The short answer
If tomorrow’s tasks keep going round in your mind, try putting them briefly on paper and leaving them there for tonight. In a small experiment, people who wrote about things they still needed to do fell asleep sooner than those who wrote about completed tasks. This is not a guaranteed way to fall asleep. If writing feels like a burden, you do not have to keep doing it.
Key points
- One study suggests that writing down upcoming tasks may help with falling asleep
- The study involved healthy young adults during one laboratory night and did not include a no-writing group
- You can add a brief next step instead of only listing the task
- You do not need to solve everything tonight or write polished sentences
- If sleep difficulties persist, seek advice rather than assuming your writing is the problem
A study of five minutes before bed
A study published in 2018 randomly assigned 57 healthy adults aged 18–30 to two groups.
One group wrote down tasks they needed to do tomorrow and over the next few days. The other wrote down activities they had completed that day and over the preceding few days. Both groups wrote on paper for five minutes just before bed.
Sleep testing that recorded brain waves and other signals found an average time to fall asleep of about 16 minutes in the upcoming-task group and about 25 minutes in the completed-task group. Those were the two writing conditions compared (Scullin et al., 2018).
There was no group that did not write anything. We therefore cannot say that someone who normally goes to bed without writing would fall asleep that much sooner by starting this practice.
The findings also came from the first night spent in a sleep laboratory. The study does not establish what happens with long-term use at home or whether this is an effective treatment for insomnia.
It may be more useful to think of this as one way to deal with tasks lingering in your mind than to decide that writing will make you sleep.
Decide on a next step before finishing the task
“Finish the presentation.”
“Complete the paperwork.”
“Send a reply.”
A task’s name alone can still leave you unsure where to begin.
You could add a next step: “Draft the presentation headings tomorrow morning” or “Check which documents I need during my lunch break.”
In a separate psychology experiment, people who made specific plans for unfinished tasks reported fewer thoughts about those tasks during subsequent reading than people who had simply thought about them (Masicampo and Baumeister, 2011).
This was not a sleep study. It does, however, suggest that deciding how to approach an unfinished task may affect how much it continues to occupy your thoughts.
You do not have to start working or doing chores again at night. You could simply leave things in a form that makes it easier for tomorrow’s you to begin.
Different kinds of writing may have different results
Making a task list is not the same as writing in depth about difficult feelings.
In another experiment, 28 people with insomnia tried writing about thoughts, worries and emotions over three nights. One of two measures of mental activity before sleep improved, but the study did not find a statistically significant reduction in the time taken to fall asleep (Mooney et al., 2009).
Both the participants and the writing content differed from the task-list study. These were not conflicting results from testing the same method.
The useful point is that “writing” covers different activities. Do you want to organise tomorrow’s tasks, or leave a record of today’s feelings? You can choose what and when to write according to that purpose.
If you try it tonight, keep it brief and draw a line
The following is one example of how to try writing in everyday life, rather than a procedure that exactly reproduces the research.
Have paper and a pen ready before getting into bed
Try setting aside a short time at a desk or another suitable place. You do not need a special notebook; paper you can look at tomorrow is enough. If opening your phone tends to lead to checking email or social media, paper is an option. If you are already sleepy, there is no need to stay up to write.
Write down the tasks you want to remember
Use short bullet points rather than polished sentences: “Reply to the email tomorrow”, “Buy detergent on the way home”, “Check what I need for this weekend’s paperwork.” You do not have to collect every possible task. Start with the ones that are on your mind now.
Add a next step to vague tasks
For “Make progress with the paperwork”, you might write “Check the required documents at lunchtime tomorrow.” For “Tidy the room”, try “Clear just the desk after dinner tomorrow.” You do not need to fill your schedule in detail. Add enough words that you will know what to do when you look again.
Close the notebook after a short time
The sleep experiment used five minutes of writing, but that does not mean you must write for exactly five minutes in daily life. Leave the list somewhere you can find it tomorrow. You do not have to start completing its items tonight. “That is enough for today.” Try closing the notebook with that as your stopping point.
Some worries do not have an answer right now
Not every thought can be turned into a to-do list.
“Did the way I said that upset them?”
“What if tomorrow goes badly?”
The UK’s NHS describes writing worries down and separating problems you can take practical action on from worries about things outside your control (NHS, “Tackling your worries”).
For something you can act on, add a next step. For something you cannot answer now, you could simply note, “This is still on my mind.” You do not have to find a solution to every concern.
The task-list writing used in this study may not help in the same way with painful memories or relationship worries. If writing makes you feel worse, you can stop partway through. Exploring your feelings deeply at bedtime does not need to become another assignment.
The next morning, a few words about how it felt
The morning after you try it, you do not have to measure exactly how many minutes it took to fall asleep.
“I did not keep remembering my tasks quite as much.”
“I wrote them down, but it did not seem to change much last night.”
“Seeing all the tasks made me feel a little more unsettled.”
A short note like this can record what the practice was like for you.
In Feelmo’s journal, you might write in your own words: “I put tomorrow’s tasks on paper. It helped me draw a small line under the day.” Paper or your usual notes app is fine too.
Even if you slept well for one night, writing may not be the only reason. Likewise, a night when you could not sleep does not mean you wrote the list wrong.
The question is less whether you wrote well, and more whether this feels manageable as part of your evening.
When sleepless nights continue
Perhaps you allow time for sleep but still cannot fall asleep. Or your sleep feels light and work or household tasks become difficult during the day. If this continues, consult a healthcare professional rather than trying to solve it with writing alone. Sleep guidance published by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare also recommends seeking advice for ongoing sleep problems that interfere with daily life (Good Sleep Guide for Adults).
For persistent insomnia, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), which addresses thoughts and habits around sleep, is recommended as an initial treatment. Writing down tasks alone is not a substitute for this treatment (NHLBI).
There is no need to wait until you have a complete set of records before seeking help. You can simply describe what is troubling you now.
References
- Scullin MK, Krueger ML, Ballard HK, Pruett N, Bliwise DL. (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), 139–146. DOI: 10.1037/xge0000374
- Masicampo EJ, Baumeister RF. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals — Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667–683. DOI: 10.1037/a0024192
- Mooney P, Espie CA, Broomfield NM. (2009). An experimental assessment of a Pennebaker writing intervention in primary insomnia — Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 7(2), 99–105. DOI: 10.1080/15402000902762386
- Tackling your worries — Every Mind Matters — NHS
- Good Sleep Guide for Adults — Prepared by a research group funded by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; published by the Ministry
- Insomnia — Treatment — National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)