Racing thoughts at night: how to switch off and get back to sleep

Sleep moves between lighter and deeper stages through the night, and your body recovers most in the deeper stages. When your mind is busy with worries, you spend more of the night in lighter sleep. You may not remember waking, but you don't get as much deep sleep as you need.

Going to bed earlier often doesn't help, as you just get more hours of the same light sleep. A calmer mind at bedtime helps you sleep more deeply.

During the day, work, other people and your phone keep your mind busy. When you lie down in a dark, quiet room, those distractions stop, and the worries you've carried all day finally get your full attention.

Waking at 3am is also common. Sleep runs in cycles, and you wake briefly between cycles. Your body also starts raising cortisol, the hormone that helps you wake up, in the early hours. If a worry is on your mind, those brief wake-ups are when the worry is most likely to start.

Imagining a conversation that hasn't happened can feel like sensible planning. Your body reacts to a vividly imagined event in much the same way as a real one, with a faster heartbeat and a tight chest. At 3am, you can feel stressed about events that will never happen, and then have to get up and go to work.

If your night-time worries are mostly about work, we have a page on imposter syndrome at work. If your night-time worries are mostly about your partner, we have a page on relationship anxiety.

• I got out of bed. When I was clearly not going back to sleep, I got up for a while instead of lying there worrying. If you often lie awake worrying, your body starts to link your bed with worrying.
• I wrote my worry down in one line. Your mind often keeps repeating a worry so you don't forget it. Once the worry is written down, your mind can let go of it.
• I gave my mind something else to listen to. A quiet room doesn't stop racing thoughts. Listening to something calm gives your mind something other than your worries to focus on.

Written by Sylvia, the founder of Build Your Inner Voice, a psychology graduate with nearly 20 years of leading teams, who built Build Your Inner Voice after years of poor sleep.

I had never listened to subliminal tracks before and wow, I feel like I couldn't do without them now. More confident, less anxious, sleeping much better.

Carly, UK · verified review on Trustpilot

You describe the thought that keeps you awake, and we write 20 affirmations around the thought you describe. You choose how clearly you hear the affirmations, from spoken out loud to fully subliminal. Most people choose the quieter settings for sleep. You also choose the background sound: rain, ocean or soft ambient music.

Tracks come in different lengths, up to a 4 hour Overnight Loop that plays for most of the night. Your track arrives by email as a file you can keep.

Every order goes through an automated safety check before we make the track, and a person reads some orders before we make the tracks. If a track isn't the right kind of support for someone, we tell them and give a full refund. Your track gives you something calm to listen to at night, and it isn't a medical treatment.

Everyone has bad nights now and then. Please see your GP if:

• you've been tired for months and the tiredness is affecting your daily life
• you wake very early, can't get back to sleep, and your mood is low
• someone has told you that you stop breathing or gasp in your sleep

Feeling exhausted after plenty of hours in bed is worth checking with a doctor. Poor sleep can have a medical cause, and it isn't a lack of willpower.

If your thoughts at night are frightening you, or you're struggling to cope, please talk to someone now rather than waiting.

Free, any hour, if you need to talk to someone now:
UK and Ireland Samaritans, 116 123
United States Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, call or text 988
Anywhere else findahelpline.com lists the number for your country.