How do I stop overthinking at night?
Written by Ryan Greenwood
How do I stop overthinking at night?
The fastest way to stop overthinking at night is to give your brain what it needs earlier in the day: time to sort through things. Set aside ten minutes in the evening to write down what is on your mind. Keep a notepad by the bed for stragglers. And if you have been staring at the ceiling for twenty minutes, get up and reset. These steps sound too simple to work. They work because they match how your brain actually operates at night.
Your brain files the day at night
Think of your mind like a library. Every night, your brain takes the day's thoughts and memories and puts them on the shelves. That filing has to happen somewhere.
If your day runs packed from alarm to Netflix with no quiet in between, bedtime becomes the first opening your brain gets. The overthinking is not your mind breaking down. It is your mind doing its filing at the worst possible hour, because you never gave it another slot.
Do the filing before you lie down
Give your brain an earlier appointment. Ten minutes, pen and paper, a couple of hours before bed. Write down what happened today, what you are worried about, and what needs to happen tomorrow. You are not solving anything. You are shelving books while you are still awake.
Sleep specialists at Cleveland Clinic back this up. Putting worries on paper before bed, along with slow breathing and a screen-free wind down, are among the most reliable ways to quiet a racing mind.
Sort late worries into two piles
If a worry still shows up at midnight, ask one question: can I do anything about this? If yes, write the next step on the notepad by your bed. The paper will hold it until morning, so your brain can let go.
If no, say so plainly: nothing to do here tonight. You do not have to force the thought to leave. You have to stop giving it a job interview.
This is the same sorting we teach in session. A worry with an action attached is your mind doing its job. A worry without one is just noise, and noise does not deserve the microphone.
If you are still awake, get up
After about twenty minutes of lying awake, get out of bed. Do something quiet and boring in dim light, then come back when you feel sleepy. It sounds backwards, but it keeps your brain from linking your bed with frustration.
The CDC's sleep guidance covers the rest of the basics. Wake up at the same time every day. Keep the room cool and dark. Put screens away before bed, and skip caffeine after lunch. Boring advice, but it lowers the volume.
When the overthinking will not quit
If you have done all of this for a few weeks and your nights still belong to the spiral, the overthinking is probably anxiety, and anxiety is treatable. Nighttime rumination is one of the most common ways anxiety shows up, and it responds well to anxiety therapy.
Pay attention to what the thoughts circle. If they keep returning to old memories or things that happened years ago, that is your brain trying to file something it cannot file alone. Individual therapy gives you a place to finish that work, so your nights can go back to being nights.
Ready to talk to someone?
If you are in Henderson or the Las Vegas area and you have been holding it together on the outside while running on empty inside, we are here. Our therapists know this pattern well and will match you with someone who fits. Book an appointment online or call us at 702-381-2192.
Ryan Greenwood, CPC, MA
Ryan is the founder and clinical director of Hello Calm. He graduated at the top of his class from Adams State University with a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, is a member of the American Counseling Association, and has a great passion for working with people to grow in the middle of their hardest moments. Ryan is a Henderson local, greatly loves the Golden Knights, traveling, and being outdoors. He and his wife have been happily married for 11 years.
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