Psychologist Reveals The Simple Phrase That Helps You Fall Asleep Fast When Racing Thoughts Keep You Up
You can actually hack your brain to quiet down and let you rest.
SB Arts Media | Shutterstock There's truly nothing worse than insomnia because it makes every other difficulty in your life even harder to deal with. It's such a drag that anxiety about insomnia often makes insomnia worse, in a seemingly neverending cycle. But it turns out fighting insomnia might be far simpler than we think.
A psychologist revealed the simple phrase that can help you fall asleep faster when your mind is racing.
If you're like most people, racing thoughts have probably been your default for most of 2025 so far — it's hard not to end up in that situation, with everything going on. But psychologist Dr. Alexis Kennedy has an interesting and very simple hack to help you get the rest you need amidst the chaos.
Kennedy specializes in trauma recovery, stress management, and teaching people how to reverse burnout, and she siad the secret to getting to sleep lies not in pharmaceuticals but rather in neuroscience.
Dr. Kennedy said falling asleep is all about telling your brain to quiet racing thoughts.
To turn your racing thoughts off, Dr. Kennedy suggested a mental exercise of "scanning from your toes up to your head and noticing how each part feels." In meditation and stress management, this is often called a "body scan."
To do it, Dr. Kennedy advised lying in a comfortable position in bed and starting by focusing on your toes, then working slowly, bit by bit, up your body — but don't skip any parts. Go from toes to feet to ankles to shins to knees and so on. Don't forget the back of your body actually lying on the bed, either.
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Continue scanning until you arrive all the way up to the top of your head. But take your time because as you go, you'll need to take stock of how each part feels. "Really pause and notice it," Dr. Kennedy said. "What sensations can you feel? Warmth? Happiness? Tingling?"
Whatever the case may be, check in and really notice each feeling before moving to the next body part. "This focused awareness pulls you away from your stressful thoughts, bringing you into the present moment," Dr. Kennedy said. How? By quite literally hijacking the part of your brain making you anxious and keeping you awake.
The body scan works by activating a different brain system that shuts down the one causing racing thoughts.
"The science of why this works is that our brain isn't as good at multitasking as we think when you're focusing on the physical symptoms in your body," Dr. Kennedy explained. In fact, it turns out it's actually quite bad at it.
Scanning your body and noticing sensations activates your brain's sensory processing center, and "our sensory processing center and worry systems can't be active together," Dr. Kennedy said. "It's neurologically impossible for your brain to spiral anxiety thoughts at the same time."
You can take this all one level further, too, by adding another step to your body scan. After noticing the sensations in each part, Dr. Kennedy said to "use the secret phrase 'thank you body part for helping me today.'"
This may seem a little weird and hokey, but it actually initiates yet another brain system that counteracts anxiety. "This expression of gratitude activates your brain's reward system, creating a positive feedback loop that counters anxiety and promotes relaxation," Dr. Kennedy explained.
It also triggers the brain to release tons of positive chemicals and neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin, which both promote relaxation. "We're essentially giving our brain a natural sleep cocktail," she said, and especially nowadays, that's just what the doctor ordered.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.