Journaling Before Sleep: Importance, Benefits, And How to Get Started

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How many times have you been wide awake in bed, fretting and worrying about something or the other instead of drifting off to sleep? The knowledge of the minutes passing by without any sleep further adds to the stress.

The truth is many people struggle with this. Fortunately, shifting your thoughts into positive ones can be a great solution. How? By writing your thoughts in a journal. Journaling before sleep can help in emptying out your worries on paper and freeing up your mind to finally wind down for bed.

Journaling before sleep has been found to be healthy as it results in improved and longer sleep. This ensures you stay energized and refreshed throughout the day.

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The Sleep Journaling Connection

Benefits of Journaling Before Sleep

Getting Started with Journaling

6 Journaling Tips

The Sleep and Journaling Connection

Writing in a journal for just five minutes before going to sleep is an effective and easy solution for improved sleep. When you let go of the stressful thoughts and prepare for the next day, your mind starts calming down, allowing you to sleep better.

A study found that creating a to-do list for the next day allowed participants to fall asleep faster than those who didn’t create a to-do list. Writing positive thoughts right before bed was also found to help people fall asleep faster and enjoy a better quality of sleep.

Therefore, creating a habit of journaling in bed right before you sleep can be healthy for you.

Benefits of Journaling before Sleeping

Here are some of the many benefits of writing in a journal before you sleep:

1. Creates an Ideal Alone Time

Today’s life has become extremely busy, making it hard for people to find some quiet time. The good thing about the few minutes before going to bed is that it isn’t a busy time. This is particularly true if you have kids and don’t get much time to yourself throughout the day.

Right before bed, most people have finished their chores, washed the dishes, put the kids to bed, and wrapped up other tasks. Instead of zoning out watching a show or movie as a form of alone time, a journaling session can provide more benefits.

You get uninterrupted time to reflect on your day and the progress you have made, identify any unresolved issues and pen down things you are grateful for. Having some alone time every day can drastically impact your overall wellness.

2. Helps Identify Sleep Patterns

Journaling before sleep can also help you in monitoring your sleep pattern to identify any triggers that impact your sleep quality and allow you to make positive changes. Journaling allows you to note down things like what you ate for dinner, when you last ate, things you did throughout the day, activities you performed right before going to bed, how well you slept last night and the concerns and fears that crossed your mind.

All these details allow you to spot patterns that might be impacting your sleep and things you do that enhance sleep quality.

3. Enhances Mindfulness

When you are writing in your journal in the quiet at night allows you to practice mindfulness. It enables you to be more aware of your emotions and surroundings and be present in the moment. Journaling helps you learn how to focus on the smaller details and be mindful of your thoughts and activities.

This gives you an opportunity to escape the negative cycle and focus more on your senses, resulting in a higher sense of appreciation for your life.

4. Offers Peace of Mind

Journaling before you sleep allows you to pen down all the tough moments and unresolved feelings from the day before you hit the pillow and sleep. Writing down your feelings and thoughts at bedtime has been found to decrease bedtime stress and allows one to sleep quickly. This is particularly true if you create a to-do list for the next day. The study focused on participants writing down their things to do list for the next day, every night. This habit provided them with peace of mind at night, allowing them to sleep faster and longer compared to those who didn't journal.

Here are a few things from the study you can benefit from:

● Use pen and paper instead of a digital planner

● Avoid doing expressive writing right before bed

● Only pen down all the unfinished tasks you need to accomplish the next day

● Write for five minutes only

This brain dump right before bed can induce sleep as it removes the stress and anxiety at bedtime and organizes your thoughts and tasks.

5. Boosts Self-Esteem

Journaling using certain prompts can also enhance your confidence and self-esteem. When you are writing about things you have accomplished and ways to handle difficult situations, it gives you a more positive outlook on yourself. This helps in identifying self-doubting behavior and allowing you to change your thoughts.

When you write about your fears and express your emotions, it also frees your mind up from negativity and enhances your spirits. It also clears your head from any intrusive thoughts you are unable to get rid of and helps you learn ways to manage them.

6. Improves Memory

Journaling the events of the entire day is a great way to reflect on the happenings and your reactions. Writing down everything that happened during the day right before bed is ideal since everything is still fresh in your memory. Journaling also has been found to enhance your memory as you write down the details of the day every night.

7. Takes you away from the Devices

According to the Sleep Foundation, more than 70% of adults and 75% of kids use electronic devices before sleeping. This significantly impacts the quality and quality of sleep. There have been many studies that have confirmed that blue light from digital screens impacts sleep patterns.

Therefore, journaling before bed provides you with a much-needed break from electronic devices and reduces screen exposure right before you sleep.

8. Enhances Mental Health

There is a range of significant mental health benefits journaling offers. Journaling has been found to help people cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. This is because it allows you to identify your triggers, understand your fears and prioritize your issues.

