Author: Gud Sleepz Team
Date:
How to Sleep with an Overactive Brain?
“A ruffled mind make a restless pillow” - Charlotte Bronte
Have you ever experienced a whirlwind of thoughts just when you hit the bed and try to get some sleep? Sometimes, it isn’t even anything important, it could just be random thoughts that could ruin your sleep and make you grumpy in the morning. That’s an ‘overactive brain’ or a ‘busy brain’. The result is, ‘racing thoughts’. Racing thoughts often happen due to stress, anxiety, medications or due to excessive caffeine consumption. So, let’s discuss ways to manage them without being consumed by those thoughts.
A brain that’s suddenly overactive during the night is because during the day we do not let difficult or distracting thoughts come out as we keep ourselves occupied with tasks or conversations or screen time. While at night, when there are no stimulations or distractions, it would be like a free let-out for your thoughts to freely move.
Signs of a Racing Mind
While different people experience racing thoughts differently, there are a few common patterns that could be a sign that you might need help.
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* Your mind seems like it is running at a higher speed when experiencing a pile of thoughts.
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* You have difficulty slowing down or stopping those thoughts.
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* You have difficulty shutting off your brain.
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* You tend to overthink scenarios which make you even more anxious.
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* Have difficulty focusing on things or even on one thought.
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* Catastrophizing (blowing out of proportion) thoughts.
Managing an Overactive Brain
Allocating a ‘Worry Time’: Most often when I suggest this technique to my clients, they wonder if I’m making sense. But, let me tell you. All that your thoughts require is an outlet. Your mind has a natural tendency to worry or overthink, instead of suppressing or avoiding those thoughts, try to allocate a time ‘just to worry’. This will let your thoughts not bother you at night rather eventually your mind would wait for its allocated worry time.
Journaling or Writing Down Your Thoughts: While many of us understand the power of journaling, it is difficult to be consistent with such activities. Journaling is one of the most helpful activities that can help with the racing thoughts. Writing down gives an outlet and especially doing that regularly will help you understand your thoughts and deal with them better.
Breathing or Anxiety Management: Any thoughts you experience would have corresponding emotion. Most often thoughts can be negative and can lead to racing emotions as well. The result is often, Anxiety. One of the core management techniques is, grounding technique if you can’t seem to relax during those racing thoughts. For example, You breathe in and say out loud 4 things you see, 3 things you hear and 2 things you can feel in your environment. And then, use a calm breathing technique until you are feeling in control.
Avoid Stimulations of Any Kind: You need to understand that your brain works on dopamine to feel pleasure and get stimulated. Caffeine can be a stimulant which can lead to racing thoughts at night. Any amount of caffeine after midday can act counterproductive for your ‘overactive brain’. In addition, any kind of other stimuli like exercising before bedtime, watching a stimulating movie or engaging in a highly stimulating activity should be avoided before bedtime.
It can be hard being consistent when creating a new habit but remember it just takes a few more takes to perfect your bedtime routine. And hang in there and you will soon sleep well. Follow Gudsleepz for more updates.
Sleep well! Sweet Dreams!
Tags: mental health , psychology , racing thoughts , self-help , Sleeplessness
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