How to use sleep affirmations
- Write tomorrow’s list first. Spend five minutes writing down what you need to do in the next few days, as specifically as you can. Then the list holds it, not you.
- Dim the lights and put your phone away. Give yourself a short wind-down before you want to be asleep.
- Read three to five lines slowly, or listen to them. Let each breath out be a little longer than the breath in. Whisper them if someone is asleep beside you.
- Keep one line for the night. Choose a single line from “Awake at 3 a.m.” and keep it ready, so you don’t have to think if you wake up.
- Use the same lines every night for a week or two. A familiar routine is easy to keep, and over time it becomes a signal that the day is over.
Why a quieter mind helps
People who struggle to sleep often say the problem is their thoughts: unwanted thoughts, worries and concerns that won’t switch off (Harvey & Payne, 2002). Two studies point to simple ways of easing that.
- Get it out of your head. In a sleep-lab study, 57 young adults spent five minutes before bed either writing a to-do list for the coming days or writing about tasks they had already finished. The to-do list group fell asleep faster, and the more specific their list, the faster they fell asleep (Scullin et al., 2018).
- Give your mind something gentle to do. People with insomnia who were shown how to picture an interesting, detailed scene in their imagination fell asleep faster, and had fewer unwanted thoughts, than people who were given no instructions (Harvey & Payne, 2002).
Bedtime affirmations work along the same lines: a few soft, specific sentences give your attention somewhere calm to rest. To be honest about the evidence, these studies are about bedtime thinking in general, not about affirmation lists in particular, so treat affirmations as one part of a wind-down, not a cure for poor sleep.
If you wake in the night
Waking at 2 or 3 a.m. and starting to think is frustrating, and the harder you try to sleep, the more awake you can feel. Don’t check the clock. Say one line from “Awake at 3 a.m.” slowly, a few times, and let your breathing set the pace. If you’ve been lying awake for a long time and feel wound up, it can help to get up, sit somewhere quiet in dim light, and go back to bed when you feel sleepy.
If sleep has been hard for a while
If you’ve struggled to sleep most nights for weeks, talk to a doctor. For long-term insomnia in adults, the American College of Physicians recommends a specific talking treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), as the first thing to try (Qaseem et al., 2016). Affirmations can sit alongside care like this, but they aren’t a replacement for it. If you’re struggling or thinking about harming yourself, you can call or text 988 in the US (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), or find a helpline in your country at findahelpline.com.
For lines written for children, see the bedtime section of our affirmations for kids. If your nights start with dread about the week ahead, Sunday affirmations may help too.