Sleep Tip 1

Tip 1: Brain dump

It may not sound very attractive, but it works. How?

Here’s how you perform a brain dump:

Pull out a blank sheet of paper, notebook, etc
Grab a pencil, pen or other writing utensil
Write down the first thought that comes to your mind, something that has your focus, then follow it with the next thought and the one after that. Do this bullet point or to do list.
Don’t try to work through the things you write out, figure out a solution or anything of that nature, just put it down and hit a figurative “save” button on those thoughts so you can pick them back up the following day
Spend roughly 5-10 minutes doing this (less if you have less on your mind) and reap the benefits of a peaceful night’s sleep

The science behind why it works

what does this common-as-dirt productivity tool have to do with sleep? Quite a lot, a new study from Michael Scullin of Baylor University suggests.

The research had a simple setup: invite 57 volunteers with no history of serious insomnia into a sleep lab and ask them to do one of two things before settling in for the night. Half were asked to do a bit of traditional journaling, recording the events of the day and reflecting on them. The other half penned a standard to-do list.

Which worked sent people off to dreamland quicker, written reflection or a brain dump of outstanding tasks?

Objective observations of brain waves showed that those who offloaded their outstanding responsibilities to paper fell asleep 10 minutes faster than those who simply mused on their day, drifting off in a relatively speedy 15 minutes. And the more detailed the to-do list, the faster people fell asleep.

Why? The researchers think committing undone tasks to paper relieves the burden on your brain, hastening sleep. "Rather than journal about the day's completed tasks or process tomorrow's to-do list in one's mind, the current experiment suggests that individuals spend five minutes near bedtime thoroughly writing a to-do list," they conclude.