Mentis- Early evening: write tomorrow's to-do list and any worries with one next step each.
- At night: if a thought wakes you, write it in one line and leave it for the morning.
- Weekly: compare your guesses about sleep with what actually happened.
Why write before sleep?
Lying in bed is often the first quiet moment of the day, so everything you haven't dealt with comes rushing in. Writing it down earlier gives your mind somewhere to put it. In a sleep-lab study, people who spent five minutes writing a to-do list before bed fell asleep faster than people who wrote about tasks they'd already completed, and the more specific the list, the faster they fell asleep (Scullin et al., 2018). A structured "constructive worry" exercise done early in the evening also reduced pre-sleep mental arousal in students with insomnia (Carney & Waters, 2006).
The rule: do the heavy writing early in the evening, at a table, not in bed. Keep bedtime writing short.
Evening brain dump (early evening)
- Everything still on my mind from today, one line each.
- Tomorrow's to-do list, as specific as I can make it.
- For each worry on the list, one next step and when I'll take it. Or: "nothing to do tonight".
- What got in the way of my sleep this week?
- Every chai, coffee or cold drink I had today. Roughly when, and what was I really reaching for?
- Why did I pick up the phone after lying down last night, each time?
From the Mentis activities "What Got In The Way", "Every Cup, Today" and "Why You Picked Up The Phone".
The 3am thoughts, read at 10am
- What was going round my head when I woke in the night? Write it the way my mind said it.
- Now read it back in daylight. What do I notice?
- Was one of the thoughts about sleep itself, like "if I don't get eight hours, tomorrow's ruined"? How did the last day after a short night actually go?
- If I woke last night: what woke me, what did I think, and what did I do? Three lines.
- When I couldn't sleep, did I lie there or get up? What happened after?
My sleep story
- What's the story I tell myself about why I sleep like this?
- What have I already tried, and what actually happened?
- How many hours do I think I need? Where did that number come from?
- Early bird or night owl: which way does my body clock lean on a free week with no alarm?
- When in the day does my energy drop the most? What usually fills that hour?
- How much does my wake-up time move between weekdays and weekends?
Plans for the hard nights
- My bad-night plan, decided now while I've slept fine: what I'll do if I'm awake at 3am.
- The first thing I'll do once I'm up after a bad night.
- Tonight might go badly. How much energy do I predict at midday tomorrow? (Check it tomorrow.)
- Three dull things I could do out of bed, somewhere dim, while I wait to feel sleepy.
- My last hour before bed, the way I actually want to do it: where the phone goes, what fills the time.
Weekly look back
- Which mornings did I get up at my time, and which didn't I? What was going on, on the ones I didn't?
- Where did my morning light come from this week?
- On the nights the phone stayed face down, what did I actually miss?
- A night it held and a night it didn't: what else was different about those two evenings?
- What's changed since my first week, and what hasn't yet?
- Which habit is easiest to keep now? Which keeps slipping?
- What's on this weekend, and how will I keep Saturday's wake-up within an hour of my weekday time?
- My sleep playbook in three lines: my mornings, my evening, my one non-negotiable.
Sleep journaling in the Mentis app
These prompts follow the Mentis Sleep plan, built on techniques from cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia. The plan moves from "The first honest look" to "A time I wake up", "The hour before bed", "Bed means sleep" and "The 3am mind", with prompts like these arriving on the day they're most useful. Your morning check-in gives your sleep its own sky, so you can see weeks of nights at a glance. Find your ideal bedtime with the sleep calculator, or read our guide to better sleep.
Frequently asked questions
Should I journal before bed?
Yes, briefly, and early in your wind-down rather than in bed. In one study, people who wrote a to-do list for the next few days before bed fell asleep faster than people who wrote about what they'd already done.
What should I write when I can't sleep?
If you're up in the night, keep it short: the thought, as your mind said it, and leave it for the morning. Re-reading 3am thoughts at 10am is one of the Sleep plan activities. They almost always look smaller in daylight.
How does worry affect sleep?
Worry keeps the mind and body in a state of alert, which makes it harder to fall asleep and easier to wake. Dealing with worries earlier in the evening, on paper, is one of the techniques used in CBT for insomnia.
Is a sleep diary the same as journaling?
Not quite. A sleep diary records times: when you went to bed, fell asleep, woke and got up. It's useful for spotting patterns. Journaling is about the thoughts. The Mentis daily check-in does a little of both.
- Scullin MK, Krueger ML, Ballard HK, Pruett N, Bliwise DL. (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):139–146.
- 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):13–28.
- Harvey AG. (2002). A cognitive model of insomnia. Behaviour Research and Therapy 40(8):869–893.