Does thinking too much cause you to lose sleep?

I do this sometimes, I think when you worry too much or are thinking about a problem it is harder to sleep because you are not as relaxed.

Are you stressed or worried about anything? That will disrupt your sleep.

Yes, I find that the same thing happens to me. Especially lately… :/

Worrying can cause you to lose sleep. Sometimes writing down the worry in a book right by your bed can help you get back to sleep, since you know you won’t forget about it if you sleep.

YYYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!! Story of my life… gotta go zzz zzz

Yes, all the time. I can’t turn my brain off and it seems to pick bedtime to mull over the most distressing things. It’s one of the main reasons I smoke pot before going to bed. If I don’t, I’ll just lie there for an hour or more. It’s so frustrating.

One thing that has helped sometimes is meditation/creative visualization. I usually imagine that I’m on a beach or in a boat, I get into the water and dive underwater, then swim out and down to the bottom. Somewhere on the bottom, I notice a deep black spot and I swim down closer, so the spot gets bigger and bigger and becomes a hole. Then I imagine myself swimming through the hole and down into total blackness.

This seems to calm my mind and body. Sometimes I repeat the visualization if I’m not relaxed enough, other times, once is enough to put my brain in the right mode to drift off to sleep.

@MissAnthrope I don’t think I would tell a student to smoke pot to help them sleep. The visualization is good.

Self hypnosis and mellow bedtime music or a narrative or ‘spiritual’ cd is helpful.

Learning to tame the mind is one of the highest objectives of living.

Be here now, and when the mind is dwelling in the past or futurizing you are not present in the only moment there is, the now!

I did some of this work years ago and I am happy to report I sleep like a baby, average 9 hours a night, deep, blissful sleep!

It is helpful to remember that all the thinking and worrying in the world does nothing except keep you awake and in a state of self imposed anxiety.

It is far more productive to think about and act on what you can DO instead.

Then DO it!

It happens to me as well, I find that if I don’t let my mind wind down for the night, i’ll just lay in bed thinking about things. For example if I’m up late doing work, I have to stop and relax for a bit prior to going to bed or all I will think about is work.

I nearly always fall asleep quickly, but before I do I think of something pleasant and I run that over in my mind for a few minutes until I drift off. Sometimes I read a few pages from a book. Thinking and worrying are two quite different things and as has been pointed out above worry makes sleeping difficult.

Yes. This happens to me ALL THE TIME. I often put on the radio or something like that to distract myself from my thoughts.

Amusingly, I thought this said “drink to much.” And amusingly again, I find that I drink to much to stop the think to much scenarios from happening.

I need a drink…

I always have to much on my mind but only once in a while it affects my sleep.
When you have to go to sleep you have to let the thoughts come and go and you’ll fall asleep. It takes a while to be in a full sleep but it works.

There are times when i cant sleep because i just lay in bed thinking about stuff, but i suspect it’s not that i’m thinking too much, rather that i have not thought enough that day, and when i try to sleep my mind is still too active. Once i sleep i sleep for 10 hours though.

@Adirondackwannabe – Where did I tell anyone to do anything? I just said what I do.

@MissAnthrope I wasn’t sure if you knew A is a student.

I don’‘t know nothin’. And ‘student’ is vague.. we talking middle or high school, college, grad, PhD, what?

I wake up at completly random times too! Sometimes I can’t get back to sleep at all which is a real pain! Reading sometimes helps also if you have lots of things on you mind especialy if they are to do things keep a pen and paper by your bed and write things down this can help you stop worrying about forgetting to do things as you have a list!!

I also find colouring very relaxing!

I have a couple of tricks I try. First, what really helps is if my team wins the game. Then I can remind myself of the plays in my head, and I feel good, and I fall asleep.

Then I count sheep breaths. I’m trying to take my mind off the thoughts that are keeping me awake. It’s easier to do if I can focus myself on something happy than if I am just trying to keep the bad thoughts away.

If those don’t work, I’m SOL. I got nuthin.

Yes, it’s called anxiety, it’s very important that when you decide it’s time to sleep, you make the effort to forget about all issues. I have the same problem, so I think about lets say 10 minutes about whatever I’m concerned about, and then say ok, time to sleep now stop thinking, breathe, and relax, and you’ll be able to sleep. Also reading a book may be a good way to let go of your daily worries, so when your eyes start to feel heavy, just turn off the light and fall asleep.

Yes, especially when the thinking never slows down.

yes,all the time.

@Aesthetic_Mess ; you’re not alone. (:

I often have that problem. My doctor often says that the reason is that I never shut up! ;0)

Yes. Your brain has to rest too :)

Actually, my doctor (different one!) has told me that it is common for people with bipolar personalities to have problems turning off our minds.

This happened to me last night! It was terrible

@GracieT I’m not bipolar