You were exhausted at 3 p.m. You were exhausted at dinner. You nodded off on the couch twenty minutes ago. Then you got into bed, turned off the light, and your brain opened for business. 

Now you're replaying what you said on the afternoon call, drafting tomorrow's email to the client, wondering whether you double-checked that exhibit, and trying to decode what the partner meant by "let's catch up tomorrow."

Racing thoughts at night usually happen because bedtime is the first quiet moment your brain gets all day, and it uses that moment to catch up. 

If this is a regular part of your life, you're in good company. It's one of the most common reasons people can't fall asleep, and I'd guess nearly every lawyer I've worked with has been through a stretch of it. 

The good news is that there are specific, practical ways to quiet it down. Most of them come from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, or CBT-I, which major medical guidelines recommend as the first treatment for chronic insomnia.