How to Turn Off Your Brain to Sleep: What Studies Show
How to turn off your brain to sleep? See what studies found about overthinking at bedtime, and how Hypnagogia-Pass gives your attention something to follow.
Ayse Tara, BSc in Nursing
10/17/20265 min read
You are lying in the dark, replaying a sentence you said at lunch. You tell yourself to stop thinking about it, and the thought comes back a little louder.
You cannot switch your brain off on command, but you can give it something else to do. Studies of bedtime thinking suggest that worries and unfinished tasks keep attention switched on. A specific, engaging task may leave less room for them.
Key takeaways
Hypnagogia-Pass is our method for the moment you cannot stop thinking: 30 videos, more than 2,400 minutes in total, a word and a matching picture on screen, no talking, soft background sound.
In a 2009 study of 70 people who gave a speech to a panel, those who ruminated more afterwards took longer to fall asleep that night, but their total sleep time did not differ.
In a 2018 sleep-lab study of 57 young adults, five minutes of writing a specific to-do list at bedtime went with falling asleep faster than writing about completed tasks.
For racing thoughts in particular, our guide to how to stop racing thoughts at night gives practical steps.
Why you cannot simply turn your brain off
There is no off switch, because falling asleep is not something you do. It is something that happens when you stop doing, and thinking harder about it is still doing. This is our reading of the problem, not a study result, but it matches what researchers report about pre-sleep thoughts. Our mind racing at night article looks at those findings in detail.
Normally thinking loosens as sleep approaches: images and half-thoughts replace planning, the drift described in what hypnagogia is. Overthinking keeps you on the planning side of that drift. When the night itself becomes the worry, our sleep anxiety survey post shows how common that is.
What studies found about overthinking and sleep
In a 2009 study by Peggy Zoccola and colleagues, published in Psychosomatic Medicine, 70 participants gave a five-minute speech in front of an evaluative panel. During a ten-minute rest afterwards, the researchers counted how often they had thoughts about the task, and they wore wrist actigraphs that night.
People who ruminated more, both by habit and about this stressor, took longer to fall asleep, measured by the actigraph and by their own estimate the next morning. Rumination was not related to total sleep time or to waking during the night. It is a small study of one stressful afternoon, so it shows a link, not that rumination alone causes a sleep problem.
A different approach was tested in a 2018 study by Michael Scullin and colleagues in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Fifty-seven healthy adults aged 18 to 30 spent five minutes writing before sleeping in a lab with polysomnography. Those assigned to write a to-do list fell asleep significantly faster than those who wrote about tasks they had already completed.
The more specifically people wrote their to-do list, the faster they fell asleep. The sample was young and healthy and the lab is not your bedroom, so treat it as a clue. If your mind keeps running through tomorrow, this short post has a gentle thing to try in bed.
Our reasoning, not a study result: a specific list gives unfinished tasks somewhere to live other than your head, so the mind has less reason to keep checking them. The study did not test why the list worked, and it did not compare it with other bedtime habits such as reading or breathing exercises.
Why trying to stop thinking can backfire
“Stop thinking” has no target, which makes it hard to follow. In a 2002 trial by Allison Harvey and Suzanna Payne, 41 people with insomnia were given one of three instructions for a single night: distract yourself using imagery, distract yourself in general, or no instructions.
The imagery group had shorter sleep onset latency and less frequent, less distressing pre-sleep cognitive activity than the no-instruction group. The authors attribute this to the task taking up enough “cognitive space” to keep people from returning to worries, and note that mental control is more likely when there is a specific target to search for. It was one night with a small group, so it is a clue, not a rule.
Studies of imagery before sleep inspired methods such as the one in our cognitive shuffling article, which explains what has and has not been studied.
Something to try tonight
Two small steps follow from the studies. At bedtime, as in the lab study, write a short, specific to-do list for the next few days. Then give your attention one gentle thing to follow instead of an order to stop.
That second step is what Hypnagogia-Pass is for. Each session shows a word and a matching picture on a dark screen, one after another, with no talking and soft background sound, following a slow breathing rhythm of about six breaths a minute. The library holds 30 videos, more than 2,400 minutes in total.
Our reasoning, not a study result: effortful imagery can keep a mind awake, so Hypnagogia-Pass supplies the pictures and asks you only to watch. It is a method, not a treatment, inspired by two studies on imagery before sleep that did not examine our videos. This article explains the roots, and why we built it tells the story. Try Hypnagogia-Pass tonight.
Your overthinking at night questions, answered
How do I trick my brain into falling asleep?
There is no reliable trick, and trying to force sleep tends to keep attention on whether it is coming. What studies point to instead is giving the mind a specific, easy task, such as a short to-do list or a gentle sequence of images, so worries have less room.
How do I relax my mind from overthinking at night?
Give overthinking a specific place to go before you lie down. In a 2018 sleep-lab study, writing a specific to-do list for five minutes went with falling asleep faster than writing about completed tasks. Then offer your attention something gentle to follow. Our post on lying awake after an argument shows one common example.
Can anxiety prevent sleep?
Yes, it can make falling asleep harder. In a 2009 study, people who ruminated more after a stressful speech took longer to fall asleep that night. Anxiety can also go along with several conditions, and only a clinician can tell which, if any, applies to you.
How do I fall asleep when I am stressed?
Stress often shows up as rumination, and in the 2009 study rumination went with a longer time to fall asleep. Writing tomorrow’s tasks down, then following something gentle instead of the worry, are two approaches studies have looked at. Neither is a guarantee, and ongoing trouble is worth raising with a doctor.
Is it normal that I cannot turn off my brain at night?
It is very common, and studies of people with sleep-onset insomnia describe pre-sleep thoughts as more occupying and focused on worries. Our Dalí article shows how people have worked with the edge of sleep, and this guide lists practical steps.
Know someone who's awake right now?
If you have a friend you have recently talked with about not being able to switch their mind off at night, or someone you think needs this information, send them this article. It brings them what the science says, in plain words.
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If trouble sleeping lasts for weeks, or if overthinking comes with other symptoms that worry you, please talk with a doctor. This article is general information, not medical advice, and Hypnagogia-Pass has not been tested in a clinical trial.