Mar 22

Mar 22 Reading before bedtime can help you get to sleep

You may remember reading books at bedtime when you were a kid, or doing it with your own kids or grandkids. Part of the reason we read to children before they go to sleep is to establish a routine or ritual around bedtime.

When my daughters were young, we did bath time each night after I was done cleaning up from dinner. That was followed by story time, then lights out and songs, then it was time for them to sleep. That routine meant that they always knew what to expect, and they usually were pretty good at falling asleep.

Even now, Morris and I read to ourselves before bedtime each night, once screens are put away. I should note that all the documentation indicates that the light from e-readers can mess with your ability to fall asleep, as discussed yesterday.

Morris tends to read thrillers and similar novels; I tend to read nonfiction, with the occasional romance novel thrown in.

Reading at bedtime helps us to wind down after we’ve turned screens off, and it is part of our bedtime ritual. Reading by itself doesn’t cause sleepiness, but it allows you to relax and unwind from the stresses of the day. You might appreciate this article, which says that bedtime readers earn more money on average, too.

It turns out to have health benefits, too. For one, it turns out that turning pages, and the ability to picture where you saw something on a page, helps you to remember the information. And as cognitive neuropsychologist David Lewis said, as little as 6 minutes of reading time can reduce your stress level by 68 percent.

The book I finished most recently, by the way, is UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle. I highly recommend it to every woman I know. And when you read it, please know that “you are a goddamned cheetah.”

Oh hey! If you want something else to read, may I recommend one of my e-books? I rounded up all the posts I wrote here about sleep to create an e-book entitled 12 Tips to Help You Sleep ($10). And then I did the same for another bunch of posts, for a book called Lower Your Anxiety ($15). You can buy one or the other if you only need one of them, but if you buy both, the price is only $22.