The counterintuitive advice to deliberately schedule time for worrying, rather than trying to suppress it, rests on genuine clinical research dating back over four decades and offers a considerably more effective approach than simply telling yourself to stop thinking about something.
The Original Research Behind the Technique
Psychologist Thomas Borkovec and colleagues introduced worry postponement in a 1983 study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy, comparing worriers who received standard care against those who practiced deliberately delaying their worry to a scheduled time each day. The research found this stimulus control approach significantly reduced both the frequency and duration of worry episodes compared with the untreated group, establishing a genuine evidence base for a technique that initially sounds almost too simple to work.
Why Delaying Worry Genuinely Works
The technique operates on a straightforward behavioral principle: rather than fighting a worry when it surfaces, which tends to backfire and increase its intensity, you acknowledge it briefly and note it down, then consciously redirect attention with the promise that it will receive proper attention later. Over time, this trains the brain to recognize that worries have a designated container waiting for them, genuinely reducing how urgently and frequently they intrude during the rest of the day.
Research Confirming Benefits for Sleep Specifically
A study by McGowan and Behar specifically examining stimulus control training for worry found the technique reduced anxiety, negative affect and insomnia symptoms among participants, offering direct evidence connecting worry postponement to genuine sleep improvement rather than simply general anxiety reduction. This research matters considerably for anyone whose racing thoughts specifically target bedtime, since it confirms the technique's benefits extend meaningfully into sleep outcomes rather than remaining limited to daytime worry frequency alone.
Setting Up Your Own Worry Time
- Choose a fixed, predictable time each day, ideally after dinner but at least two hours before your planned bedtime, avoiding scheduling it too close to sleep itself
- When a worry surfaces outside this window, jot down a brief note, even a single sentence, then deliberately redirect your attention elsewhere
- During the scheduled worry period itself, actually engage with the accumulated notes rather than avoiding them, giving each worry the genuine attention you promised it earlier
- Stay consistent with the timing daily, since the technique's effectiveness depends on your brain genuinely learning to trust the designated container will show up reliably
A Genuine Caveat Worth Knowing
This technique works best for worry that resolves once a situation passes, rather than intrusive, ritualized thinking connected to a never resolving feared outcome, a distinction worth discussing with a clinician if your nighttime thinking pattern feels more compulsive than simply worried.
The takeaway: Scheduling a dedicated daily worry time, backed by genuine clinical research spanning decades, offers an evidence based way to reduce both daytime worry intensity and bedtime racing thoughts, working with the brain's natural patterns rather than against them.