Putting Your Racing Mind to Bed: 7 tips to help you fall asleep
Like many of you, I have nights when I am keyed up due to stress or anxiety, and my racing mind won’t slow down enough to let me fall asleep. This makes me frustrated, and the more frustrated I get, the longer I am up.
Sleep is critical for a whole slew of important brain functions, and you don’t need to be a brain scientist to understand that without regular full nights of sleep (7-9 hours for the average adult), your ability to think, remember things, and feel calm, cool and collected will start to go downhill. Research has shown that lack of sleep also causes confusion, poor impulse control, and poor decision making. Sound familiar?
Here are 7 strategies that can help you fall asleep when your anxious mind is racing
Routine, Routine, Routine. The hour before you go to bed is crucial to preparing your brain for sleep. Use it well and use it with ROUTINE. Routine helps your brain know that it is time to get ready for sleep. This means going to bed at the same time every night, for starters. Then it means a night-time ritual of things you do to help your body wind down. Keep reading for ideas on how to do this.
Reduce Sensory Input. In the hour before bedtime, turn down the lights, create quiet, and turning off your screens. Yep, all the screens (phone, TV, tablets etc.). If you have a screen addiction, this will be hard; an alternative (short-term—you must also work on that addiction!) is to wear glasses that screen out the blue light that dominates screens. Reducing sensory input creates the calm environment that allows your brain to start to slow down.
Eat Something Small. Turning on your digestive system with a small (sugar-free, caffeine-free) snack such as a small piece of fruit, toast or crackers with cheese or warm milk can help trigger your parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest and digest” system).
Relax Your Muscles. Anxiety and stress cause our muscle tissues to tighten up and when muscles are tight, it can signal the body that there is something to be stressed about. You can stop this by taking a hot bath, a warm shower, gentle stretching or yoga, or get a message from your partner. Make this part of your nightly routine.
Write it Down. When your thoughts are spiraling around worries, writing can be a very helpful tool. If you worry about what you have to do, make a list you will tackle the next day. If you are replaying events, write down what happened, how you feel about it, and if there is anything you can do to resolve it. Give your feelings and worries a chance to be expressed on paper, then tell your mind you are going to let it go while you sleep.
Distract Your Mind. Your brain will not allow you to sleep if your thoughts are worried or excited. Slow your mind and distract it from worry by doing something that requires metal focus without being too taxing. Reading (an actual hard copy book, rather than a screen) with low lights in a quiet room can help tame your thoughts—choice of reading material can be something you enjoy but isn’t wildly exciting or intriguing so you aren’t tempted to stay up reading all night.
Listen to an Audiobook. My favorite tool for distracting from racing thoughts mind are audiobooks. I love this because I can lay in bed and my mind stays with the book, which inevitably gets my relaxed enough to fall asleep. It can take a week or so, but this really works. It can take you a week or so for your brain to realize that the audiobook is an aid to help you sleep, but it eventually will. When I first started using audiobooks, I’d be up half the night listening, but gradually my brain adjusted and now I am asleep within minutes of starting the audiobook. Even if you are up half the night listening, this is better for your mind and body than worrying. Audiobooks also help if you wake up in the middle of the night and your mind start racing. Just find where you were when you fell asleep and restart the book from there. Free audiobooks can be streamed from many local libraries or from services like LibriVox. Audible and other services often have a free trial period.
Establishing a routine, reducing stimulation, calming your body and your thoughts every night will help most people start to get more consistent regular sleep. If these changes are too difficult to make, or if none of the above works, consider working with a therapist, a sleep specialist, and/or see your medical provider about your sleep difficulty. Sleep is truly very critical for brain function and managing your mental health, particularly attention, anxiety and irritability.
I work with many individuals who are on the path of emotional healing and recovery. If you live in Colorado and would like to work with me, check out my website at www.arborcounselingllc.com, give me a call to set up a free consultation at 970-698-6488, or click the link below to message me.