I'm stressed out and when I try to go to sleep I can't shut off my thoughts. What should I do?

well, no need to try to repress or control thoughts directly. that's actually a bad strategy. repression never works. We don't have direct control over thoughts and things in general (even if we like to lie to ourselves that we do :D) We have a small direct control, but thoughts, emotions, things in general, are far away from the source, from us, and, like light, control drops fast with distance, it's natural law, same with sounds, and every other force. We have to control what we CAN control directly. That is, develop a practice about our Focus, our attention. It's not about shutting down a bad thing, no matter which. It's about creating a good thing, giving it focus, attention, thought, more and more. It's also not about instant winning, instant success, but a process of win-loss-win-loss-win-win-loss-winwinwin-loss...etc, increasing the success as much as we can, now as we "should" increase, each individual in his own way. What I find useful about falling asleep now, your special case here, is focusing on breathing. Breathing in, 1, Breathing out, 2, Breathing in, 1, Breathing out, 2, etc Thoughts may steal your focus, no problem, you come back to simple watching your breathing, not forcing it, and 1, 2, 1, 2, This simplicity will generate a rhythm in your brain, and rhythm is what is needed to fall asleep. (anything rhythmic will have the same effect, choose anything, but it has to be as simple as possible, and if related to breath, even better) Thinking generates chaotic patterns, as it should generate, it's normal, but this promotes awakeness. Hence not falling asleep. Trying to shut down thoughts it's also not rhythmic, because it's like you think about pushing down another thought, still thinking, still chaos there, promotes awake-ness. Rhythm brings calm, and also falling asleep, also promotes meditation, which is healing also.