How do I stop overthinking when I try to sleep?
Overthinking at night is unfinished daytime processing, so the way to stop it is to handle those thoughts before bed. Schedule it earlier: fifteen minutes of deliberate worry time in the evening, writing concerns and next steps, empties much of what the pillow otherwise hosts.
In bed, give the brain a low-stakes channel: slow breathing with longer exhales, a boring detailed fantasy like planning a garden, or counting backward from 300 by threes. All outcompete rumination without the pressure to sleep.
If your mind races most nights with worry spilling through the days too, that pattern has a name and good treatment; anxiety is the most treatable thing on this page.
Source: NHS, insomnia
See a doctor promptly if
- Chest pain or tightness brought on by exertion and relieved by rest, or pain spreading to the jaw, neck, back or arm
- Chest pain with sweating, nausea, vomiting or a feeling of impending doom: call emergency services, do not drive yourself
- Fainting or near-fainting with palpitations, especially during exercise
- Palpitations with a family history of sudden cardiac death or heart muscle disease under the age of 50
- Sudden breathlessness with sharp chest pain worse on breathing in, or a swollen, painful calf
- Thoughts of harming yourself, or feeling you cannot keep yourself safe. Contact emergency services or a crisis line now
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Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS · How we review
Before you buy anything for sleep
No gadget fixes sleep apnea. But if your score above suggests a sleep study, a simple pulse oximeter can give your doctor useful overnight numbers for under $30.
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