Dr Friedman cited a 2018 study that involved 57 young adult participants who were instructed by researchers to write for five minutes before bed found that this helped them fall asleep significantly faster.

According to the study, the more specifically participants wrote their to-do list, the faster they subsequently fell asleep, whereas the opposite trend was observed when participants wrote about completed activities. 

“What they observed was that what helped the most was not writing about what you accomplished during the day, but writing out your to-do list for tomorrow. This study also saw an effect size comparable to recent pharmaceutical clinical trials with people taking sleep aids,” said Dr Friedman. 

In a separate study, Dr Friedman shared that researchers had assigned a group of people with poor sleep to perform various self-help strategies. One group was asked to journal for about 15 minutes every evening before bed. The study found journaling reduced bedtime worry and stress, increased sleep time, and improved sleep quality.

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“There’s something about the physical act of writing that seems to offload some of this cognitive activation or even just help pump the brakes on it a bit,” said Dr Friedman. “Once the activation is decreased a bit the rumination and anxiety ease up a bit as well, letting you drift off faster and deeper than you normally would.”

So try it out for yourself.

Take a nice, hot shower, put on your most comfortable pair of pyjamas then get a journal or even a small notebook to jot down your thoughts or a to-do list for the next day. Write down everything you have to over the next couple of days, too. Do remember to write a very specific to-do list for five minutes at bedtime rather than journaling about completed activities.

It is simple enough and who knows, you may just find yourself all set to switch off the lights at the end of your journaling—and ready to get your well-deserved rest.