Journaling is a great way to find unhealthy patterns and take steps to change them. Writing your feelings and thoughts is also a great emotional release, emptying your mind for a night of good quality sleep.

9. Creates a Sense of Gratitude

With so many stressful events and negativity around us, spending the last few moments of the day focusing on something positive can greatly help with your sleep. Writing positive or appreciative thoughts allow your mind to calm down and experience a sense of gratitude.

Regular practice can greatly impact your overall mental well-being. Here are a few ideas you can consider when journaling about things you are thankful for:

● Think about your support system, including your family and friends, who have always been there for you

● Be specific when highlighting an event that bought joy to you

● Focus on things in your life that you are grateful for

● Highlight the things you have achieved so far in your life

● Write about ways you handled a stressful situation

This habit can be challenging after a bad day, but this is when journaling before bed can really come in handy and allow you to sleep peacefully.

Getting Started with Journaling

Journaling is different for everyone. More importantly, there aren’t any rules that you need to follow. You can be as creative as you want to be or keep it as simple as making a list. Personalizing the writing experience is one of the things that make the journaling experience more enjoyable and relaxing.

However, getting started with journaling can be confusing. Here are some journaling prompts that you can start with before finding your own style:

● How have I felt throughout the day?

● What is the one positive thing that happened during the day?

● What did I learn today?

● What do I need to vent out?

● How were my emotions today?

● What were the happy moments?

● What was the biggest challenge today, and how did I deal with it?

● What am I proud of myself for doing today?

● What did I learn today?

● What are my plans for tomorrow?

The best thing to do is set aside the last five to ten minutes before you sleep to write something down. Start by writing a few lines and then gradually add more as the days go by.

Journaling Tips for Improved Sleep

Here are some useful journaling tips that can help you journal regularly before you sleep:

Tip #1: Create a Journaling Schedule

Creating a schedule for your day is crucial and allows you to stay focused on your goal and achieve your tasks for the day. The best way to add journaling to your day is to create a schedule for it. Allow yourself five to ten minutes to journal every night before going to sleep.

It would be easy to set aside a maximum of ten minutes each night instead of trying to journal for a longer time. Start small and gradually expand the time if needed.

Tip #2: Use Paper and Pen

With a range of note-taking and journaling apps online, it would be easier to use any one of those for your journaling needs. However, the idea is to eliminate screen time right before bed. Therefore, use paper and pen to journal at night and leave the digital journaling for the morning.

Keep a journal or a notebook at your bedside table with a pen to encourage yourself to write before going to sleep instead of using any electronic device.

Tip #3: Get Chores Out of the Way before Starting

Take care of all the chores and wrap up any pending work that might prevent you from journaling before you sleep. Give the children a bath and put them to bed. Put the dishes in the dishwasher, take out the trash, brush your teeth, and take a shower.

Get into your nightwear and snuggle under the covers, making sure writing in your journal is the last thing you do before sleeping. This will further ease your mind and signal your body that it's time to wind down.

Tip #4: Keep it Simple

For many people, journaling feels intimidating because they think they need to make it a masterpiece. That is far from it. Journaling can be as simple as you want it to be. You don't need fancy pens, drawings, or stickers to start journaling. You can write things as simple as what you ate and how much you ate during the day.

Add other things, like how you felt throughout the day, things you accomplish, and what you are grateful for. As you get used to writing, you will be able to write with better flow and details.

Tip #5: Try Different Journaling Practices

There are multiple ways to journal. You can either dump all your thoughts in a single journal or keep multiple journals for different aspects of your life. From a gratitude journal and worry journal to a goal tracker journal and to-do list journal, you can start any journal. Once you start journaling, don’t be afraid to try out different things to figure out what works best for you.

Tip #6: Journal Each Night

Lastly, make sure you write something down every single night. No matter how tired you feel and even when you believe there is nothing to write about. Just pen down two to three sentences or create bullet points. You can even write about how tired you are to write anything. This is how you can form a habit and avoid missing any day. Just one single miss might increase the chance of breaking this new habit.

Wrapping Up

Many people struggle to fall asleep due to the stress and anxiety of the day. Journaling is a great way to wind down and reduce these thoughts by focusing on the positive. It allows you to sleep better and longer, resulting in a fresh and more productive morning.

There are multiple benefits of journaling at night aside from allowing your body to get ready for sleep. Therefore, trying this habit out can prove to be highly fruitful. Use the highlighted prompts to get started with journaling before sleep and make use of useful tips to create a soothing bedtime routine.

Where to purchase a Journal?

You can purchase a journal at your local bookstore like a Barnes and Noble. You can conveniently shop on-line in the comfort of your home. Shop Amazon for journals. They have a wide selection of journals that accommodate all budget types.