Why Your Brain Spins at Night
- Trish Heitz
- Oct 27
- 3 min read
How Changing Your Beliefs Can Help You Sleep
You know that feeling; your body’s tired, the room is dark, you’re ready to rest… but your brain refuses to stop spinning.
You replay the day. You think about tomorrow. You fix, plan, replay, and repeat. And when you wake up at 3 a.m.? Your mind picks up exactly where it left off.
For years, I thought I was just hyper, and this was just how my brain worked, until I began to work on my belief system after being diagnosed with cancer.
What I discovered, was, the brain doesn’t spin because it’s broken.It spins because it’s trying to protect you.
The Real Reason You Can’t Shut Your Mind Off
What keeps us awake at night isn’t just worry or stress, it’s the nervous system doing what it’s been conditioned to do.
Most of us have lived so long in fight-or-flight that our bodies simply don’t know how to rest.And underneath that constant alertness is something even more powerful: a belief system that tells your brain it’s not safe to stop.
“I have to keep it together.”“If I don’t handle it, no one will.”“I’m not doing enough.”
These unconscious beliefs become autopilot scripts running in the background of our minds and shaping how we think, feel, and even how we sleep.
I know this because I lived it. Long before science had the words, I was already learning how to change it, not because I was so much smarter, because I was trying to save my life.
What Science Is Now Confirming
Today, neuroscience is catching up to what I discovered through my own healing journey.
A 2024 study published in Behavioral Sciences confirmed that interoception; the ability to sense what’s happening inside your body, is directly linked to emotional regulation and overall well-being.
When we reconnect with our body’s signals: breath, heartbeat, tension, we begin to re-regulate our emotional system.
And new research on memory reconsolidation (from Nature Reviews Neuroscience and Frontiers in Psychology) reveals that when an old emotional memory or belief is reactivated while we feel safe, it can be rewritten with new meaning.
This means that those lifelong beliefs: “I’m not enough,” “I have to earn rest,” “I can’t let go” , "I can't stop", can actually be changed. Not just thought about differently; or reframed, but rewired in the brain.
The Belief Behind the Brain Spin
Here’s what I’ve found, both in my life and my work with clients: Your mind doesn’t keep spinning because you just have too many thoughts; it spins because you have too many thoughts from one dominant unconscious belief driving them all.
The belief that says:
“If I stop, something bad will happen.”“If I rest, I’ll fall behind.”“If I let go, I’ll lose control.”
It’s an autopilot response your brain created long ago to keep you safe, but, created from your child's mind, not only is it not true anymore, it does not serve you.
The moment you begin to discover that belief, trace where it came from, see it for its falsehood, and replace it with a belief that’s actually true, your brain starts learning safety again.
And when the brain feels safe, the body follows. Thoughts quiet...Muscles release...Sleep returns.
That’s not magic; it’s neurobiology.
Teaching the Brain to Rest
The beauty of this work is that you don’t have to force your brain to stop thinking. You teach it to feel safe enough to stop protecting.
This is the essence of my D.A.R.E. Your Beliefs™ Method
Discover the belief driving your thoughts.
Assess where it came from and how it’s showing up.
Recreate a new, supportive belief that reflects your truth.
Expand that belief until it becomes your new emotional baseline.
This isn’t just mindset work; it’s belief reconstruction. It’s how you move from surviving your nights to resting through them.
Your Next Step
If this resonates with you, there are a few easy ways to begin your own belief reset journey. Go to our website: www.patriciaheitz.com and explore our programs, events, and workshops. If you're still not sure where to begin, schedule a free 30-minute consultation so we can discover together what your best starting point is.
If you did not receive this blog by being on our email list, click on the provided link to get on our mailing list and discover more about your belief system.
Because once you change the belief behind the brain spin, you don’t just sleep better…you start to live better.
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