The most useful things to do before bed are the ones that lower the pace: dimmer light, a cooler body, a mind that has finished with the day. Nothing on this list takes more than twenty minutes and several take two. You do not need all of them. Three or four, done most nights, is a routine.
The list is split in two. Ten things worth doing, then five things worth not doing, because what you avoid in the last hour often matters more than what you add. For how to string them together, see our guide to a bedtime routine for adults; this page is the menu it draws from.
Ten things worth doing
1. Write tomorrow down (5 minutes)
Get the loose ends out of your head: what is on tomorrow, what is worrying you, and the next step for each. Studies on this kind of "constructive worry" suggest it reduces the rumination people do once in bed. It works because a written list does not need to be rehearsed. Keep it short and practical: what it is, and what you will do about it first. Then close the notebook and leave it outside the bedroom.
2. Turn off the big light (1 minute)
Overhead lighting in the evening tells your body clock the day is still on. Switch to lamps, ideally with warm-toned bulbs. This is the cheapest, fastest change on the list and it does more than most of the others. If you can, do it at roughly the same time each evening, so the drop in light becomes a cue in itself.
3. Have a warm bath or shower (15–20 minutes)
Warm water pulls blood to the skin and your core temperature drops afterwards, which is the state your body wants for sleep. A 2019 review of the research found people fell asleep around ten minutes faster when they bathed an hour or two before bed. A shower does much the same. If neither is practical, warm feet in a cool room gets you part of the way.
4. Set the room (3 minutes)
Curtains drawn, heating off or the window on the latch, bed made, phone charging somewhere else. A room at around 16–19°C suits most people. Doing this at the same point every evening makes it part of the signal. If light from the street or a summer dawn is a problem, this is also the moment to notice it and think about heavier curtains or a mask.
5. Stretch gently (5–10 minutes)
A few slow stretches ease the physical tension of a day at a desk or on your feet and give the mind something simple to attend to. Keep it slow and stop before anything feels like effort; this is not exercise, and a raised heart rate works against you. Neck, shoulders, hips and the backs of the legs are the usual places tension collects. Our gentle bedtime stretches guide has a short sequence.
6. Read something on paper (10–20 minutes)
Reading is one of the few bedtime activities with decent support, partly because it occupies the mind without lighting it up. Choose something absorbing but not gripping: a novel you have read before, essays, non-fiction that does not make you angry. If you want the evidence, we look at whether reading before bed helps you sleep.
7. Do a short relaxation practice (5–15 minutes)
Progressive muscle relaxation, a body scan or slow breathing with a long out-breath. Any of them gives your attention a quiet job, which is exactly what a mind that would otherwise plan or replay needs. None of them has to be done well; the aim is a calmer body and a mind with something to hold, not a perfect technique. Muscle relaxation has the longest track record in insomnia research, and slow breathing is the easiest to learn. If you prefer being talked through it, guided relaxation for sleep explains what to look for in a recording.
8. Listen to something slow (10–20 minutes)
Quiet music, a familiar audiobook, a calm podcast or steady background sound. The value is in giving a busy mind a track to follow, which is why a familiar audiobook often works better than a new one: there is nothing to find out. Set a sleep timer so it stops on its own. If you share a bed or a wall, sleep headphones let you do this without disturbing anyone, and a headband style is comfortable on your side.
9. Have a small snack if you are hungry (5 minutes)
Going to bed hungry keeps some people awake; going to bed full keeps more people awake. A small, plain snack (toast, a banana, a few oatcakes) is fine. What you eat matters less than how much and how late, and our guide to eating before bed covers the detail.
10. Do a quiet, repetitive task (10 minutes)
Washing up by hand, folding laundry, tidying one surface, a jigsaw. Tasks like this are underrated: they are slightly boring, mildly satisfying and they keep the hands busy while the mind drifts. They are also a useful alternative to a screen when you are not ready for bed yet, and to lying in bed waiting to feel sleepy, which is the one thing worth avoiding.
If you wind down with audio
A headband style lets side sleepers listen to something slow without earbuds, and without keeping a partner awake.
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Headband sleep headphones
Example: SleepPhones; CozyPhones; Musicozy
Headband headphones put flat speakers inside a stretchy fabric band that doubles as a light-blocking eye cover for some people. Models are marketed as wired or Bluetooth, with the speakers usually removable so the band can be washed.
- Best for
- Side sleepers who want audio without anything inside the ear
- Key feature
- Thin, flat speakers inside a soft fabric headband
- Why it may help
- Ordinary earbuds press into the ear when you lie on your side. A headband keeps the speaker flat against the ear so you can listen to sleep sounds or guided relaxation comfortably.
- Worth knowing
- Audio quality is basic and bass-light; the band can feel warm in summer; battery life varies by model.
Five things worth not doing
11. Do not have caffeine after early afternoon
Caffeine lingers for hours. Research in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found a dose taken six hours before bed still measurably disturbed sleep. Tea, cola, energy drinks and dark chocolate all count. If falling asleep is your problem, a 2pm cut-off is a fair test. Give it a fortnight before deciding it makes no difference; the effect is easy to miss night by night and obvious over a couple of weeks.
12. Do not use a drink to get to sleep
Alcohol does make many people drop off faster, which is the trap. It fragments the second half of the night, and over time the body adjusts so that it no longer helps with falling asleep either. Drinkaware's summary of the research is worth a read if the nightcap has become a habit.
13. Do not doze on the sofa
A twenty-minute nod in front of the television at 9pm spends the sleep pressure you built all day, and then you are wide awake at 11. If you feel yourself going, go to bed instead. If it is too early for that, stand up, do something from the first half of this list, and let the sleepiness build until a sensible bedtime.
14. Do not do tomorrow's arguments tonight
Difficult conversations, replying to the email that annoyed you, checking the news, looking at the bank balance. Anything that raises your heart rate is best left until morning. If it cannot wait, write it down (see item 1) and deal with it then.
15. Do not watch the clock
Once you are in bed, the clock is not your friend. Checking the time turns a vague wait into arithmetic. Turn it to the wall, leave the phone in another room, and let the wait be a wait. Most people overestimate how long they have been lying there, and a night that felt like an hour of wakefulness is often twenty minutes.
In short: Lower the light, cool the body, close the day on paper, and give your mind one gentle thing to do. Then leave the caffeine, the drink, the sofa nap and the clock alone.
Putting it together
A realistic evening might look like this: lights down and list written at 9.30; shower and room set by 10; reading with a warm drink until the heaviness arrives; bed. That is four items and about 45 minutes, and it is enough.
The order matters more than the choice. Do the things that involve decisions and admin first, the things that lower light and body temperature next, and the quiet, absorbing thing last. Whatever you choose, go to bed when you feel heavy-eyed rather than when the routine finishes; ten more minutes of reading is better than twenty minutes of lying awake.
If you have done all this and still lie awake, the problem is not what you did before bed. The Falling Asleep guides cover what happens next, from what to do in the moment to working out the underlying cause.
Sources and further reading
- NHS Every Mind Matters: How to fall asleep faster and sleep better
- Sleep Foundation: Sleep hygiene
- Sleep Foundation: Alcohol and sleep
- NHS: Sleep and tiredness
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Written and reviewed by the Quiet Mind Sleep editorial team in line with our editorial policy. Spotted an error? Let us know.
