result, people who develop the condition may experience sleep problems even before they show signs of memory loss or other symptoms.

Along with amyloid, the other main protein thought to cause Alzheimer’s disease is called tau. Like amyloid, tau also accumulates in the brain, ultimately damaging brain cells. One of the first places that tau buildup appears “are these brainstem areas important for regulating sleep and wake,” Dr. Winer said. “So we think that tau showing up in these areas very early on is going to disrupt people’s sleep-wake cycles.”

Sleep problems can be an early sign of other common types of dementia, as well. In Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease dementia, for example, rapid eye movement sleep is sometimes disrupted, causing people to act out their dreams — something your bed partner might notice, Dr. Seshadri said.

“Normally, when you have this rapid eye movement sleep, that is time when the body’s muscle tone goes down almost to zero, and so the muscles don’t move,” she explained. “In the REM behavior disorder , this suppression of muscle tone is lost, and so the muscles actually move the way you are in your dreams.”

Experts say it’s normal for older adults to sleep a little more or a little less after retirement, or to wake up and go to bed a little earlier or later than they used to. But if there’s been a dramatic shift, consider seeing your doctor or a sleep specialist.

“If somebody is getting up at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., or is sleeping for three hours during the day, that’s a cause for concern,” Dr. Seshadri said. “If somebody is getting up an hour earlier than they used to and having maybe a 30 to 60 minute nap during the day, that’s much more likely to be just normal aging.”

Dana G. Smith is a Times reporter covering personal health, particularly aging and brain health. More about Dana G. Smith

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Scientists find that small regions of the brain can take micro-naps while the rest of the brain is awake and vice versa

The study more generally shows how previously ignored fast brain waves define basic patterns of sleep and wake.

Sleep and wake: they're totally distinct states of being that define the boundaries of our daily lives. For years, scientists have measured the difference between these instinctual brain processes by observing brain waves, with sleep characteristically defined by slow, long-lasting waves measured in tenths of seconds that travel across the whole organ.

For the first time, scientists have found that sleep can be detected by patterns of neuronal activity just milliseconds long, 1000 times shorter than a second, revealing a new way to study and understand the basic brain wave patterns that govern consciousness. They also show that small regions of the brain can momentarily "flicker" awake while the rest of the brain remains asleep, and vice versa from wake to sleep.

These findings, described in a new study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience , are from a collaboration between the laboratories of Assistant Professor of Biology Keith Hengen at Washington University in St. Louis and Distinguished Professor of Biomolecular Engineering David Haussler at UC Santa Cruz. The research was carried out by Ph.D. students David Parks (UCSC) and Aidan Schneider (WashU).

Over four years of work, Parks and Schneider trained a neural network to study the patterns within massive amounts of brain wave data, uncovering patterns that occur at extremely high frequencies that have never been described before and challenge foundational, long-held conceptions of the neurological basis of sleep and wake.

"With powerful tools and new computational methods, there's so much to be gained by challenging our most basic assumptions and revisiting the question of 'what is a state?'" Hengen said. "Sleep or wake is the single greatest determinant of your behavior, and then everything else falls out from there. So if we don't understand what sleep and wake actually are, it seems like we've missed the boat."

"It was surprising to us as scientists to find that different parts of our brains actually take little naps when the rest of the brain is awake, although many people may have already suspected this in their spouse, so perhaps a lack of male-female bias is what is surprising," Haussler quipped.

Understanding sleep

Neuroscientists study the brain via recordings of the electrical signals of brain activity, known as electrophysiology data, observing voltage waves as they crest and fall at different paces. Mixed into these waves are the spike patterns of individual neurons.

The researchers worked with data from mice at the Hengen Lab in St. Louis. The freely-behaving animals were equipped with a very lightweight headset that recorded brain activity from 10 different brain regions for months at a time, tracking voltage from small groups of neurons with microsecond precision.

This much input created petabytes -- which are one million times larger than a gigabyte -- of data. David Parks led the effort to feed this raw data into an artificial neural network, which can find highly complex patterns, to differentiate sleep and wake data and find patterns that human observation may have missed. A collaboration with the shared academic compute infrastructure located at UC San Diego enabled the team to work with this much data, which was on the scale of what large companies like Google or Facebook might use.

Knowing that sleep is traditionally defined by slow-moving waves, Parks began to feed smaller and smaller chunks of data into the neural network and asked it to predict if the brain was asleep or awake.

They found that the model could differentiate between sleep and wake from just milliseconds of brain activity data. This was shocking to the research team -- it showed that the model couldn't have been relying on the slow-moving waves to learn the difference between sleep and wake.. Just as listening to a thousandth of a second of a song couldn't tell you if it had a slow rhythm, it would be impossible for the model to learn a rhythm that occurs over several seconds by just looking at random isolated milliseconds of information.

