If your mind won't slow down at night, this is the meditation to put on. It's a sample from our Tapping Solution App, now available to download, and it walks you through a tapping round built for a racing mind at bedtime.
I'm sharing it here so you can get a taste of what's inside the app: hundreds of other Tapping Meditations across sleep, anxiety, confidence, and more.
If racing thoughts are part of what keeps you up, our complete guide to tapping for sleep anxiety goes deeper on the why and the how.
Sleep Support: Quiet My Racing Mind
Right Click and "Save" Here to Download the Audio
Did you feel any shifts take place? How does your body feel after the tapping? Were you able to fall asleep easier? If your mind still won't stop racing once your head hits the pillow, our guide on why racing thoughts keep you awake at night breaks down what's happening and how tapping interrupts the loop.
I hope you enjoyed it, and please help me spread the word about The Tapping Solution App!
"Tis a good sign when lots of yawning starts midway thru this session! Grateful for the session!" -Claire
If a racing mind at bedtime is a regular pattern for you, our Goodbye Insomnia, Hello Restful Sleep masterclass with Ruth Stern goes deeper on this specifically.
Until next time,
Keep Tapping (On the app!)
Nick Ortner
Why your mind races the moment your head hits the pillow
At night, with the lights off and nothing left to distract you, your nervous system finally has room to run through everything it didn't get to during the day. That's usually what a racing mind at bedtime is: unfinished business showing up the one time you're quiet enough to notice it. Our guide to EFT tapping for sleep goes deeper on the mechanism and a bedtime round to use alongside this one.
Naming the specific thought helps. Here are a few common ones, and a phrase to tap on for each.
| What's running through your mind | A phrase to tap on |
|---|---|
| Replaying something you said or did | "This replay loop" |
| Tomorrow's to-do list | "Everything I have to do tomorrow" |
| A worry about money, health, or a relationship | "This worry that won't turn off" |
| A racing, pounding heart | "This racing heart" |
| Checking the clock and calculating hours left | "This clock-watching" |
| An old memory or argument resurfacing | "This old memory showing up" |
Free. The best place to start.
Want to learn tapping from the people who know it best?
The Tapping World Summit has taught tapping to people all over the world since 2009. Ten days, 24 of the world's leading tapping teachers, 100% free.
Join the free summitA round for a racing mind
Use this lying in bed, lights off. Rate how racing your mind feels from 0 to 10, tap through the points, then check the number again.
- Setup (repeat three times, tapping the side of your hand): "Even though my mind keeps racing and I can't get it to stop, I accept how I feel right now, and I let my body know it's safe to rest."
- Eyebrow: "This racing mind."
- Side of Eye: "It won't slow down."
- Under Eye: "All these thoughts firing at once."
- Under Nose: "I can't make it stop."
- Chin: "It's exhausting."
- Collarbone: "I don't have to solve anything right now."
- Under Arm: "I can let this thought go for tonight."
- Top of Head: "I give my mind permission to quiet down."
If your number is still high, do another round with whatever thought is loudest now. Falling asleep partway through means it's working.
What our data shows
Quiet My Racing Mind, the session at the top of this page, is one of 40 sessions in our Sleep Support category. People rate how racing or wired their mind feels right before and after each session, in the app. Across Sleep Support, 3,541,374 completions show the average rating drop from 6.2 to 3.2, a 48% drop in a single sitting (app data). Quiet My Racing Mind itself has been completed 1,045,926 times, with the average rating going from 6.9 to 3.7 (app data).
A separate peer-reviewed study of 270,461 app users found self-reported anxiety dropped from 6.7 to 3.8 and stress dropped from 6.9 to 3.8 (Church & Stapleton, 2020).
"I forgot to do my tapping before bed and after waking up from a nightmare and a racing heart at 2am I remembered. I grabbed my phone, did my tapping and fell right back to sleep for another 4 hours."
Marnie, woke at 2am with a racing heart, rated it a 9 before tapping, a 2 after
"I've been so tired in the morning recently. I had so much exhaustion, but doing this at night time helps you fall asleep three hours earlier."
Erin, Quiet My Racing Mind, rated it a 10 before tapping, a 1 after
What the research says
Our guide to menopause insomnia covers the drivers unique to that stage of life.
A small pilot study of ten elderly women with insomnia found a four-week tapping program improved sleep, mood, anxiety, and life satisfaction, with the sleep gains still holding a month later (Lee et al., 2011). It's a small study with no comparison group, so treat it as an early signal, not proof.
Go deeper
- EFT Tapping for Sleep: Try This If You're Having Trouble Sleeping
- Sleep Anxiety: The Complete Guide
- Menopause Insomnia: Why You Can't Sleep and What Actually Works
- The Basic Tapping Sequence for Anxiety
Your Questions About Tapping for a Racing Mind, Answered
Does tapping help with a racing mind at night?
Yes. Sleep Support sessions in The Tapping Solution App, including this one, show large drops in how racing people rate their mind, from 6.2 to 3.2 across 3,541,374 completions (app data). Tapping does not treat or cure insomnia; it works on the stress underneath a racing mind, alongside good sleep habits and, if you need it, a clinician's care.
Why won't my mind stop racing when I try to sleep?
Usually because your nervous system still reads something as unfinished, a worry, a memory, tomorrow's to-do list, and it keeps you alert to deal with it. Our complete guide to tapping for sleep anxiety goes deeper on what's happening in your body at that moment.
What do I say when I tap for a racing mind?
Start at the side of the hand with a setup statement that names exactly what's racing: "Even though my mind keeps racing and I can't get it to stop, I accept how I feel right now, and I let my body know it's safe to rest." Then use a short phrase, like "this racing mind" or "it won't slow down," at each of the eight points in the round above.
How long does it take for tapping to quiet a racing mind at bedtime?
This meditation runs under 10 minutes, and many people notice their mind slowing down before it ends. If your mind is still going afterward, do another short round using whatever thought is loudest in that moment.
Is tapping a treatment for insomnia?
No. Tapping is not a treatment or cure for insomnia or any other sleep disorder. It works on the stress and racing thoughts that often sit underneath a bad night, alongside good sleep habits and, if your insomnia is ongoing or severe, a clinician's care.
What if my racing mind is related to menopause?
Hormonal shifts during menopause can make a racing mind and disrupted sleep more common. Our guide to menopause insomnia looks at the specific drivers and what helps, alongside this meditation.
Now part of a Medicare program
If your racing mind at night is really anxiety by day, and you're on Original Medicare, our sister company NeuroTap Health now offers a guided tapping program at $0 out of pocket through Medicare's ACCESS Model. How it works and who qualifies.
