Winding down for sleep.
Falling asleep is easier from calm. A wind-down routine is a way to get there on purpose.
Why a routine helps
A wind-down routine is a set way to end the day: the same few steps, at about the same time. Habits like these are linked to better sleep, but most of them have not been tested one by one (Irish, 2015). They are cheap and safe, so they are worth trying, and your own sleep log will show whether they help you.
Meditation and mindfulness
Across 18 trials, mindfulness meditation improved how people rated their sleep compared with other activities of the same length (Rusch, 2019), and a six-week course beat sleep-hygiene classes in older adults with poor sleep (Black, 2015). It did not beat the treatments already proven for insomnia.
Slow breathing
Slowing your breathing to about ten breaths a minute or fewer before bed improved how people rated their sleep in a review of nine studies, while sleep measured in a lab or by a wrist sensor did not clearly change (Eide, 2026). In one trial, 15 minutes of slow breathing each evening for a month beat the same time on social media (Laborde, 2019).
Reading, podcasts and audio
A printed book is a better evening read than a backlit screen (Chang, 2015). In one small trial, a short story at bedtime helped older adults fall asleep faster (Sella, 2023). A Cochrane review found that listening to music improved self-reported sleep in adults with insomnia symptoms (Jespersen, 2022). Podcasts and audiobooks have not been studied the same way, but if one calms you, it belongs here too.
Writing a short to-do list for tomorrow helped people fall asleep faster in a sleep lab than writing about what they had already done (Scullin, 2018).
A simple routine
A simple routine: lights down at the same time each night; five minutes to write tomorrow's list; a book, music or a calm podcast; a few minutes of slow breathing in bed.
If you still lie awake most nights for weeks, talk to a doctor. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is the treatment with the strongest evidence, and relaxation methods like these are an add-on to it, not a replacement (Edinger, 2021).
Log your sleep and see whether a new routine changes your nights. Free, no card.
Sources
- Irish LA et al. The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: A review of empirical evidence. Sleep Med Rev. 2015;22:23-36.
- Rusch HL et al. The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019;1445(1):5-16.
- Black DS et al. Mindfulness meditation and improvement in sleep quality and daytime impairment among older adults with sleep disturbances: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(4):494-501.
- Eide EM et al. Slow breathing techniques before bedtime and the effects on sleep: A systematic review. Sleep Med Rev. 2026;87:102284.
- Laborde S et al. Influence of a 30-Day Slow-Paced Breathing Intervention Compared to Social Media Use on Subjective Sleep Quality and Cardiac Vagal Activity. J Clin Med. 2019;8(2).
- Chang AM et al. Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015;112(4):1232-7.
- Sella E et al. How emotions induced by reading influence sleep quality in young and older adults. Aging Ment Health. 2023;27(9):1812-1820.
- Jespersen KV et al. Listening to music for insomnia in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022;8(8):CD010459.
- Scullin MK et al. 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.
- Edinger JD et al. Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021;17(2):255-262.
General information based on the studies above, not medical advice. If sleep, tiredness or your health worries you, talk to a doctor.