Why Can't We Sleep?

We stay awake because we get pulled into a whirlpool of thoughts at night. We replay tomorrow's interview in our heads ("What if I can't answer the experience question?"), obsess over a new business idea, or recall a conversation from five years ago.

However, there is a way to stop this "mental rumination"—meditation and mindfulness practices. In this article, we’ll explore exactly how it works and which tools help the brain switch off "anxiety mode."

Our brain cannot distinguish between a real threat and a thought about one.

Example: You rent an apartment and suddenly think at night: "If the project gets canceled next month, I won't be able to pay rent and I'll be evicted." You are still lying in a warm bed, but your brain already "sees" your belongings out on the street.

How does the body react? The amygdala, the brain's fear center, is activated. It triggers the "fight or flight" response. The body releases cortisol, and your heart rate increases. In this state, the "sleep" function is biologically blocked: you cannot sleep when an "attacker" is near.

What does meditation do? It changes your relationship with the thought. When you practice mindfulness, you learn to notice: "Oh, I’m having a thought about eviction."

This allows you to step back and rationally assess the situation: "Will worrying at 3 AM help me find money? No. I’d better write this thought down in my workbook and deal with it tomorrow."

Meditation is brain training. Thanks to neuroplasticity, over time, "mindfulness" becomes a personality trait. You stop feeling vague anxiety and start clearly seeing its "authors"—specific thoughts.

For those who find it difficult to simply sit in silence, there are self-therapy methods that help put these thoughts on paper. The MriyaRun team develops specialized tools for exactly this purpose:

Example of "mental rumination": Instead of spending an hour thinking: "I should have responded differently back then...", you use a MriyaRun journal. By externalizing these states, you literally free up "RAM" in your brain, allowing your body finally to relax.

The effectiveness of meditation isn't just a theory. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, scientists conducted a study on sleep quality.

Participants were divided into two groups: one practiced meditation, while the other was instructed to "let their minds wander." This was a double-blind randomized study—the gold standard of scientific validity. The results showed that the mindfulness group slept significantly better, despite the real threat surrounding them. Meditation protected them from "mental chewing" and exhaustion.

Mindfulness helps you fall asleep through two mechanisms:

For deeper self-work, we recommend combining meditation with self-therapy methods. Explore our series of MriyaRun workbooks and metaphorical cards—they are designed to be your guide to peaceful sleep and emotional resilience.