"We're seeing information at a level of detail that's unprecedented," Haussler said. "The previous feeling was that nothing would be found there, that all the relevant information was in the slower frequency waves. This paper says, if you ignore the conventional measurements, and you just look at the details of the high frequency measurement over just a thousandth of a second, there is enough there to tell if the tissue is asleep or not. This tells us that there is something going on a very fast scale -- that's a new hint to what might be going on in sleep."

Hengen, for his part, was convinced that Parks and Schneider had missed something, as their results were so contradictory to bedrock concepts drilled into him over many years of neuroscience education. He asked Parks to produce more and more evidence that this phenomena could be real.

"This challenged me to ask myself 'to what extent are my beliefs based on evidence, and what evidence would I need to see to overturn those beliefs?" Hengen said. "It really did feel like a game of cat and mouse, because I'd ask David [Parks] over and over to produce more evidence and prove things to me, and he'd come back and say 'check this out!' It was a really interesting process as a scientist to have my students tear down these towers brick by brick, and for me to have to be okay with that."

Local patterns

Because an artificial neural network is fundamentally a black box and does not report back on what it learns from, Parks began stripping away layers of temporal and spatial information to try to understand what patterns the model could be learning from.

Eventually, they got down to the point where they were looking at chunks of brain data just a millisecond long and at the highest frequencies of brain voltage fluctuations.

"We'd taken out all the information that neuroscience has used to understand, define, and analyze sleep for the last century, and we asked 'can the model still learn under these conditions?'" Parks said. "This allowed us to look into signals we haven't understood before."

By looking at these data, they were able to determine that the hyper-fast pattern of activity between just a few neurons was the fundamental element of sleep that the model was detecting. Crucially, such patterns cannot be explained by the traditional, slow and widespread waves. The researchers hypothesize that the slow moving waves may be acting to coordinate the fast, local patterns of activity, but ultimately reached the conclusion that the fast patterns are much closer to the true essence of sleep.

If the slow moving waves traditionally used to define sleep are compared to thousands of people in a baseball stadium doing the wave, then these fast-moving patterns are the conversations between just a few people deciding to participate in the wave. Those conversations occurring are essential for the overall larger wave to take place, and are more directly related to the mood of the stadium -- the wave is a secondary result of that.

Observing flickers

In further studying the hyperlocal patterns of activity, the researchers began to notice another surprising phenomenon.

As they observed the model predicting sleep or wake, they noticed what looked at first like errors, in which for a split second the model would detect wake in one region of the brain while the rest of the brain remained asleep. They saw the same thing in wake states: for a split second, one region would fall asleep while the rest of the regions were awake. They call these instances "flickers."

"We could look at the individual time points when these neurons fired, and it was pretty clear that [the neurons] were transitioning to a different state," Schneider said. "In some cases, these flickers might be constrained to the area of just an individual brain region, maybe even smaller than that."

This compelled the researchers to explore what flickers could mean about the function of sleep, and how they affect behavior during sleep and wake.

"There's a natural hypothesis there; let's say a small part of your brain slips into sleep while you're awake -- does that mean your behavior suddenly looks like you're asleep? We started to see that that was often the case," Schneider said.

In observing the behavior of mice, the researchers saw that when a brain region would flicker to sleep while the rest of the brain was awake, the mouse would pause for a second, almost like it had zoned out. A flicker during sleep (one brain region "wakes up") was reflected by an animal twitching in its sleep.

Flickers are particularly surprising because they don't follow established rules dictating the strict cycle of the brain moving sequentially between wake to non-REM sleep to REM sleep.

"We are seeing wake to REM flickers, REM to non-REM flickers -- we see all these possible combinations, and they break the rules that you would expect based on a hundred years of literature," Hengen said. "I think they reveal the separation between the macro-state -- sleep and wake at the level of the whole animal, and the fundamental unit of state in the brain -- the fast and local patterns."

Gaining a deeper understanding of the patterns that occur at high-frequencies and the flickers between wake and sleep could help researchers better study neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, which are both associated with sleep dysregulation. Both Haussler and Hengen's lab groups are interested in understanding this connection further, with Haussler interested in further studying these phenomena in cerebral organoid models, bits of brain tissue grown on a laboratory bench.

"This gives us potentially a very, very sharp scalpel with which to cut into these questions of diseases and disorders," Hengen said. "The more we understand fundamentally about what sleep and wake are, the more we can address pertinent clinical and disease related problems."

On a foundational level, this work helps push forward our understanding of the many layers of complexity of the brain as the organ that dictates behavior, emotion, and much more.

