Many people know the feeling: you wake at three, and within a minute your mind has found the one thing to worry about. By morning the same thought often looks much smaller.

There are good reasons for that. When you’re tired, it’s harder to keep a thought in proportion. It’s dark and quiet, and there’s nothing you can do about the problem yet, so your mind keeps circling it.

Arguing with the worry at night rarely works. Treat it as a note for later instead. Keep a pen and paper by the bed, write the thought down in a few words, and tell yourself you’ll look at it after breakfast.

If you’ve been awake for a while, get up and do something calm in low light until you feel sleepy again. Slow breathing, with a longer breath out than in, can help your body settle.

If night-time worry happens most nights, or it’s starting to affect your days, it’s worth talking to someone. Anxiety that shows up at night usually has daytime roots we can work on.