A five-minute wind-down for falling asleep

Sit on the edge of the bed with a pen and paper. For two minutes, write down every task you need to do tomorrow and over the next few days, and make each one specific.

Put the paper away, turn off the light and lie down. Breathe in through your nose for a count of four, then breathe out slowly for a count of six.

Keep that pace for three minutes, which comes to about 18 breaths. If you lose count, start again at one without judging the miss, and stay with the slow exhale.

That's the whole thing. The writing moves tomorrow out of your head, and the breathing slows your body down.

Bottom line

Two minutes of listing tomorrow's tasks, then three minutes at six breaths a minute.

A bedtime to-do list helped young adults fall asleep faster than writing about what they had already done.

In a 2018 study, 57 healthy adults aged 18 to 30 spent five minutes writing before bed in a sleep lab.¹ One group wrote a to-do list for the coming days, and the other wrote about tasks they had already finished.

The more specific people made their lists, the faster they fell asleep.¹ The opposite happened in the other group, where more detail about finished tasks went with slower sleep.

It was one night in a lab, in young people without sleep problems. The study also used five minutes of writing, so our two-minute version is a shortcut that nobody has tested.

Bottom line

A specific to-do list at bedtime got people to sleep about 9 minutes sooner than writing about the day.

Breathing at about six breaths a minute shifts your nervous system toward its calming branch, and that's the main reason slow breathing helps you settle.

A 2018 review defined slow breathing as anything under 10 breaths a minute.² People reported feeling more relaxed and less anxious, and their heart rate variability went up, a sign that the calming branch was more active.

Later, a 2022 review of 223 studies confirmed the heart rate variability rise.³ It showed up during slow breathing, right after a single session, and after weeks of practice.

That matters for sleep because a 2015 study found lower activity in this calming branch in people with insomnia than in good sleepers.⁴ The 14 people with insomnia then breathed at six breaths a minute for 20 minutes before bed. They fell asleep faster, woke up less often, and slept more of the night.

Bottom line

Slow breathing turns up the body's calming branch, which tends to be quieter in people who sleep badly.

Most breathing research on sleep comes from small studies, and they don't all agree.

A 2019 trial asked 64 healthy young adults to do 15 minutes of slow breathing every evening for 30 days.⁵ A phone app set the pace. Compared with a group who spent the same time on social media, they rated their sleep as better and showed more calming activity overnight.

In contrast, a 2020 pilot study found less.⁶ Its 20 young adults did 30 minutes of slow breathing or music before bed, and neither produced a clear change in their measured sleep.

The studies that helped used 15 or 20 minutes of breathing, so three minutes is a starting dose, not a proven one. For long-term insomnia, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a US professional society, goes further.⁷ Its 2021 guideline strongly recommends a structured treatment called cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.

Bottom line

Slow breathing helped sleep in some small studies and not in others. Use it as a gentle start, and see a clinician for insomnia that won't go away.

1. 01

   Spend two minutes writing a specific to-do list for tomorrow.

2. 02

   Then breathe at about six breaths a minute for three minutes, in for four counts and out for six.

3. 03

   A bedtime to-do list helped young adults fall asleep about 9 minutes faster in a lab.

4. 04

   Slow breathing raises heart rate variability, a sign of the body's calming branch at work.

5. 05

   The sleep studies are small and mixed, and longer sessions were tested than this one.