So you are lying awake and you can’t shut off your thoughts…sound familiar? You are in good company. Not being able to shut off your mind is one of the most commonly cited troubles in insomnia. But many people do not have effective strategies to deal with this pesky problem.

 

The most common “strategy” in popular culture is to count sheep. So is it effective? Let’s first consider why someone would recommend that you count sheep to help you set aside your thoughts and go to sleep. While some believe it is an activity that would promote such boredom as to facilitate sleep, there is probably a better explanation.

We have a limited mental capacity to process information, and when information is in our mind, if we are to focus on something else, the information we were previously thinking about gets replaced by the new information. We call this theoretical place in our mind “the articulatory loop”, as it is the place where our mind “speaks” what it is that we are thinking about. If all of our mental energy within the articulatory loop is being expended on counting little fuzzy sheep jumping over a fence, then it kicks out from the space those thoughts that are sleep-interfering. Thoughts such as worrying about the next day, thinking about noises you hear in the distance, or how your back is aching. Counting sheep can occupy space in the articulatory loop.

 

However, the effect of ejecting sleep-interfering thoughts from the articulatory loop will be temporary if the material that ejected it from the space is boring and cannot hold your attention; as said above, counting sheep is fairly boring and for the majority of people would not be expected to hold attention long enough to be an effective sleep aid. So what are the alternatives?

 

Get Out of Bed When You Cannot Shut Off Your Mind

The absolute best strategy for this unwanted mental habit is to leave the room. “But then I will have even less time to sleep,” you say! Most people are not able to get any sleep when they are bothered by this type of thinking anyway. Research tells us that many insomniacs are worsened by the habit of staying in bed because the bed becomes associated with being awake, and being upset in bed makes it more likely that unwanted mental activity will occur in the future. The bed should be associated with sleep only.

 

The second reason for getting out of bed is that thoughts tend to become more lucid when you fully get out of bed and leave the room. Have you ever noticed this? This occurs because people with insomnia tend to misperceive light stages of sleep as exclusively awake, so some of the more troubling thoughts are occurring while going in and out of a light stage of sleep. Becoming fully awake will allow you to get some better control over this type of thinking. Once this thinking has subsided and you feel sleepy enough to return to bed, go back to your bedroom and try again. This may have to happen several times before your mind will get the idea that bed is not the place for this type of mental activity. Don’t become preoccupied with the sleep loss you will incur as a result of this strategy. As long as you don’t try to compensate for the sleep loss by sleeping-in, going to bed earlier the next day or napping the next day, your body will respond to this sleep loss by producing deeper sleep the next night.

 

If Thoughts Follow You to Bed, Try and Deal with Them Earlier in the Evening.

Engaging in some problem-solving and list-making earlier in the evening rather than close to bedtime will decrease the likelihood that such thoughts will follow you to bed. You can do this by simply writing down thoughts or concerns and potential “next steps” to solving these problems in the early evening.

 

Use a More Elaborate Distraction Technique.

While there is not much research on this technique, you can try a more elaborate counting sheep method to occupy your mind. In one study Professor William Waters instructed people with insomnia to read a book before bed and then once they got into bed, they were to richly imagine the next steps in the plot. Other researchers have tested imaging relaxing scenes such as waterfalls—the important thing is to select something that is engaging enough to hold your attention.

 

Whichever strategy you use, remember that when insomnia becomes chronic (that is, it occurs on at least half the nights of the week for more than a month or it interferes with your ability to function normally), it may be time to consult with a sleep specialist. While sleep medications can be an effective treatment for insomnia, a treatment called Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or “CBT”, is equally as effective, does not cause side effects, tolerance or dependence, and unlike sleep medications CBT continues to be effective long after treatment.

 

Sleep well!

Colleen E. Carney, Ph.D., is the co-author of Quiet Your Mind and Get to Sleep: Solutions to Insomnia for Those with Depression, Anxiety, or Chronic Pain.