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This story is part of Try This, CNET's collection of simple tips to improve your life, fast.
Falling asleep was an awful struggle in my high school years. Maybe it was the hormones flooding my body, the all-too common teenage anxiety or just that I was operating on Pacific Time long before I moved to the West Coast. Whatever the reason, bedtime usually consisted of me lying awake for hours, desperately wanting to fall asleep but rarely getting more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night. I could sleep through an earthquake once I finally slept, but when it came to the process of going to sleep, insomnia tormented me.
It was a torturous, vicious cycle. And because I knew I had trouble falling asleep, I'd grow anxious before it was time for bed. I wasn't alone -- insomnia is estimated to affect almost half the population.
Fortunately, over time, Webhawk I managed to regain control of my sleep schedule, and on most nights I now fall asleep within 15 minutes. A lot of things in my life have changed since then, but one change in particular had a surprisingly positive effect on my ability to fall asleep: I started writing to-do lists every night before bed. Here's what I do to fall asleep -- and stay asleep each night. And if you're looking for other tips to help fall asleep, I spoke with a sleep expert for more ideas on how to get a good night's sleep.
And for more tips to make your life easier in general, here's how to pit an avocado so you don't get "avocado hand" and how to stop junk mail.
Try creating a to-do list to fall asleep and stay asleep
When I started making nightly to-do lists, I didn't have any idea it was going to help me sleep -- I just wanted a way to better track my priorities and productivity from day to day. So every night before bed, I would write down three things I wanted to do the next day. I would also note one good thing that happened during the day, no matter how small. The whole process takes me 5 minutes at most.
I later learned there may be a connection between clearing our minds and falling asleep. According to a study by researchers from Baylor and Emory universities, making a list of upcoming tasks can help you fall asleep faster.
The Baylor and Emory study looked at people who journaled before bed about completed tasks and activities and compared them with a second group who made a to-do list of things they needed to do over the next day or two before bed. The study showed that that writing to-do lists helped people fall asleep significantly faster than writing about completed activities.
The researchers speculate that writing out to-do lists eases the stress and anxiety about upcoming events that tends to keep people up at night. In short, writing things down can help offload worries from your brain onto the page.
More ways to get better sleep at night
If you're curious about other ways to get a good night's sleep, I spoke with Dr. Saroja Sripathi, sleep medicine chair for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, for other ideas. She said good sleep is a matter of three factors: the quality of sleep you get, how long you sleep and the timing of your sleep. The best way to maximize all three is to focus on what sleep experts call "sleep hygiene" -- essentially, the behaviors that help you sleep better.
The decisions we make throughout the day -- such as what and when we drink, how much we eat and when we go to bed -- affect our ability to sleep at night.
If you have trouble falling asleep at night, Sripathi has research-backed recommendations for improving your sleep quality:
- Stay away from electronic screens for at least half an hour before bed.
- Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bed (alcohol might help you fall asleep, but it's likely to decrease the quality of your sleep).
- Create a consistent routine that helps signal to your body that it's time for sleep.
- Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time each morning.
- Save your bed for sleep and sex -- keep your reading, snacking and watching to other parts of your home.
- If you need to wind down at the end of the night, listen to podcasts or guided meditation instead of scrolling through social media or other sites.
If you've tried these techniques and are still having issues sleeping, it might be time to seek professional help. Your doctor can work with you to diagnose and treat any potential issues.
What are the benefits of better sleep?
Getting good and sufficient sleep can be a challenge. For most of us, there's usually more to do than we can fit in a day, and it's tempting to cut time out of the 7-plus hours experts recommend adults sleep every night. But how important is sleep, really?
Sripathi told me that sleep affects more than just how rested you feel the next day. "Our overall physical and emotional well-being is affected by sleep," she said, so it's important to prioritize sleep.