It is the night before the race. Everything imaginable is going through your head from right now. The next thing you know, its midnight and you are still not a sleep. Another check of the clock and its 2am. You are tossing and turning like crazy! You start to get anxious and worry that you are going to do poorly the next day because you didn't sleep, but are you? Research is telling us to stop thinking like this. If you can't sleep the night before the race, there is a good chance your mind may be the reason. When we focus on not being able to sleep, we end up not sleeping then we expect that we will not perform well.
Instead of focusing so much on your inability to sleep the night before, just relax. Trust that your training has put you in the best possible scenario, trust that you are ready! It is almost go time. Get a shower and lay down. If you can't get any sleep, this is a great time to reflect on what you have done to get where are you. We often forget how much we have accomplished. If you end up falling asleep in the process, GREAT! If not, don't worry. In fact, the study linked below states that those who don't sleep actually underestimate their abilities the next day. This is because of the basic rule of " what you focus on, you create." The 2nd through 5th night are the biggest nights for ensuring you get sleep. It also doesn't help to take any sort of caffeine after 5-6pm the night before.
You have trained for this moment, that last night sleep isn't going to make a difference so...RELAX and go KICK ASS!