I would still take my sleeping tablets and have a strong cup of coffee in the morning

Carlone40 gives good advice, IMHO. In my experience sleeping pills only last for about 6 or 7 hours, so I still wake up early in the morning without an alarm clock when I take them. For me, getting up at 7:30 a.m. is "sleeping in late." Sometimes reading in bed or watching a TV show (the dumber the better) can stop my racing thoughts at night. May God bless your day.

Racing thoughts are terrible, Had them come up at a stressful time in life. Took months to go away. I do not like to rely on pills for sleep. But I also do not like where my mind goes after a few days of lack of sleep. As stated, take the pills and drink strong coffee in the AM.

Okay there's a massive fallacy out there that we have to stop this process, or that someone should stop the process for us. We don't. We can go through this process.

We can lie there all night with racing thoughts and no sleep, and then get up and go to work the next day, and it doesn't do us any harm. And most people in history have done just that. Only in this last generation has the idea been to reach out to someone else when you're in this state. Mostly, history has left us alone with it.

We're all on a journey, and those thoughts, and learning how to think, how to master our minds and break them in like horses to help us travel is part of that journey. Learning how you think is part of your development. Lying there, watching those racing thoughts, learning about them, asking them questions- how rational are they? How likely? How reasonable? Are they moot? Do the outcomes of these thoughts make any difference to what you have to do tomorrow?

Those questions are part of growing up. Lying there, obsessively obsessing, and coming to the logical conclusion of that process is a part of growing up.

Don't halt your own growth. Uncover it. Allow it. Go through it. There's no short cut that will lead you to any destination whatsoever.

Any shortcut will keep you locked into where you are right now, for life. I don't recommend that.

OMG I understand the struggle. I deal with insomnia so often it's ridiculous. And yes, those late night thoughts can be insane to deal with sometimes. When I get like that, I like to watch tv, something not exactly interesting enough to keep me awake, but still creating that white noise to help silence my own thoughts. Other times, I like reading, Bible-based publications being my favorite as they provide me with a distraction and comfort to my thoughts. But above all, when I need to talk my thoughts out, I pour my thoughts out in prayer. I try to keep in mind the scripture at 1 Peter 5:7 that says, "throw all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." Just remember, you're never alone. You always have someone to talk to. Of course you have those of us here that can relate to you. But you also have your Heavenly Father that deeply cares for you.