Short answer: not as a bedtime fix, and this site will not tell you it helps you sleep. One 2023 study of chronic insomnia added several metacognitive elements — including ATT, detached mindfulness and worry postponement — to cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)[2]. The combined package did not outperform standard CBT-I, and the study cannot isolate ATT’s contribution. No controlled study has shown that ATT by itself improves sleep, so no sleep claim is made here.

That leaves a more useful question: is there any sensible way to use ATT if racing thoughts at night are your problem?

Why bedtime is the wrong moment

The protocol places practice when the person is not in a state of anxiety or acute worry[1]. A mind racing at midnight is usually exactly that state.

And using the exercise to get out of it is the use the manual argues against: it should not be employed as a distraction, avoidance, or symptom-management strategy, and is not intended as an emotion-management strategy[1], with misuse as avoidance or symptom management flagged as its own concern[1].

There is also a plainer objection. ATT is designed to be attentionally demanding, and to stay that way rather than becoming easier with practice[1]. Twelve minutes of effortful attention switching is not a wind-down.

It is also not a way to stop the thoughts

The instinct at 1am is to make the thinking stop. The protocol rules that out as a goal: the exercise is not intended to lead to a blank mind and counteracts the use of active thought suppression[1]; intruding thoughts are treated as additional noise and not resisted — you must not try to stop them[1].

So even used at the right time, ATT is not a thought-stopper. It trains where attention goes while the thoughts do whatever they do.

What the pattern looks like in the model

Metacognitive therapy would describe nighttime racing thoughts as the cognitive attentional syndrome running with nothing else to compete with it: perseverative, self-focused, worry-based processing plus monitoring for threat[1]. Nothing about the dark makes the pattern different; it just removes the distractions that mask it during the day.

Wells positions ATT as interrupting that pattern and improving flexible executive control[1] — as training, done regularly, not as an intervention applied at the moment of trouble.

The realistic version

If nights are consistently bad and you want to try attention training, the shape that fits the protocol is:

  • A regular daytime slot. The manual asks for practice twice a day at about twelve minutes, while noting that in reality most people manage once[1].
  • No bedtime promise attached. You would be practising general attention control — Wells’ patient-facing framing is “mental fitness training”[1] — not treating insomnia.
  • Judged by the practice, not the nights. Sessions are measured by whether you kept bringing attention back[1]. Watching your sleep for evidence that it is working is the kind of monitoring the model treats as part of the problem.

When the answer is something else entirely

Persistent sleep trouble has well-developed treatments; the study above describes ATT only as one element inside an experimental addition to CBT-I, not as a standalone sleep treatment. If you are regularly awake with racing thoughts, that is worth raising with a qualified professional rather than working around with an attention exercise. Heed is a self-practice tool inspired by ATT research — not therapy, and not a medical device.

Related: attention training and rumination and how often to practise ATT.

Questions and answers

Can ATT help me sleep?
No controlled study has isolated ATT and shown that it improves sleep. One insomnia study included ATT among several metacognitive elements added to CBT-I, but the package did not outperform standard CBT-I and cannot reveal ATT's individual effect.
Can I use it when my mind is racing at bedtime?
The protocol says to practise when you are not in a state of anxiety or acute worry — which is usually exactly what a racing mind at night is. Using it as a rescue tool is named in the manual as misuse.
Is there any sensible way to use ATT if nights are the problem?
A regular practice slot earlier in the day, treated as general attention training with no bedtime promise attached. That is a reasonable framing, not a demonstrated remedy.

References

  1. Wells, A. (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression. Guilford Press. Chapter 4: Attention Training Techniques.
  2. Jenewein, A.-L., Schredl, M., & Schilling, C. (2023). Sleep-related metacognitions and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Somnologie, 27, 109–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11818-023-00404-9

Published by the makers of Heed, an app for practicing ATT-style sessions. iPhone · Android. Heed is a self-practice tool inspired by ATT research — not therapy, and not a medical device.