It is one of the best known phenomena in human life, although most people are unable to explain it. It is what happens when you have an important appointment in the morning and cannot fall asleep.
Daniel M. Wegner (1994) described this phenomenon in his paper Ironic Processes of Mental Control as a state in which self control does not fundamentally fail, but a paradoxical effect comes to life and makes it more difficult for people to resist. It mainly happens when individuals are stressed, tired, or experiencing a high cognitive load.
Wegner distinguishes between two parallel processes in the human brain during such moments:
- The operating process: the conscious process that searches for distractions or alternative thoughts. It requires attention and mental energy to function.
- The monitoring process: the process that continually checks whether unwanted thoughts appear. It operates as a filter for the conscious mind.
When trying to fall asleep, you may do the one thing that will loop in your head for the rest of the night. You start a process with the task of concentrating on falling asleep and not thinking about anything else.
Under normal conditions, the operating process is capable of steering your attention. However, under the conditions mentioned above, it becomes weakened while the monitoring process keeps running. This makes the unwanted thought more easily accessible.