Racing Thoughts At Night

[ApRiLGeTsAngry77]

Hi all! I am new to CB. I am curious if anyone else experiences this and what helps. I get racing thoughts every night when I am lying in bed trying to go to sleep. This happens every night. Does anyone else experience this? It's like once my body is in the lying down position, my mind starts racing. I also experience high anxiety while lyiing down.

[Dusk]

Very, very much so. I hear little snippets of random conversation mostly. I used to think they were hallucinations but apparently they can be racing thoughts. I worry about the next day and get all these ideas about what I can do tomorrow.

If I read for awhile, it usually calms me down. Sometimes nothing works, though. I wish I could help you.

[wj74]

Sometimes, if my mood is higher. It can be music or just my eyeballs darting around whether my eyes are closed or not. I pretty much know when it's going to happen b/c of my mood so I'll take a Klonopin before bed. Any other day I go for the trazodone.

[riaketty]

Yup, had them last night. Mine were a lot of panicky thoughts about how DH was going to leave me though. Normally I 'renovate' the house in my head, or spell random words with sign language, or just toss and turn.

[Guest]

Hi,

Could it be because you're avoiding the things you're anxious about until you lay down, when you have no distractions to divert you from your anxiety? I have a similar experience, I try to tackle my issues during the day, talk to someone about them that evening to clear my head, journal or make sure I do relaxation exercises before bed. If all else fails, occasionally I'll take a sleeping pill.

Edited August 15, 2011 by Titania

[Gorzo]

It certainly happens to me. I'll often start having mood/stability problems at sunset, and when I lay down to try to go to sleep, my brain just runs and runs, often I have intrusive and negative thoughts.

[water]

Hi all! I am new to CB. I am curious if anyone else experiences this and what helps. I get racing thoughts every night when I am lying in bed trying to go to sleep. This happens every night. Does anyone else experience this? It's like once my body is in the lying down position, my mind starts racing. I also experience high anxiety while lyiing down.

I have had this my whole life. I completely invalidate my life trying to fall asleep. My suicidal ideations would have a field day. I learned to make up stories. Unstressful really never going to happen stories like Woody Allen runs into my bike while I am on my way to work in NYC and I end up in one of his movies. Or some romantic storyline involving my current crush.

Around one year ago I started taking ambien and my life has changed. I look forward to going to bed for the first time in over half a century. I take my magic pill, get under the covers, turn on my white noise machine, and read my book for a bit. My hubby is under strict orders never to raise any serious topic once I am in bed. And I try to get my girl to calm down if she is jumping around the bedroom. Only soothing feelings. I also shut the bedroom door. And somehow or another at some point I fall completely asleep. I don't even remember falling asleep. My hot flashes still wake me up still but I go right back to bed. And I dream as much as I ever did.

[Anna]

Yes, I do have this happen to me at night. I have to take sleep meds, when I'm unstable, HAVE to have to. And will be taking seroquel my whole life. I find, overall, that my BP sx worsen during the course of the day, I think one person on this board suggested almost a "sundowning" therapy of bp where things get worse at night.... I'm at my best about a few hours after I wake up, and it all goes downhill from there.

I HATE lying in bed with racing thoughts, I have a very very effective cocktail of sleep meds of all types that i use at different types and in different amounts when episodic.

But I WILL NOT allow myself to lie in bed with racing thoughts anymore. It is the worst form of torture for me, ever.

definitely something to bring up with pdoc if you haven't. i find that it's a) usually a sign of overall instability for me, so I need to take a look at my cocktail and tweak it for awhile and b) it's pretty treatable with some form of sleep med and/or dosage increase of some type.

Anna

Protecting your sleep when you are bp is an investment in stability for most people.

[suzz]

I am not ocd but if I really get nervous about getting to sleep I count from 1,000 to one backwards. It somehow short circuits my thinking. I can't get to sleep because music is running through mind this works for me too.

They say after 20 minutes if you can't fall to sleep you should get up for a while and then try it again. My pdoc recommended Benedryl as it isn't habit forming accordingly to her. Those are some of the things I have done.

[ApRiLGeTsAngry77]

Thanks all for the replies.

I think I do distract all my thoughts during the day and at night when I lie down, my thoughts just go wild.

Geodon use to make me drowsy, but I have been on it so long that it no longer puts me to sleep.

I can't take Benadryl because it wires me.

I am also having a lot of anxiety at night when I lie down and I think that the Geodon may be causing it.

[rowen]

I get antsy at night. It usually starts around six or so. My therapist suggested I try to stay mindful - be in the moment - at night, and it's actually pretty helpful. There are books on Mindfulness in the CrazyStore.

That said, I would examine whether or not this is the BP. If your mood is becoming unstable, then I would see your pdoc. If this is a normal occurrence, I would see what you can do to ride it out before adjusting your meds. I think sometimes there is an idea that we must medicate everything, when sometimes what we're doing is normal. This may not be psychopathology at all, in which case self-soothing techniques would be good, unless your life is so severely impacted that you can't self-soothe. If that makes any sense.

[gizmo]

My anxiety levels crank up the longer the day wears on, and by nighttime, I lay down and have visions of falling down the stairs naked and dying before anyone comes home to find me (like, seriously, all sorts of weird shit like that). I generally take a valium about 2 hours before bedtime to calm the thoughts down. I can't take sleeping meds because the max dose of ambien won't work on me at all... double the max dose does, but my pdoc asked me to stop that when I told his, lest I die in my sleep or something stupid.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but the best thing my last therapist did was get me a sleep hypnosis mp3 that I listen to at night on my iphone. I usually pass out within 15 minutes, and listening to the relaxation techniques blocks my brain from thinking up crazy shit all night.

[CrazyCatLady]

I had that really bad when I wasn't on meds. I would lay there for hours and hours, my thoughts racing. It was awful. I notice it happening when I become symptomatic. Risperdal helps, along with my sound machine.

[Gearhead]

But I WILL NOT allow myself to lie in bed with racing thoughts anymore. It is the worst form of torture for me, ever.

Amen.

I've been an insomniac my entire life, since I was a little girl. My parents used to yell at me for not going to sleep when I was supposed to! And I know that the Great Meltdown of 2000 was fueled in large part by the fact that I stopped sleeping for about nine months. I mean, it doesn't count as sleep if you can still hear yourself thinking.

I've taken Ambien, 12.5 mgs, every night since about...jeez, I don't even know. At least 2007. That's on top of the Seroquel IR. It's the best thing for sleep that I've ever had. It actually WORKS. My current fine-tuning calls for 50 mgs of Seroquel IR and 12.5 of Ambien half an hour before I get in to bed. Any longer than that and amnesiac wackiness ensues.

And I have very strict rules about how long I'm willing to lie in the dark listening to my mind before I roll over and take an extra 25 mgs of Seroquel, which I always have on the nightstand. Nothing screws me up faster or worse than not sleeping, and there is nothing to be gained from having any more late night run-ins with the mess in my head.