The routine
A night routine you can copy
The night routine below ends with the lights out at . The last hour has six short steps, and three things come earlier in the day. If your bedtime is different, move every time by the same amount.
| Time | What you do, and why |
|---|---|
| Last coffee or teaCaffeine can keep working for up to 8 hours. | |
| Finish dinnerKeep big meals a few hours away from bed. | |
| Warm shower or bath, ten minutesPeople in studies fell asleep sooner after one. | |
| Stop work and dim the lights, ten minutesBright light can tell your brain to stay awake. | |
| Set out tomorrow’s clothes and bag, ten minutesOne thing less to do in the morning. | |
| Write tomorrow’s to-do list, five minutesIn one study, people who did this fell asleep sooner. | |
| Phone on its charger, outside the bedroom, five minutesScreens go off at least 30 minutes before bed. | |
| Wash up and brush your teeth, ten minutesDo it at the same time each night. | |
| Read a paper book in bed, twenty minutesA quiet thing to do, with no screen. | |
| Lights outEight hours later it is . |
You do not need every step. The phone, the to-do list and the book are enough to start with.
Try it
Build your night routine from your bedtime
The builder below makes the same routine for your own bedtime. Set your bedtime and pick your steps.
Tap a step to add it or take it out. The phone always goes away at least 30 minutes before lights out.
Your routine starts at
1h from the first step to lights out at .
Last coffee or tea
Finish dinner
Warm shower or bath
10m
Stop work and dim the lights
10m
Set out tomorrow’s clothes and bag
10m
Write tomorrow’s to-do list
5m
Phone on its charger, outside the bedroom
5m
Wash up and brush your teeth
10m
Read a paper book in bed
20m
Lights out
8h after lights out is .
Your night routine: 9 steps, ending with lights out at .
This is a plan, not a record of your nights. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
What goes in
What to put in a night routine
A night routine needs only a few quiet things. The NHLBI, a US health agency, says to use the hour before bed for quiet time. Studies have tested three of the steps above.
A to-do list for tomorrow.
In one study, young adults wrote for five minutes before bed in a sleep lab. Half of them listed things they had to do in the next few days. The other half listed things they had already done. The to-do group fell asleep in about 16 minutes, and the others in about 25 (Scullin and colleagues, 2018). The study lasted one night only.
Your phone on its charger, outside the bedroom.
Turn off screens at least 30 minutes before bed. That advice comes from the CDC, another US health agency, and from a group of sleep doctors, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. In one small study, students who slept badly stopped using their phones in the last half hour before bed, for four weeks. According to their own sleep diaries, they fell asleep about 12 minutes sooner than before (He and colleagues, 2020).
A warm shower or bath.
Researchers went through the earlier studies on warm showers and baths. People fell asleep sooner when they had one about one to two hours before bed, and ten minutes was enough (Haghayegh and colleagues, 2019). There are not many of these studies yet.
What stays out
What to leave out of a night routine
A night routine leaves out the things that keep you awake. The five below come from the good sleep habits listed by the NHLBI and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
| Leave out | When |
|---|---|
| Coffee, tea, cola and chocolateCaffeine can keep working for up to 8 hours. | From the afternoon on |
| A big or heavy mealA light snack is fine. | The last few hours |
| AlcoholBoth lists say to skip it before bed. | Before bed |
| Hard exerciseThe last hour is for quiet time. | The last hour |
| TV, laptop and phone screensThe light may tell your brain that it is time to be awake. | The last hour |
How to do it
How to build your own night routine
You build your own night routine by picking a bedtime and three or four steps, and doing them in the same order every night.
Start from the time you get up.
Count back the hours of sleep you need from your alarm. That is your lights-out time, and the routine starts an hour before it. To move your alarm earlier as well, read how to wake up early.
If you lie awake.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says to get out of bed after about 20 minutes awake, and to do something quiet in low light until you feel sleepy. For sleep times that are off by hours, read how to fix your sleep schedule.
The CDC says to talk to a doctor if you often have trouble sleeping. This page describes habits and what studies found. It is not medical advice.
The test
How do you know you are keeping your night routine?
The test
You did your routine and had the lights out on time on at least 6 nights of the week
for four weeks in a row.
A night routine is easy to keep on good nights, and the nights you stayed up are easy to forget.
A good way to check is to count your nights from what you write or say about your day. Most journaling apps only ask how your day felt. They do not show what time you went to bed.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: sleep, your evening, your phone in bed, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. So you can see what time you really went to bed each day, and how many hours you slept each week. Add your bedtime as a daily habit with a reminder in the evening. When what you write about your day shows you were in bed on time, the app ticks it off.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Night routine0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Night routine this week: 0m
On 6 of 7 days. The gap is the day without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where the findings come from.
The habits and findings on this page each link to a source below. We read every one for this page, the full text or its summary.
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (read ). Healthy Sleep Habits.
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep Education (read ). Healthy Sleep Habits.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (read ). About Sleep.
- Scullin, M. K., Krueger, M. L., Ballard, H. K., Pruett, N. and Bliwise, D. L. (2018). The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: a polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(1), 139 to 146.
- He, J.-W., Tu, Z.-H., Xiao, L., Su, T. and Tang, Y.-X. (2020). Effect of restricting bedtime mobile phone use on sleep, arousal, mood, and working memory: a randomized pilot trial. PLOS ONE, 15(2), e0228756.
- Haghayegh, S., Khoshnevis, S., Smolensky, M. H., Diller, K. R. and Castriotta, R. J. (2019). Before-bedtime passive body heating by warm shower or bath to improve sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 46, 124 to 135.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- How to wake up earlyMove your alarm earlier a little at a time, and your bedtime with it. An example week, and a plan with your own dates.
- How to fix your sleep scheduleA day-by-day plan and a test that tells you it worked.
- Evening promptsPrompts for the end of the day, from what happened to what tomorrow gets.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is a good night routine?
A good night routine is three or four quiet steps, done in the same order, in the last hour before bed. For example: dim the lights, write tomorrow’s to-do list, put your phone on its charger, and read a book until lights out.
What is a good evening routine?
An evening routine is a night routine that starts earlier. Finish dinner a few hours before bed, take a warm shower one to two hours before bed, and keep the last hour quiet and dim.
Should I put my phone away before bed?
Yes. The CDC and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine both say to turn off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
Is there an app to keep track of a night routine?
A paper calendar works: one tick for each night you kept your routine. If you want an app, look for one that shows what time you went to bed. One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Think in Numbers reads what you write or say about your day, shows what time you went to bed each day, and adds up your hours of sleep each week. Your bedtime can also be a habit, ticked off when what you write shows you kept it.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.