It is rarely a new worry. It is the same one you had at lunch, only now it seems certain, urgent and yours alone to fix before morning.
At night the parts of the brain that weigh up evidence are tired, and the parts that scan for threat are not. A thought that you would have filed as ‘possible’ at noon arrives at three o’clock as ‘definite’. Nothing about the situation changed; the judge went to bed early.
What usually makes it worse
Checking the time, then calculating how much sleep is left. Picking up the phone to look something up. Lying still and trying hard not to think. Each one tells the brain this is an emergency worth staying awake for.
“The thought isn’t truer at night. You are just less able to argue with it.”
Try this tonight
- Keep a pen and paper by the bed, not the phone.
- Write the worry in one line, and the words ‘for tomorrow at ten’.
- If you’re still awake after twenty minutes, get up and sit somewhere dim until you’re sleepy.
If this happens most nights for a few weeks, it is worth talking to someone. Six sessions of CBT for insomnia help most people, and they work better than sleeping tablets over time.
Clinical psychologist · CBT · 12 years in practice · Utrecht and video
The pen and paper idea worked better than I expected. Writing ‘for tomorrow at ten’ felt silly the first night and helpful by the third.
Thank you for coming back to say so. The silliness is part of it: it puts a little distance between you and the worry.