Mentis- Five minutes, early in the evening, on paper: everything on your mind, with one next step each where you can.
- In a sleep lab, a five-minute to-do list before bed helped people fall asleep about 9 minutes faster.
- Close the notebook, and keep it out of the bedroom.
- In Mentis: "Evening Worry List", the keystone of chapter 8 of the Sleep plan.
How do you do a brain dump?
- Pick a time and a notebook. Early evening, at a table, not in bed. The Mentis activity is literally "Pick Your List Time And Notebook".
- Two columns. Left: what's on your mind. Right: the next step, if there is one ("Call the bank, 10am"). Some things won't have a step. That's fine.
- Be specific. "Finish the deck" is vague. "Draft slides 4–6 before standup" is specific. Specific lists worked better in the research.
- Close it. Literally close the notebook and say "that's for tomorrow".
- Five minutes, not fifty. If it runs long, pick the top three and stop.
Why does writing it down help you sleep?
Unfinished tasks nag. Psychologists have shown that a goal you haven't finished keeps intruding on your thoughts, and that simply making a plan for it, without doing it, switches that nagging off (Masicampo & Baumeister, 2011). Bedtime is when the nagging is loudest, because nothing else is competing for attention.
In a sleep laboratory study at Baylor University, people who wrote a to-do list for five minutes before lights out fell asleep about nine minutes faster than those who wrote about what they'd already done. The more specific the list, the faster they fell asleep (Scullin et al., 2018). Sleep researchers use a structured version, called "constructive worry", as part of CBT for insomnia (Carney & Waters, 2006).
When should you use it?
- On busy weeknights, especially before deadlines.
- When you notice you've started planning tomorrow in bed.
- Before travel, exams or big family events.
Where is it in the Mentis app?
The evening worry list is the keystone habit of chapter 8, "The 3am mind", in the Sleep plan, paired with "The 3 AM Routine". The next morning, you can look back at the night with The 3 AM Thoughts, At 10 AM. For daytime worries, use the worry window.
Frequently asked questions
Does writing a to-do list help you sleep?
In a sleep lab study, people who spent five minutes writing a to-do list for the coming days fell asleep about nine minutes faster than people who wrote about tasks they'd already done. The more specific the list, the faster they fell asleep.
Should I do it right before bed?
The Mentis Sleep plan puts it earlier in the evening, at a set time away from your bed. You want to empty your mind before bedtime, not start thinking about everything as you lie down.
Paper or phone?
Paper is better, because it keeps the phone out of the last hour. If you use your phone, write the list and then put it face down for the night.
What if new worries come up in bed?
Keep the notebook nearby, write one line, and close it. That's the 3am routine in chapter 8.
- Scullin MK et al. (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).
- Carney CE, Waters WF (2006). Effects of a structured problem-solving procedure on pre-sleep cognitive arousal in college students with insomnia. Behavioral Sleep Medicine 4(1).
- 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).