The tomorrow list: write it down, fall asleep faster
A tomorrow list is a specific to-do list you write about 5 minutes before bed, naming tasks for the day ahead instead of reviewing the day behind you. In a Baylor sleep-lab study, people who wrote one fell asleep 9 minutes faster on average than people who journaled about completed tasks instead.
How to write a tomorrow list
- Sit down about 5 minutes before you plan to sleep.
- Write down everything you need to do tomorrow, one item per line.
- Be specific — name the task and any detail that would otherwise nag at you.
- Skip today's events; this list looks forward, not back.
- Close the notebook or app and let sleep take over.
Reground keeps your list private. It's a simple list that stays on your phone — nothing synced, shared, or read by anyone but you.
The tomorrow list is free in the app, forever. No account, nothing tracked.
How specific should my list be?
More specific is better. The Baylor study found that people who wrote more detailed, concrete tasks fell asleep faster than those who wrote vague or general items.
"Email Sarah the Q3 numbers" works better than "work stuff." A few extra seconds spent adding detail seems to pay off at the other end, in the time it takes to drift off.
Should I write it right before bed, or earlier?
Right before bed is what the research tested — about 5 minutes before lights out. That's the window where the 9-minute sleep-onset benefit was measured.
Writing it earlier in the evening likely still helps you organize your thoughts, but the specific sleep benefit hasn't been tested for that timing.
Will this work if I keep remembering things I forgot?
Often, yes. The likely mechanism is cognitive offloading — once a worry is written down somewhere you'll see it again, your mind can let go of carrying it.
If new tasks pop into your head after you've closed the list, jot them on a sticky note rather than reopening the whole thing and re-triggering the racing thoughts a worry dump is better suited to unpack.
The evidence
Promising evidence
The core evidence comes from a single but well-designed 2018 polysomnography study at Baylor University. Young, healthy adults were randomly assigned to write either a to-do list for the next day or a list of tasks already completed, then slept in a sleep lab while researchers measured brain activity.
The to-do list group fell asleep in 15.82 minutes on average, compared with 25.09 minutes for the completed-tasks group — a 9.27-minute difference, with a medium effect size (d = 0.63). More specific lists correlated with faster sleep onset.
"The 'to-do' group fell asleep an average of nine minutes faster than the other group, suggesting that making a list helps clear the head and makes falling asleep easier."
Honest limits: this is one study, in young healthy adults aged 18 to 30, without long-term follow-up. Whether it helps people with clinical insomnia or anxiety-driven sleep problems specifically hasn't been tested yet.
Primary sources: Bedtime to-do list sleep study, PMC · Journal of Experimental Psychology, PubMed · Study summary, Baylor University
Common questions
How specific should my to-do list be?
More specific is better. The Baylor study found that people who wrote more detailed, concrete tasks fell asleep faster than those who wrote vague or general items. "Email Sarah the Q3 numbers" works better than "work stuff." A few extra seconds of detail seems to pay off.
Should I write it right before bed or earlier in the evening?
Right before bed is what the research tested — about 5 minutes before lights out. Writing it earlier in the evening likely still helps you organize your thoughts, but the sleep-onset benefit was measured specifically for a list written immediately pre-sleep.
Will this work if I have racing thoughts about things I forgot to do?
Often, yes. The mechanism seems to be cognitive offloading — once a worry is written down somewhere you'll see it again, your mind can let go of holding onto it. If new tasks pop into your head after you've closed the list, jot them on a sticky note rather than reopening the whole thing.
Does a to-do list help with sleep only, or daytime anxiety too?
The research specifically measured sleep onset, not daytime anxiety, so we can't claim a daytime effect from this study. Many people find writing tasks down calming any time of day, but the 9-minute-faster result is specific to bedtime and sleep.
Sources reviewed · July 2026