• Sleep Disorders
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea
• Disorders and Syndromes
• Brain-Computer Interfaces
• Brain Injury
• Intelligence
• Neuroscience
• Circadian rhythm
• Circadian rhythm sleep disorder
• Personality disorder
• Narcolepsy (sleep disorder)
• Delayed sleep phase syndrome
• Rapid eye movement

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of California - Santa Cruz . Original written by Emily Cerf. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• David F. Parks, Aidan M. Schneider, Yifan Xu, Samuel J. Brunwasser, Samuel Funderburk, Danilo Thurber, Tim Blanche, Eva L. Dyer, David Haussler, Keith B. Hengen. A nonoscillatory, millisecond-scale embedding of brain state provides insight into behavior . Nature Neuroscience , 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01715-2

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Specialists say there are benefits to couples sleeping separately

Michael Solender and his wife have been together for 42 years. They slept in the same bed for the first 10, taking to separate rooms after that.

Their sleep separation was due to his developing chronic and heavy snoring that eventually led to a diagnosis of sleep apnea and his use of a CPAP machine.

After the machine eliminated his snoring, they continue to sleep apart in their Charlotte, North Carolina, home because of other issues. He's typically warm at night and she's usually cold.

“For us to maintain separate rooms for sleep just makes for a healthier relationship and a better relationship,” said Solender, 66. “There’s no shame attached to that. There’s no stigma.”

Snoring, temperature variations, cover stealers, and tossing and turning often lead to partners sleeping separately. Other issues are also in play, including illness, different work shifts, and partners who go to bed and get up at different times.

More than one-third of Americans said they occasionally or consistently sleep in another room to accommodate a bed partner, according to an American Academy of Sleep Medicine study last year. Men are the ones who usually hit the sofa or guest room.

And, perhaps surprisingly, it's millennials who do it most, rather than older people.

Dr. Seema Khosla, a pulmonologist and spokesperson for the academy, said achieving adequate sleep, which is usually seven to eight hours for adults, is important for healthy relationships.

Studies indicate that people who consistently experience poor sleep are more likely to experience conflict with their partners, said Khosla, who is the medical director of the North Dakota Center for Sleep, in Fargo.

“It's really a question of people prioritizing their sleep,” Khosla said. “I have had patients who have been married like 60 years and they swear that separate bedrooms is a reason.”

Sleeping separately, she said, “is probably more common than we think.”

The same goes for sleep apnea, a leading cause of heavy snoring, Khosla said. Solender said he went to a sleep specialist after realizing the impact sleep deprivation had on himself and his wife.

“I would wake her up and would wake myself up,” he said. “I never knew I had sleep apnea. I would say close to 20 years ago, I started falling asleep at red lights. I started falling asleep watching TV or sitting up and reading a book. I felt tired constantly. That's when I knew I had an issue."

Key to making separate sleep spaces work is talking about it beforehand, as Solender did with his wife.

“It’s not about avoiding intimacy. It’s about recognizing that you can have intimacy, you can have that time together, but then you just sleep apart. That's a really important part of the conversation. Both partners need to understand and agree,” Khosla said.

She has seen some reluctance among her patients when she suggests sleeping apart.

“Usually it’s somebody's spouse who is snoring or someone who has a spouse's alarm that wakes them up at four in the morning or something like that. We’ll talk about it. And people will push back right away saying, 'Oh, no, no, that’s not gonna work for me,'” she said.

Some, Khosla said, “will sit with it for a minute and they’ll think about it, and you can tell that they’re kind of like, I would love to do this but how do I tell my partner?”

Tracey Daniels and her husband have been sleeping apart for about four years. Initially, there was no big talk. She just headed to the guest room.

“It started because my husband is a horrible snorer. But also I’m a very light sleeper. He could drop a paperclip on a carpeted floor and I would wake up,” said Daniels, who lives in Tryon, North Carolina.

Later, she said, she initiated a conversation after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through surgery.

“He comes and tucks me in and gives me a kiss,” Daniels said.

They rotate their three dogs at night.

Dr. Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and director of a sleep clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said sleep separation is common in her practice.

“It would be a great idea to discuss sleep compatibility before you get married. I tend to see it when couples have been married and/or they’ve been together for some time and have been trying to negotiate this for a while,” she said.

Come middle age, Zee said, sleep is less robust.

“In general, you’re more prone to getting things like insomnia or sleep apnea. And so that begins to be bothersome,” she said.

While there's no shame in sleeping apart, Zee said technology has helped make sharing a bed easier in some ways. White noise machines, cooling pillows and bedding, mattresses with dual temperature controls and dual control electric blankets can help, Zee said. Some couples have given up sharing blankets, using their own, to make sleep easier.

“There’s a whole market out there to mitigate some of these issues,” she said.

Sleep separation is more accepted now as people have become more aware of the importance of quality sleep to overall health, Zee said.

“On the other hand, there is research to show there are benefits to sleeping together,” she said. “In general, probably the top line is seek professional help before making a decision. Are the issues a sign of a sleep disorder that one can treat?”

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