Does Reading Before Bed Actually Help You Sleep? I Tried It

This year, I’ll be trying sleeping tricks to see whether they actually improve my insomnia. Check back in on this series, Rest Assured, to see how I get on.

I struggle with sleep maintenance insomnia, which means that even though I don’t have any issue falling asleep, I regularly wake up at 3am – and often struggle to return to the land of nod. 

This year, I’ve been trying my best to get better sleep at home. I’ve given science-backed approaches, like eating kiwis, drinking passionflower tea, and addressing my vitamin D deficiency so far. 

As it turns out, my recently rediscovered love for reading (boosted by learning to “DNF”) could help me to achieve better sleep, too – so I gave it a go for a week.

Why might reading before bed help you sleep? 

A 2021 paper put 991 participants through the same experience I had: some read a book for 15-30 minutes before bed for a week, while another group didn’t. 

They wanted to see whether reading before you sleep improved sleep quality – it wasn’t just about falling asleep. This research also looked at how good your sleep was once you’d reached it.

They found that sleep quality improved among those who read before bed compared to those who didn’t.

And happily, “We found that reading in bed before sleep not only potentially improves overall sleep quality but also people in the reading group experienced fewer problems staying asleep.” 

The researchers didn’t find why this seemed to be the case, but some people think reading could help to decrease cognitive activity (or stop racing thoughts) before bed and reduce overall stress levels.

So... how did it go? 

Before starting this series, I woke up early roughly five of seven nights a week and managed to fall back asleep just over two of those times.

During my reading week, I slept through the night three times and managed to fall asleep after a 3am wakeup twice (score). 

I also got two over-eight-hour solid sleeps, which is a record breaker for me. 

I think part of it is that I put my phone down: I can’t expose myself to potentially damaging blue light before bed, which can keep me distracted. 

But the biggest change I’ve noticed is to my racing thoughts. I think spending so much mental energy immersing myself in a fictional world means my mind is too tired to think about my usual stresses. 

I can’t reccomend it enough – I try to do it for an hour before bed, but even on nights when I manage a paltry 15 or 20 minutes, on average, I’m still the better rested for it.