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Why can't my mind stop thinking when I'm trying to sleep?

249 Answers
Last Updated: 09/04/2021 at 6:28am
Why can't my mind stop thinking when I'm trying to sleep?
★ This question about Sleeping Well was starred by a moderator on 5/12/2016.
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Top Rated Answers
Anonymous
July 26th, 2015 1:00pm
When you're not focused on doing anything and when you're not 'up and about', it's your brains natural reaction to increase its activity. Because we have less distractions when we're just lying in bed, your brain starts to your brain starts to work double time.
Anonymous
July 22nd, 2015 4:15pm
It is perfectly normal for something like this to happen, but it can make everyday life so difficult. Each day we experience so much. There're so many things going on with family, friends, school, work and many more. When you try to sleep, it all combines together. Whatever has been bothering you the most will be on your mind like a song playing on a broken record. If you've had a busy day, you don't get an opportunity to sit down and just day-dream, so the opportunity usually arises when you're in bed with nothing to do. There's various ways to overcome this. There's breathing techniques, listening to music, physically trying to literally not think of anything, counting sheep. Each person is different. Experiment with all and you'll eventually find that one remedy works best for you.
Anonymous
August 16th, 2015 7:00pm
Although sleep appears to be a passive and restful time, it actually involves a highly active and well-scripted interplay of brain circuits, resulting in sleep’s various stages.During the night, these cycles of slow wave and REM sleep alternate, with the slow wave sleep becoming less deep and the REM periods more prolonged until waking occurs. Over the course of a lifetime, the pattern of sleep cycles changes. Infants sleep up to 18 hours per day, and they spend much more time in deep slow wave sleep. As children mature, they spend less time asleep and less time in deep slow wave sleep. Older adults may sleep only six to seven hours per night. What’s more, adults often complain of early waking that they cannot avoid and spend very little time in slow wave sleep. simply to put it mind is more active while at sleep and you cant stop thinking
Anonymous
August 14th, 2015 10:55pm
At times our minds cannot fully relax. Even when we are trying to get sleep subconsciously our mind is speeding. It begins to wonder about how our day was, what we need to do tomorrow, our project that is due next week, our bills, our career path, and on and on. Anxiety is a common cause to our lack of sleep. Our nerves don't take a break and instead remind us of the many things we have going on. Whether it be our physical, mental, emotional or spiritual issues, we are constantly being reminded. Eating right, exercising daily, and planning ahead can be a few ways to shut our minds off before bed.
Anonymous
December 19th, 2015 1:16am
because you are mentally weak. all the things you think at night is worthless. can you solve or have answer to even one of the many things you think about? I doubt. even if you do, you can't do it now.
Aleespli21
June 24th, 2015 2:41am
Usually when you are trying to sleep it's quiet, dark, and nothing is happening, hence your mind picks up pace with thinking. To stop this, try to run a fan in your room for some noise that will distract your mind.
DipityEnigma
June 6th, 2015 12:54am
Because you have yet to come to an answer. Your mind is going round in circles searching for the answer to your problems. It's like playing a crossword and you cannot think of the answer to the clue and eventually, you search on your search engine for the answer because you simply cannot think of it. You could try going to a counsellor and seeing if that will help you come to a revelation about your life and problems. They'll talk you through your thoughts, asking you questions about yourself to try to get to the deeper problem. They will also be able to advise you on who to see, what self-help guides you can find and what medication might prove useful.
CautionsGamer
August 14th, 2015 10:43pm
this could be because you are not allowing yourself time to relax. the human mind will continue to think about things that have happened through out te day, things it forgot or anything in general. I, often Drink tea if it is avaliable. i do this becase it acts as a relaxent and allows my mind to come down from thinking so much. regularly, before sleeping it is recomended by most that you do something that will help you to relax yourself, so. toanswer the question, it would be that you mind is still going over everything that had happened through out your day, and it cannot find a way to calm it's self down. :)
Anonymous
June 19th, 2015 9:28pm
Because when you go to sleep, since your body is not doing anything anymore, it is normal for your brain activity to increase. You think about what you've done today, which makes you think about a thousand other stuff that happened in your whole life, you can call it a"stream of consciousness". I guess we should see it as something pretty awesome that our brain does. Why is your mind so noisy when you are trying to sleep? 1. In bed, you are alone, or with a loved one. Your defences are down. There is no social pressure. Your mind is free to consider things other than daytime concerns. 2. You are relaxed. Your fight or flight response is at a minimum. 3. It is dark so you are less concerned with appearances. 4. You are reclined. This means there is more blood flow to the brain. These four factors alone allow your brain to turn on in ways it may not have been able to throughout the day. Also, we rush home late and jump into bed to get ready for an early day. Everyone needs time to process the day and relax before going to bed. Is that argument you had with your boss still on your mind? Did you forget to do something important today? Or maybe you are thinking about something you are planning next week...whatever it is, if it is keeping you awake for more than 20 minutes, you probably haven't done enough decompressing after your day and you might be better off getting up for awhile. Try keeping a journal where you "dump" your days events. Be aware of other things like caffeine consumption, which can keep you awake, and whether that nap you took has something to do with it. If you still don't sleep, develop a zen attitude about it. And be sure to check out the 7 Cups of Tea guide on sleeping well.
Nithou
December 30th, 2015 12:33pm
Because it's the only time in the day when you're doing nothing else, so thoughts are pushing their ways into your mind. Take some time to acknowledge those thoughts, write them down if you can, practice meditation, ... Don't try to push them away as it'll just make them grow, embrace them, accept them and let yourself get rid of them by facing them, you'll be sleeping a lot better.
