Struggling to fall back asleep after waking up at 3 a.m. or so is a common frustration, often driven by racing thoughts that won’t settle down.
In a recent Psychology Today article, psychologist Jeffrey Bernstein describes a straightforward, memorable sleep trick that can break the cycle of nighttime overthinking: repeating the four-word phrase, “this thought can wait.”
The trick is simple yet powerful. When intrusive or anxious thoughts begin to invade your mind in the middle of the night, you silently say the magic phrase to yourself. Instead of engaging with your worries or trying to solve problems in the darkness, you gently acknowledge their presence and postpone them until morning.
This approach creates a mental boundary, signaling to your brain that now is not the time for rumination or problem-solving.
What makes this phrase effective is both its simplicity and its focus on postponement rather than suppression. You aren’t denying or arguing with your thoughts, which can actually make them more persistent.
Instead, you accept that the thoughts exist but give yourself permission to deal with them later, reducing the sense of urgency that fuels nighttime anxiety and insomnia.
Importantly, you might need to repeat the phrase to yourself — sometimes more than once — if your mind begins to wander back to those restless thoughts. This isn’t a sign of failure. Rather, it’s part of gently training your mind to shift from analyzing to soothing.
By using “this thought can wait” as a calming mental cue, you can keep the door to sleep open and invite rest back in, instead of letting your thoughts take over the night.
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