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

Well, an obvious solution is to speak with a Listener on here or join in group chats. You could also try listening to music. If you're really worried about this though, you could go see your GP and see what advice they can offer you. It might be a good idea to look into going to a counsellor too if you feel you need someone to speak with face to face that has no connections to your friends or family. Hope this helps. :)

I had this problem recently, and I think what helped me was that because I was aggravated I wanted to just get up and do something. If I couldn't sleep, I might as well be productive, right? Well... Your body kind of makes up all kinds of excuses to NOT do that most of the time, so while I'm trying to fight to get up I'm kind of nodding off at the same time. Eventually I go to sleep, so sorry I can't provide an immediate solution.

In some cases where you are stressed out it helps to distract your brain with background activity; I am not talking here about the telly running in the background or your pc running with some gaming videos, as that only disturbs your sleep. There is something called 'white noise' which is a sort of background noise that does not disturb you during your sleeping activities but it still distracts a hyperactive brain enough to sleep without thinking too much. For example, some people find the sound of rain very relaxing; while we cannot have rain all the time there are songs and videos out there which play the sound of rain,while others may find peace in listening to piano music (for example on youtube search for Paulfromstokeuk he has some beautiful piano and instrumental pieces!) Put on one of those tracks for a while and set a timer for it to go off after a while, this way you give your brain something to be distracted by when you are in the process of falling asleep so you won't get annoying thoughts buzzing in your head!

Listen to a self-guided meditation before bed. It will relax you and put your focus on something else than the rushing thoughts in your head. http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

The very first thing you should do is to take some deep,long breaths focusing entirely on the rise and fall of chest.It may help you feel little calmer,so when you are calm,rather than getting trapped out in thoughts,sort them out one by one and then figure out why aren't you able to fall asleep.Most of the times the fear and worry that "I can't sleep" is the reason itself why you can't sleep.SO first thing is to take out that tension and anxiety around the sleeping.It's the first step

Well the best thing to do in my opinion is to try and play some calming music to relax your thoughts

When I am stressed out and cannot sleep I get up and make myself a hot chocolate. I find if I continue to stay in bed I only think more and I know if I do this I am not going to get any sleep all night. So I find by getting out of bed. Going to make a hot chocolate. Perhaps putting on the pc and playing a game and or popping on a movie or picking up a novel and reading it. It helps slow my mind down. Makes me tired then I am ready for bed.

I would suggest you to do hypnosis. Its a simple process to revert thoughts in a positive way. You should have 2 people to perform it . The procedure is : Close you eyes and breathe in and breathe out 5 times. Then try to loosen up your thoughts by going into the woods . Imagine you are alone and walk accross. Where you find a beach.. and water all around you. Try steppin close to the water and breathe. You fell fresh. Bow slowly step into the water there are 10 steps. Take the 1st step u feel the water on ur feet. Nw slowly step down to 2 3 4 5 6 slowly water is raising over to ur body. Now 7 8 9 10 and nw u r in the ocean bt u r nt drowning or feeling suffocated. But u swim and njoy the water. U see a treasure box .. u open it and u find 3 potions . Choose ur potions. Like 1 may have energy and 2nd may have love and the 3rd ... find happiness ir wateva u k Like.. drink it ... nd breathe .. u wil be energised and u wil rejuvated once u do this. Remember there shud be no distractions. And tell ur friend or a closed one to narrate this to u so that u can imagine and get ur stress away. My name is journeyoflife15 I am a listner here. If u need any help. I am here. Take care.

Try and think about a calm location like the beach at the sunset. Slowly breathe in and out. It'll calm you. Imagine you being in that location, walking around in silence and enjoying the landscape. Keep breathing in and out slowly and you will fall asleep very well.

Try and put your thoughts into perspective before you sleep, work out how each thought can affect you and the changes it could have in the bigger picture then make a plan of dealing with those thoughts in the future, write down your plan and then have a bath or whatever makes you totally relax and sleep.