Hannaui
July 24th, 2015 10:39pm
As another victim of this dreaded habit, I can say it's simply from just having way too much on your mind to the point where you can't even do anything else but think. To ease up on this and get a goodnight's rest I suggest to just take 1-2 days of just relaxation, do not pile work, school, or stressful situations and just spend those days peacefully lying down on the couch and working out your thoughts to the point where all thoughts seem to ease away, this seems to be the best remedy to a tranquil night of rest.
Anonymous
October 2nd, 2015 8:40pm
you just probably have a lot going on just relax breath in and do something that helps relax your mind before going to be and also don't get on your phone because that interrupts your sleep
EllaBanana13
November 10th, 2015 11:27am
It is because we are so caught up with the past that we always thought that it will affect the future.
Snakefoxbox
June 19th, 2015 6:55am
Usually your mind is still in the set of "oh, you're awake! Daydream! Do things! Why aren't you doing things?!", especially if you're not tired enough.
affableNectarine3921
June 3rd, 2016 1:58pm
Jeese, i couldn't sleep all night ! lol its like my mind was fully active and my body got some type of rest i guess. I stayed up all night thinking. Then when i woke up my heart was beating a bit fast and still is. Im not really scared but more curious lol
Anonymous
February 10th, 2016 2:55am
When you fall asleep, your body and mind try to relax as you soon doze off. But your mind could still be thinking of many things even if you are asleep, such as the problems you're going through, homework/assignments/presentations, or even just how your day went. This could be why your mind cannot stop thinking when your trying to sleep.
Anonymous
July 4th, 2015 5:27pm
Some people find it hard to shut off some people believe staring at a computer or tablet or phone or tv engage your brain to carry on working and going to sleep is hard that said drinking caffinated drinks before bed dont help. Try limiting yourself to a few hours of these a day and cutting back on caffeine drinking cammomile tea, relaxion techniques such as yoga, gentle music, reading or exercise may help.
FractiousArrogance
September 30th, 2015 7:06pm
Before you go to bed, write down all the day events that happened and reflect on them. Write any ideas you have as well and anything that pops up in your mind. It may take some time to work but if you stick to it, over time, your brain will adapt to the fact that you have already gone over the events of the day and is now able to fall to sleep easily.
Thehealer88
November 9th, 2015 1:10am
Nighttime can be especially difficult. Laying down doing nothing gets the mind wandering. Some techniques to falling asleep more quickly are to avoid all electronic devices 30 min prior to going to bed. Also, some scents can help, such as lavender. Controlled breathing is also a helpful technique.
CadmiumEquanimity
July 31st, 2015 9:03pm
You haven't allowed yourself to leave the day behind. When the nighttime comes, you need to embrace the aspects of it such as the darkness to allow melatonin production to begin in your brain.
Anonymous
November 12th, 2015 1:23am
I have submitted as listener but didn't receive any mail
anchoredwithhope
December 12th, 2015 8:53am
We often worry too much at night, we keep thinking about the past, all the things that we wanted to do, what we did,, We can't just leave it all behind and relax.. We tend to relive our lives before we sleep, trying to picture what we could have done differently, what we wanted to do but never did. Once I started to accept what happened can't be changed, I didn't have things to worry about at night.
Anonymous
December 16th, 2015 12:52pm
That is more common than you think... For me, it happens every time. It's because people are so caught up with their daily lives and what is happening in those moments. When you lay down, all those thoughts that you were not able to think about come back to you.
airreeekuh
December 19th, 2015 9:58am
There are several reasons why your mind can't stop thinking when you're trying to sleep, one reason is you're probably anxious at something and overthinking it. One advise is to do meditation before going to bed, just breathe out all the things that you're thinking away. That usually works for me. Meditation is good and very helpful :)
HelpfulCookieCrum
June 9th, 2016 11:12am
Maybe you have too much on your mind right now? Listening to calm music at night may calm your thoughts.
AllNaturalSoul
December 26th, 2015 4:46pm
Because you're mind isn't set on sleeping when your body is. Try to find a way to make yourself at ease in evenings and you'll have a better time sleeping. (read a book, or listen to some music. But don't stare at screens or play videogames, this will delay the rest your mind needs to fall asleep!)
Anonymous
June 18th, 2015 4:43pm
Sometimes, when your body is most at ease - that is when the brain decided to be at it's most active. When we are trying to settle and drift off into a peaceful sleep - our mind can rehash memories we don't particularly want to see - like a TV show showing reruns off it's lesser episodes.
MostColorfulHello
June 26th, 2015 5:37pm
Racing, rapid thoughts can make you feel like you're going crazy. But they're actually a somewhat normal anxiety symptom. Anxiety changes the way you think. Sometimes it can make you think more negatively. Sometimes it can make you obsess over things you shouldn't obsess over. And sometimes, anxiety can cause you to have racing thoughts that you cannot seem to control.
LoveYourself21
July 3rd, 2015 12:31pm
You are probably stressed and can't stop thinking about things that randomly go inside your head. Listing to music helps a lot, it tunes out the voices in your head and you feel releved
TheGreyFixer
September 28th, 2015 11:12pm
Sometimes our minds are too full of other thoughts from throughout the day: what we have to do tomorrow, how funny that story was your friend told you, how many atoms there are in the universe. It can be difficult, but writing thoughts down on a pad, using red or low lights, and eating more fresh foods can help.