--- title: The mind at night: replays, worst-case thinking and nightmares — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The mind at night: replays, worst-case thinking and nightmares», a lesson of the reflection course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: It's like a rubbish TV channel I can't switch off." --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Reflection](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/) / The mind at night: replays, worst-case… # The mind at night: replays, worst-case thinking and nightmares Lesson 26 of the reflection course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/1/) — It's like a rubbish TV channel I can't switch off." - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/2/) — In the day he was fine; at night the clip came again and again; after a week it started to feel boring rather than awful; after three weeks it barely came at all, because each replay is the brain trying to "file" the moment, and each one makes it a little less sharp. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/3/) — Trying hard NOT to think about it made it louder; what helped was Dad saying he once called his teacher "Mum" at secondary school, and saying to himself, "Oh, that clip again," then thinking about his favourite football match instead. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/4/) — The night mind has other tricks: it jumps from one cross voice to "I'll be alone forever", it doubts the locked door, it turns sad days into nightmares, it makes a coat look like a monster; in daylight, with facts, almost all of it looks much smaller. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/5/) — Most of these tricks are normal and fade on their own; but if a rule like "touch the switch five times or Mum gets hurt" keeps growing and taking time, it is a sign to tell a grown-up, because there is real help. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/6/) — The mind often replays embarrassing moments at night because it is quiet and there is little else to think about; a "cringe attack" is slang for suddenly remembering something embarrassing. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/7/) — Replays usually get less sharp over days and weeks, especially if you let them pass instead of fighting them. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/8/) — Trying hard not to think about something usually makes the thought come back more; noticing it and turning to something else works better. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/9/) — Catastrophising means jumping from a small thing to the worst possible ending; "spiralling" is when thoughts get worse and worse, and "making a mountain out of a molehill" means making a small problem huge. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/10/) — Writing a worry down at night and checking in the morning what really happened shows how often night worries were too big. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/11/) — Doubts like "did I lock the door?" feel very real at night; checking once and saying out loud "I checked, it's locked" helps more than checking again and again. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/12/) — Nightmares are the brain sorting through big feelings, often after something sad or scary; they are not warnings and they do not predict the future. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/13/) — Memories are not videos; they are rebuilt each time we remember, so two people can honestly remember the same moment differently. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/14/) — The spotlight effect is the feeling that everyone notices you far more than they really do; most people are busy thinking about themselves. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/15/) — When we feel bad, the mind notices bad things more; listing three good things each evening trains it to notice good things too. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/16/) — Big world worries like climate change can feel huge at night; doing small useful things, like an eco club, eases the helpless feeling. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/26-the-mind-at-night-replays-worst-case-thinking-and-nightmares/18/) — In the dark the brain fills unclear shapes with familiar or scary things, like faces; seeing faces in objects is called pareidolia, and a night light helps. - ← previous: [Disappointed: when things don't go the way you hoped](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/25-disappointed-when-things-dont-go-the-way-you-hoped/) - next →: [Tricks the mind plays: inner voices, superstitions and being sure but wrong](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/27-tricks-the-mind-plays-inner-voices-superstitions-and-being-sure-but-wrong/) - ↑ back to [Reflection](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/)