May I use my phone if I lie awake?
Better not: light and stimulation make you more alert, and checking the time raises the pressure to sleep. A book in dimmed light in another room works better.
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- How to stop overthinking: emptying your head before the night
Emptying your head before the night
Short answer
Lying awake worrying often arises because your brain keeps holding on to unfinished tasks. Writing down everything on your mind five minutes before sleep — above all a concrete to-do list for tomorrow — gives your brain permission to let go. Research shows this gets you to sleep faster than writing down what you have already done.
- 5 minutes
- A short list is already enough
- Tomorrow
- Tasks ahead work better than looking back
- Bed = sleep
- If you lie awake longer, get up for a while
Why writing works
Take five minutes before sleep, a notebook, and write down unfiltered what is on your mind: worries, ideas and above all tomorrow's tasks. The idea behind it is simple: your brain no longer has to guard the open tasks, because they are safely on paper.
In research it was precisely writing a concrete to-do list for the next day that got people to sleep faster than writing down what they had already completed. Thinking ahead closes things; looking back keeps them open.
If you lie awake anyway
Don't lie awake worrying for more than about twenty minutes. Get up, sit in another room in dimmed light and do something boring until you get sleepy. That way your bed stays associated with sleep and not with churning.
That sounds counter-intuitive, and it is one of the best-supported pieces of advice there is. Anyone lying awake in bed for hours trains their brain to see the bed as a place of vigilance.
Sources
- Scullin et al. (2018). The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
- Harvey (2002). A cognitive model of insomnia. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
- Espie et al. (2006). The attention–intention–effort pathway in insomnia. Sleep Medicine Reviews.
Frequently asked questions
Does this help with long-term insomnia too?
It is one of the components of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, but with persistent complaints you belong with a GP or a sleep clinic and not with a bed shop. We sell beds and are not healthcare providers.