How do you switch off at night if you're an overthinker?

[Imatorturedpoet]

I struggle to sleep at the best of times, I find it very difficult to switch off. I've tried counting, audio books, reading, meditation, various apps, relaxation exercises, rain and wave sounds etc etc.

Any other suggestions that work for you? I've had a rubbish day today and really don't want to replay everything in my head all night.

For Melatonin, try Amazon.com the US site. It's handy to buy stuff you can't get in the UK, I get the Crest whitestrips from there so you should be able to buy melatonin.

It's Arrested Development for me. 😊 Glad to find somone else who does this as my DH thinks it's a bit odd!

Sorry I haven't replied sooner. I tried a podcast/story by Sam recommended above last night. I struggled to get the volume right though, but did find it soothing and fell asleep, but woke up a few times, think I was checking if it was still on!

I do the alphabet game often. I've no tv in the bedroom, but I know my daughter watches Modern Family to fall asleep to 😁

I find yoga frustrating, plus I haven't really room to practice it. If I start concentrating on my breathing - yoga, meditation - I get quite panicky.

I'm glad the thread is helping others. There must be loads of us who struggle to switch off at night. .

I put an old familiar TV series that I’ve seen a million times on my iPad but just to listen to, and only just loud enough to hear.

Just very deep breaths, somehow it works.

I do this absolutely absurd thing where I kinda hold my eyes half open. You know when you're absolutely exhausted and can't keep your eyes open and you're like fighting to keep them open? I do that with my eyes. I have no idea how or why it works.

Sometimes it helps me to delay bedtime until I am actually at the point of being able to sleep. So instead of getting into bed at 10.30 and lying there I do whatever until after midnight and get into bed then. I’d probably be awake that long trying to get to sleep so may aswell just fall into bed and crash out later on in the night.

I’ve just found a new trick - visualise going for a walk, ie walking down the stairs then out the door, along the street and onwards. Have to keep coming back to it. Def helps

Hot bath before bed. The high temperature raises your blood pressure, helping you to relax and sleep.
Put on a black out eye mask. Listen to podcast, currently Bedtime stories for adults.

Traybaked
I don't think you are really an over thinker 😂

Exactly my thought! Yoga does nothing for a genuine over-thinker 😂

Yoga does wonders, especially for overthinkers. You are just doing it wrong.

I do logic puzzles like sudoko or hanji etc.

I have a couple of fantasy alternate lives that I think about.

Comedy on TV before bed - get up and read if I'm still asleep after half an hour and then try again later when my eyes are struggling to stay open to read - progressive muscle relaxation - alphabet games in my head (pick a category and then think of something in that category with each letter of the alphabet) - 'a lovely place' type relaxation exercise in my head where I imagine I'm somewhere safe and relaxing and imagine using all my senses whilst I'm there etc - deep breathing exercises if my breathing is affected by anxiety.

Oooh also, DH reading to me is probably the most effective way of getting me to sleep!

Hmm now that would send me into thinking about him , then thinking about him dying and well …….

All these suggestions, while said with good intentions, are merely sticking plasters. You have to find a way to rationalize what's keeping you awake. You mentioned you'd had a bad day. Sit down and look at it objectively. CBT is great for sorting out your headspace and getting some objectivity. Drinking or listening to a podcast might work temporarily but the things you're stressing about are still there, even subconsciously, so you need to really wrestle with how you react to situations, rather than looking for a plaster to temporarily shove it to one side. It's no coincidence that when I started doing CBT my sleep drastically improved. I wasn't laying awake at night fixating on what had happened earlier in the day, instead I got some perspective. Be thinking is very often muddled thinking and feeling of powerlessness, it also leads to obsessive thinking.

I watch very boring stuff on TV

Monty don

Cookery programmes

Heartbeat

Etc

Why wouldn’t yoga help? You focus your mind on movement and breath - def helps with overthinking.

I have a novel I am trying to write. I think about it when I am trying to sleep and have never got beyond Chapter One before I drop off. It is really, really frustrating, LOL.
Alternatively, bushcraft. I love watching videos of people building shelters under rocks or with branches etc. especially in the snow. I lie in bed with my hot water bottle ( I like the bedroom really cold) and imagine building one myself and snuggling down...
(also - shhh! - masturbation)

I tried the strategy of thinking of names, as suggested upthread, last night. It was surprisingly effective and also surprisingly difficult to think of five names of the same letter at 3am! Think I got to E before I first dropped off, later on got to J, continued it each time I woke, and hadn't made it past T this morning. Definitely helped more than counting backwards from 100.

Thank you for your reply. I have had lots of therapy and CBT. Unfortunately I'm just an over thinker, I've worked through problems in therapy, but as soon as something becomes difficult I can't get it out of my head. So in order to get some sleep, which makes things easier the following day, these tips really help.

Last night I listened to Sam talking about Scottish islands which was quite soothing. It is helping so thanks for all the suggestions.

I agree with Nothing Much Happens. I think they're only 30 mins or so but I set a timer for an hour so it will play the next episode automatically before my Spotify switches off.

The other one that helps is (randomly) listening to episodes of Gardner's Question Time. It keeps me more interested but if it's quiet enough I usually find myself falling asleep to it.

I also use an eye mask and lavender essential oil in a rollerball on my pulse points as it's quite a sensory thing for me. I think my brain has associated lavender + eye mask + quiet podcast with sleep.

Audiobooks. Doing puzzles before bedtime.

never alcohol.

Hope you don't think that was a criticism. I didn't realise you'd already tried various therapy. I was only coming at it from my own experience as someone who had tried most things to sleep as I was a terrible obsessive thinker, the only thing that helped longterm and wasn't just a sticking plaster was working out why my brain was reacting a certain way and catastrophising or obsessing over certain things, and for me CBT helped me untangle all the bad wiring and bad thinking, and got me to a point where I could look at it objectively and not be stuck in my own muddled head, that's not to downplay suggestions that might temporarily help, but I wanted a fix that would be a long term fix. Before that I got into a habit of drinking every evening which caused other problems, but at the time I was so sleep deprived it seemed like a good idea.

Antidepressants help a lot. And funny podcasts, not relaxing dull ones, but hilarious chatty ones.

I can fall asleep easily, thanks to melatonin, I just can't stay asleep. I ping awake in the middle of the night and it's like my brain is wide awake but my body is deathly tired.

I have a few alternate realities/fantasies I play out in my head. They're very detailed over the years.