by Emilie Glen Colsted

Intrusive thoughts at night

You have just laid your head on the pillow and you are ready to drift off into dreamland. But for some reason, you just can’t fall asleep. This may be caused by intrusive thoughts that are keeping you awake.

Thoughts like these can be common at nighttime “I just know that it’s going to take me hours to fall asleep tonight” or “If I don’t fall asleep, I’ll be unproductive tomorrow and risk losing my job”. Ironically enough, they tend to creep up in greater numbers the more we strain ourselves to fall asleep. It is therefore important that we address these noisy naggers before they get a chance to ruin our sleep.

An effective way of confronting these thoughts is to disassemble them and see if they contain cognitive distortions.

Cognitive distortions are biased and irrational perceptions of the world or ourselves. They are often subtle patterns of thinking that make us feel uneasy and they come in great variety.

The idea that loss of sleep may cost you your job is a good example of the cognitive distortion called “catastrophizing”. And making negative predictions about your ability to fall asleep is referred to as “fortune-telling”.

Identifying the type of cognitive distortion that is affecting your thoughts is a crucial step when trying to clear your mind for sleep. Knowing the different forms of cognitive distortions can help you clear out intrusive thoughts and finally fall asleep to get some well-deserved sleep.

If you want to learn more about the different types of cognitive distortions and how you can stop them from messing with your sleep, then check out the tool: Clear your Mind.

Also, if you want to check out how relaxing music can help us fall asleep, then read more about the Calming Music tool.