How do I stop overthinking when I try to sleep?

The racing mind at night is unfinished daytime processing. Schedule it earlier: fifteen minutes of deliberate worry time in the evening, writing concerns and next steps, empties much of what the pillow otherwise hosts.

In bed, give the brain a low-stakes channel: slow breathing with longer exhales, a boring detailed fantasy like planning a garden, or counting backward from 300 by threes. All outcompete rumination without the pressure to sleep.

If your mind races most nights with worry spilling through the days too, that pattern has a name and good treatment; anxiety is the most treatable thing on this page.