Do you ever find that during the day you can see the OCD thoughts arise, but they are less bothersome?  Then at night, just when you start to relax and get ready for bed, boom!  That’s when they start to get louder?

I’ve found recently that during the day, I’m pretty able to rationalise and dismiss OCD thoughts, but then at night that same thought from earlier in the day can reoccur, a bit like my brain saying:

‘Remember this, was it actually important?’

For whatever reason at night time the thought can be more sticky and before I know it, I have that anxious feeling and if I’m not really careful I’m off down the rabbit hole.

I do believe this is a relatively common phenomenon, not just for people who suffer with OCD but for everyone.

So why is it always worse at night?

The main reason I understand is that: at night the prefrontal cortex – our thinking brain – becomes less active and as a consequence the emotional brain is more in control and less filtered. 

Remember the emotional brain likes to:

• Jump to an opinion
• Think in black and white
• Is paranoid
• Catastrophises things
• Is irrational
• Judges’ things emotionally rather than logically
• Produces more negative or exaggerated thoughts

From an evolutionary standpoint, in the past we would of needed to be on high alert throughout the night, as we would have been more vulnerable, so it does sort of make sense, however nowadays it causes us stress.

I also believe there can be an element of habit in there, the brain works on predicting and anticipating our behaviour and unfortunately if you’re a worrier then at that time in the evening the brain will deliver you some worrying thoughts, along with the associated brain chemicals because that’s what it always does!

I like this extract from Prof. Steve Peteres book which has helped me:

‘If you wake during the night, any thoughts or feelings you might have are from you chimp (emotional) brain and they are very often disturbing, catastrophic and lacking in perspective.  In the morning you are likely to regret engaging with these thoughts and feelings because you will see things differently. ‘

The rule I try to stick to is – Don’t engage between 10.30pm-6am – acknowledge the thought and set aside some ‘worry time’ the following day if needed, when the rational brain is switched on and working.  You may find the time is not necessary once you are up and about but in the night it gives you a way to delay engaging. 

At night we can feel wrapped up in our thoughts, finding ways to not push them away but to acknowledge and defuse from them can be really useful.  We need to switch the logical brain back on, not fully but enough to help pull ourselves out. 

Ways I’ve found to do this include,

• Writing it down/journaling
• Acknowledging the thought and allocating worry time the following day.
• Recognising the thought as OCD say, ‘Thank you brain, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear right now’
• Use Byron Katie’s – Is it true?  Is it 100% true? – If the answer is no, let it go!
• I also saw the opposite of this the other day, ask yourself, ‘is there even a 1% chance that this might not be true?’  Works the same way by creating enough doubt to let go.
• Mindfulness – Body scan starting at the toes / counting breathing
• Be creative – Creativity switches on a different part of the brain – I like to plan yoga sequences as I fall asleep, but you could come up with a book idea, plan how to decorate your bedroom/house, decide what you’re going to cook for dinner tomorrow.  Maybe think of an act of kindness you could perform for someone. 

Remember fear lives in the vague and the brain is able to make black = white when the emotional brain is in charge.  Make sure you’re dealing with facts and the pre-frontal cortex and not self-made nonsense from the emotional brain – you know what I mean!

Not sure which brains in charge?  Ask yourself: ‘Am I struggling?’, If the answers ‘yes!’, chances are the emotional brains in control.

 If this is the case, whatever you do, don’t engage or try to reason with the thought, in my experience this always makes it worse!!!

In conclusion:

• Don’t engage with thoughts between 10.30pm and 6am
• Acknowledge the thought and allocate worry time the following day to deal with it then
• Switch to thinking more mindfully or creatively – this uses a different part of the brain.