Racing thoughts that make it so you can’t sleep can be caused by stress, anxiety, mental illness, medications, or excessive caffeine consumption. Such thoughts can be hard to control, cause you to feel overwhelmed, and make it difficult or impossible to sleep. If you experience racing thoughts at night, you are far from alone.
Many of us experience them at one time or another, especially during heightened stress. Others have them as part of a mental health condition such as a mood or sleep disorder.1 Either way, racing thoughts at night do not have to be your fate. Read on to learn why they happen, as well as helpful and effective ways to cope with and treat racing thoughts at night.
Racing Thoughts at Night vs. the Day
Some people who experience racing thoughts at night also experience racing or anxious thoughts during the day. But many people also have the experience of feeling relatively calm during the day, only to find that their thoughts start to race as soon as they try falling asleep.
The reason for this is that most of us are more easily distracted from our worries and fears during the day. We are working, caring for others, indulging in screen time, and moving rapidly from one activity to another. As a result, we are barely aware of our interior emotional experience.
But when everything goes dark and quiet at night, we find ourselves alone with our thoughts. This provides the opportunity for darker, more difficult emotions and worries to present themselves.2
Racing thoughts at night are often a symptom of anxiety, but anyone can experience them when they have worries on their mind.
What Do Racing Thoughts at Night Feel Like?
Racing thoughts are thoughts that come on suddenly and seem to populate your mind without you being able to control them. Some common experiences include:
- A list of thoughts that stream through your mind on a loop
- The feeling that you are watching different thoughts and scenarios play themselves out in your mind, as if on a movie reel
- The thoughts seem to come in quick succession, as though someone is talking too fast inside your head
- You may also be experiencing other signs of anxiety that accompany these racing thoughts, such as a racing heartbeat, sweating, or sped-up breathing
For example, imagine that you’re finally settling in for the night. You’re tired and ready to get some rest. But as soon as the lights go out and your head hits the pillow, your thoughts start racing.
You begin to think about your to-do list or the endless worries you have about the day and weeks ahead. Or maybe you begin thinking about something embarrassing or scary that happened to you years ago. You may be ruminating on a “worst case scenario” situation you imagine happening sometime in the future.
Whatever your thoughts are, you can’t stop them from coming. As the thoughts race, your heart pounds too and it feels like you will never get to sleep. This all feels unfair! The night is supposed to be when you finally get to unwind and relax; however, your racing thoughts make that feel impossible.
What Causes Racing Thoughts at Night?
Life stressors—such as job stress, familial stress, financial stress, or experiencing a major life transition—are a frequent cause of racing thoughts at night.1 This is likely the case if the experience of racing thoughts at night is new to you and can be traced to a new stressor or stressful event.
Racing thoughts at night can also be attributed to mental health disorders, especially anxiety disorders. Experiencing racing thoughts at night might be something experienced frequently, or intermittently by people with a mental health condition, and can be exacerbated by difficult life circumstances.
Here are some of the most common causes of racing thoughts at night.
Life Stresses and Transitions
Experiencing a job loss, worrying about your financial future, moving, and having a baby. These are all examples of major life changes or stressors that can cause you to experience racing thoughts at night.
Anxiety and Panic Disorder
People with anxiety tend to have more trouble sleeping and may experience racing thoughts at night. Panic disorder can also make you more likely to experience this. Sometimes racing thoughts at night resemble symptoms of a panic attack.
Bipolar Disorder
Racing thoughts are one of the characteristics of bipolar disorder, especially during a manic episode.4 However, simply having racing thoughts does not mean you have bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder has other symptoms as well, including intense mood fluctuations, engaging in risky behavior, and experiencing delusions or hallucinations. Bipolar disorder requires a proper diagnosis from a physician or psychiatrist.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may have racing thoughts.5 Usually, nighttime isn’t the only time that people with OCD experience racing thoughts. Obsessive thoughts, compulsions, and fixations on things like order and cleanliness are other common characteristics of OCD.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Experiencing a trauma, either recently or years ago, can cause post-traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms of the disorder include racing thoughts,6 including at night. In this case, you may fixate on the traumatic event that happened to you and experience flashbacks to it.
