This simple evening routine will help you sleep better
Bedtime stories are a crucial part of most kids’ evening routines. But, as adults, many of us have fallen out of those childhood routines. You might still have a book on your nightstand, but now it’s more of a prop. Most of us are more likely to scroll than read.
You probably already know that using your phone before bed is a bad habit. Talk to any sleep obsessive and they’ll tell you to get your phone out of the bedroom and pick up a good old-fashioned book before you go to sleep instead. But according to the sleep doctors we talked to, there is a right way to use reading before bed to support sleep and a wrong way.
Why reading before bed is better than scrolling
Screens have long been viewed as the enemy of good sleep, primarily because of the melatonin-destroying blue light they emit. But it’s 2026. All phones and tablets now have settings to turn off blue light. And every podcaster you know is raving about the dorky blue-light blocking glasses they wear before bed. So why can’t you wind down before bed with your phone?
“Reading is a way of saying good night to your brain, but scrolling actually wakes the brain up,” says Paul Muchowski, PhD, a neuroscientist, sleep expert, and founder of Defined Sleep. He explains that even though scrolling and reading seem similar, they impact the brain very differently. Sleep medicine doctor Domingo Rodriguez-Cué, MD, agrees, explaining, “Reading calms the brain down, but scrolling—especially social media—makes the brain more alert because the content is more engaging and less predictable.”
Dr. Rodriguez-Cué points out that reading follows a pattern of predictability in the sense that your eyes are continuously moving from left to right, down the page. This predictability activates the parasympathetic nervous system, leading to feeling more relaxed. But he says that reading the news on your phone or scrolling social media can activate the fight-or-flight response—even if the content you’re consuming isn’t particularly stressful. At the same time that the fight-or-flight response is being activated, he says, scrolling social media causes the brain to release dopamine, which stimulates the nervous system. The combined impact is the exact opposite of what you want before bed.
The sleep doctors also point out that books have natural places to stop (specifically, the end of chapters), but social media apps don’t, which is another reason why reading is better for sleep than scrolling.
How to use reading before bed to support your sleep
Even without taking screens’ blue light into account, it’s clear that reading a book is more sleep-supporting than scrolling on your phone. But what you’re reading and the environment you’re in matter too. Here are five tips for how to use reading as a boon to your sleep, straight from sleep doctors.
As Dr. Rodriguez-Cué explained, a major reason that reading activates the parasympathetic nervous system is because the act of reading is predictable. The brain likes predictability; it’s why humans function best by having routines. For this reason, he says, the more you make reading a pre-bedtime habit, the more the brain will pick up on the signal that you’re powering down for the day and it will support your sleep. Like many things in life, the more you do it, the better it works.
How soon before your usual bedtime should you start reading? Avinesh S. Bhar, MD, a sleep medicine doctor and founder of Sliiip, a sleep and pulmonary medicine telehealth company, says it depends on the person and how stimulating the day was. “Anywhere between 20 and 60 minutes of reading before bed is sufficient,” he says. If you’re already feeling sleepy, 20 minutes will be enough. If you feel wired, you’ll need more time to wind down and feel relaxed.
Not all reading material is equal when it comes to using it to support your sleep. “Reading a thriller versus a poem is a different experience when it comes to engaging with the content,” says Dr. Bhar.
With this in mind, Dr. Bhar says that the best bedtime reading material is something literary or character-driven versus a thriller or something that’s keeping you so engaged that it’s hard to resist putting it down. Again, predictability helps with relaxation, so because of this, he recommends a bedtime book you’ve read before.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t read something like, say, China Miéville’s latest thrilling work before bed. Dr. Bhar says that you can even start with any book of your choosing before switching to your cozier, more predictable “bedtime book” roughly 15 minutes before you want to fall asleep.
“Similar to how sunlight cues the brain that it’s time to be awake, darkness is a cue that it’s time for sleep,” Dr. Muchowski says. He explains that using bright, overhead lighting at night confuses circadian rhythm (the body’s internal clock) and blocks the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, which is backed up by a 2019 scientific review in Somnologie.
For this reason, relying on lamps that emit a softer light versus brighter, overhead lighting is a good idea in general when it comes to your evening routine and should be applied while you’re reading. “You don’t want the lights to be too dim because it can distress the brain to try to read in the dark, but you don’t want the lights to be bright enough to throw off circadian rhythm,” Dr. Rodriguez-Cué says.
To hit the sweet spot, he recommends using a lamp on a nightstand or a reading light that can clip to your book instead. Another benefit to using one of these lights versus your overhead bedroom light is that you won’t have to climb out of bed to turn it off, which is annoying when you’re finally relaxed enough to fall asleep.
As long as you keep the general reading-for-bedtime tips in mind, all of the sleep doctors say that listening to an audiobook can work just as well as reading a physical book when it comes to supporting sleep. “In some ways, audiobooks are more supportive for sleep because you can listen while lying down and with your eyes closed,” Dr. Muchowski says.
If you’d rather listen to a story than read one yourself, Dr. Rodriguez-Cué says to make sure your audiobook is set to stop after a certain amount of time; otherwise, it might jolt you awake later. Apps like Calm, Slumber, and Headspace all have bedtime stories for adults that are specifically crafted to help you fall asleep.
While reading before bed does support sleep, Dr. Muchowski emphasizes that it’s not going to be the fix for deeper sleeping problems. If you’ve been having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep for longer than three months, it’s worth it to seek out a sleep doctor to figure out the root causes.
Reading before bed can’t solve every sleep problem, but one thing’s for sure: It’s better than doomscrolling.