Why I journal before bed
I used to be able to fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Nowadays though, I find myself laying in bed, in that semi-conscious state between wake and sleep, for a while before I finally drift off.
Or (more accurately) until Butter Silk Baby wakes up in need of some milk or cuddles or both.
I need my sleep.
But being a housewife and stay at home mom means that my to-do list is neverending.
And that’s what I find myself agonizing over night after night.
I feel like this is a thing lots of moms do.
Did I buy this ingredient for dinner tomorrow?
Maybe I should’ve given the baby a bath instead of a wash up.
I need to make a dentist appointment. I’ve been putting it off long enough.
First thing tomorrow I’m following up with the rental office.
How long have those pasta leftovers been sitting in the fridge?
I swear I’m gonna tackle that load of laundry tomorrow.
What am I gonna make for breakfast tomorrow?
I need to change my shower curtain.
And on and on and on.
One night, I’d had enough of hearing myself think.
I threw my covers off, turned on the lights, and grabbed a pen and journal. Then I got to writing.
And it worked! In less than five minutes I had all of those thoughts out of my mind and onto the page.
Then I slept like a baby.
I’ve always kept a journal or two by the bed to write about my day or my dreams.
But it was only recently that I reached for a new one to help clear my head so that I could fall asleep. Kinda like a brain dump.
I call it my Mind Transfer journal.
I have 4 categories I use to organize as many of my thoughts down on paper instead of racing around in my head. They include:
Self
Household
Family
Business
Then I lay it all on the page.
In the morning, I use that list as a jumping off point for my daily to-do list. When I find that I’m consistently putting off an item, I’ll decide to either do it first the next day or schedule it for sometime in the future.
Journaling before bed has helped me get to sleep faster when I need it the most.
In “The Connection Between Writing and Sleep” in Psychology Today, Lydia Denworth writes:
In the study of 57 young adults, researchers from Baylor University and Emory University found that writing to-do lists, rather than writing about completed tasks, helped people fall asleep an average of nine minutes faster—in about 16 minutes versus 25.
[…]
There’s something about the act of writing—physically writing something on paper—that tends to offload it a little bit, or help us hit the pause button on it. The outcome seems to be that you decrease cognitive arousal, and that you decrease rumination and worry. If you decrease those two things, it makes sense that you’re going to fall asleep faster, because having stuff on your mind is one of the main barriers to falling asleep at night.
I’ve found this to be true. I notice a significant difference in the time it takes me to fall asleep when I journal and when I don’t. I haven’t measured how long, but when I wake up I can certainly tell.
I’m a journaler. I have countless notebooks in my home.
It’s always felt so good to tug the thoughts and worries from my mind and write them out on the page. It gives my mind space to breathe and process.
And it feels great.
To help you get to sleep faster, I created a free guide to Journaling for Sleep.
Click HERE to print the Journaling for Sleep Guide
Before bed last night, I printed myself a copy and poured my brain onto the page. Then I passed out.
Let me know how my template works for you.
What are your categories?
