Experiment guides → Habits & wind-down → Bedtime writing
Does journaling before bed help you sleep?
Quick answer: one specific kind does, and it's not the kind most people mean. In a lab study with overnight sleep recordings, people who spent five minutes writing a to-do list for the coming days fell asleep about 9 minutes faster than people who wrote about tasks they'd already completed — and the more specific the list, the faster they fell asleep. The mechanism is offloading: unfinished tasks keep the mind cycling, and writing them down lets it stop. Gratitude journaling and free-form reflection have thinner evidence for sleep. The protocol is the cheapest on this site — a pen, five minutes, 14 nights.
"I will write tomorrow's to-do list for 5 minutes before lights-out for 14 nights."
What the research says
To-do list beats completed list, on polysomnography. Scullin and colleagues randomised 57 young adults to spend five minutes before bed writing either a list of things they needed to do in the coming days, or a list of things they had completed in the past few days, then recorded their sleep. The to-do list group fell asleep significantly faster — about 15 minutes versus 25 — and within that group, the more items and the more specific the list, the shorter the sleep onset. Writing about finished tasks didn't help (Scullin et al., 2018).
Expressive writing lowers pre-sleep arousal. Harvey and Farrell tested a Pennebaker-style expressive-writing intervention in 41 poor sleepers: 20 minutes writing about thoughts and feelings for three nights. Writers reported lower pre-sleep cognitive arousal than controls, with more modest effects on sleep itself. Writing calms the mind; whether it reaches the sleep numbers depends on what and how you write (Harvey & Farrell, 2003).
Why it works: rumination is arousal. Riemann's review of the hyperarousal model of insomnia documents the role of cognitive arousal — worry, planning, replaying the day — in keeping people awake. A to-do list is a targeted intervention on exactly that: it converts open loops into closed ones before the lights go off (Riemann et al., 2010).
What this evidence doesn't say
One night in a lab with young adults; nobody has tested two weeks of bedtime lists at home. The nine-minute gain is in people without insomnia, and the expressive-writing study found arousal changed more than sleep did. Journaling apps on a phone reintroduce the screen; the evidence is for pen and paper.
Run it as an experiment
- Baseline five nights, no writing. Morning ratings — sleep quality, restedness, time-to-sleep — plus a 1–5 score for how much you were planning or worrying at lights-out.
- Paper by the bed, five minutes on a timer. Write tomorrow's and this week's tasks, as specifically as you can: not "emails" but "reply to Anna about the invoice". Stop when the timer goes, even mid-list.
- Make the pact. "I will write tomorrow's to-do list for 5 minutes before lights-out for 14 nights." Paper, not phone — the screen would be a second variable.
- Morning check-ins, with the planning score. The three ratings plus the lights-out planning score. Time-to-sleep is the outcome the lab moved; that's what to watch.
- Compare, then try the variant if you like. Faster onset and a quieter head? Keep it. No change? Try the expressive-writing version (a page of whatever's on your mind, 15 minutes, earlier in the evening) as a second 14-night block — or accept that your problem isn't a busy mind.
What to expect
If you're a bedtime planner, the effect can be immediate and surprisingly large: the list on paper means the list in your head stops running. If you fall asleep quickly already, expect nothing — this experiment targets sleep onset and has no known effect on wakings or sleep depth. Some people find writing the list earlier in the evening works as well; that's a fair variant to note.
Who should skip this
No risk. If bedtime writing turns into an hour of anxious rumination on paper, stop the timer earlier and keep it to tasks, not feelings — the specific to-do list is the version with the lab result, and it's deliberately dull.
Frequently asked questions
What should you write in a journal before bed to sleep better?
Tomorrow's to-do list, as specifically as possible — that's the version with a polysomnography result. Gratitude lists and reflective journaling have weaker evidence for sleep specifically, though they may help mood.
Does writing a to-do list before bed really help you fall asleep?
In a lab study, yes: five minutes writing a to-do list shortened sleep onset by about nine minutes compared with writing about completed tasks, and more detailed lists worked better. It's one study, in young adults, for one night — which is why two weeks on yourself is worth doing.
Is it better to journal in the morning or at night for sleep?
For sleep onset, at night, right before lights-out — the point is to offload what would otherwise cycle as you try to fall asleep. Morning journaling may do good things for the day; it isn't the experiment the evidence supports for the night.
Related experiments
Sources
- Scullin MK, Krueger ML, Ballard HK, Pruett N, Bliwise DL. The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: a polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity lists. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2018;147(1):139–146. PubMed 29058942
- Harvey AG, Farrell C. The efficacy of a Pennebaker-like writing intervention for poor sleepers. Behav Sleep Med. 2003;1(2):115–124. PubMed 15600133
- Riemann D, Spiegelhalder K, Feige B, et al. The hyperarousal model of insomnia: a review of the concept and its evidence. Sleep Med Rev. 2010;14(1):19–31. PubMed 19481481
Track this experiment in N of 1
A few baseline nights, then the change — and your own mornings deliver the result. No streaks, no guilt. Your first experiment is free.
Downloadon the App StoreThis page is general information about published research, not medical advice. If you have a sleep disorder, are pregnant, or take medication, talk to your doctor before changing your routine.