Medications
Certain prescribed medications, either for mental health or to treat a medical condition, can cause racing thoughts and insomnia. Additionally, racing thoughts and insomnia can be symptoms of withdrawal from certain medications, including opioids.
If you have recently started a new medication and found that the racing thoughts at night correlate with this, talk to your healthcare provider about this side effect and alternative medication options.
Recreational Drugs
Certain illegal drugs can cause racing thoughts. Examples of drugs that can create this effect include methamphetamine and cocaine.
Caffeine Consumption
Consuming caffeine, especially too close to bedtime, can make it hard to fall asleep and cause your thoughts to race.7 Some people are more sensitive to the effects of caffeine than others.
Tips for Coping With Racing Thoughts at Night
For many, making a few life changes and adopting some healthy habits to cope with stress can help reduce or eliminate nighttime ruminations and insomnia. Here are some tips.
Keep a “Worry Journal”
Writing down some of your thoughts and fears before you go to bed can be therapeutic and help reduce nighttime stress. Often, our stressful thoughts boil to the surface at night, but they are still in our heads the rest of the day. Having an outlet to “let them all out” when it’s not late at night can really help.
To get started:
- Get a notebook and label it “worry journal.”
- Take 5-10 minutes a day to list your worries.
- Alternatively, spend 5-10 minutes doing some freewriting about whatever thoughts come to mind.
Meditation
Meditation, whether right before bed or sometime during the day, can have a strong impact on your ability to fall asleep without overwhelming thoughts.8 If this is your first time adopting a meditation practice, keep it simple. You can start with just a few minutes a day and then go from there.
If you need help, there are several apps on the market that will guide you through meditation. There is no “right” way to meditate; just closing your eyes in silence for a few minutes a day is enough.
You might find that your thoughts race while you meditate, but meditation is an opportunity to learn to watch your thoughts go by more mindfully before letting them go.
Decrease Screen Time Before Bed
Many of us are addicted to our screens and stay on them all day, through bedtime. Unfortunately, these habits have a tendency to wreak havoc on our ability to fall asleep easily and can cause us to have a racing mind at the end of the day.
Additionally, too much screen time before bed, along with “blue light” emitted from screens, can cause a decrease in melatonin levels.2 This can make it more difficult to fall asleep.
Be Mindful of Your Evening Media Consumption
Watching scary TV or movies, or reading disturbing books right before bed, can impact our sleep and cause racing thoughts. Many of us have become addicted to “doomscrolling” too, feeling compelled to keep up with upsetting world events and news.
Making a point to replace our evening media consumption with a bath, meditation session, or a heart-to-heart with a loved one can work wonders.
Address Your Life Stressors
Some aspects of life are out of our control, and these situations can contribute to heightened stress and anxiety, along with insomnia. But sometimes, experiencing something like racing thoughts before bed can be looked at as a wake-up call to make life changes to reduce stress.
Maybe it’s time to leave a toxic job or you might need to address the dysfunction in one of your primary relationships. Empower yourself to make changes that will allow you to live a healthier, less stressful life.
Treatment Options for Racing Thoughts at Night
If you are experiencing racing thoughts at night and trying different coping tips doesn’t seem to be helping, it might be time to seek professional help. Engaging in counseling or therapy is a great option for dealing with racing thoughts at night and insomnia. Talking to a psychiatrist or physician about medication options may be a good choice for you too.
Therapy
Your counselor or therapist can help you figure out what’s causing your racing nighttime thoughts, including what life stressors may be impacting you. They can also help identify whether or not you have a mental health condition that may be contributing to these thought patterns.
One of the most successful types of therapy to deal with anxiety, insomnia, and symptoms like racing thoughts is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).3 CBT helps you become more aware of your thoughts and learn coping strategies for quieting them down. CBT also helps you manage your anxiety and begin to recognize signs of it before it is able to take completely over.
Medication
If you are experiencing chronic anxiety, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, or another mental health challenge, there are medications available to help you manage your feelings. Common medications for anxiety include anti-anxiety drugs like benzodiazepines and antidepressants.3
These medications can also help you fall asleep more easily. Your healthcare provider may also be able to prescribe you sleeping pills to help with racing thoughts and falling asleep.