How To Choose A Bedtime Read That Will Help You Drift Off, From Sleep Experts

Once upon a time, decades before my nighttime routine consisted of a multistep skin care regimen or guided meditation, I would fall asleep to the sound of my parents reading me a bedtime story.

I can remember so clearly brushing my teeth, standing on my tiptoes to reach the sink, rushing in anticipation to choose the night's read.

Back then, my genre choices were limited to age-appropriate fairy tales and moral stories. Now, my reading tastes run the gamut. But thrillers and existential explorations aren't exactly literary lullabies, so now I'm wondering how to choose a bedtime read that will actually help me fall asleep.

Major Allison Brager, Ph.D., a neuroscientist involved in the U.S. Army's Holistic Health and Fitness System specializing in sleep, tells mbg the activities we choose to engage in before bed should be relaxing in order to help the body transition into a low-level activity state.

This includes the materials you read before drifting off to sleep, as the words on the page can help promote the transition from wake to sleep.

What's more, bedtime reads can also influence your dreams, and, not to mention, set you up for the day ahead. "The thoughts you go to sleep with are often the first ones that greet you when you awake. And your first thoughts [as well as the quality of sleep you clocked in the night before] often program your mood for the entire day," says Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., a sleep expert and author of From Fatigued to Fantastic.

While you don't want to choose a bedtime read that's going to have you jumping out of your skin or contemplating the meaning of life at 11 o'clock at night (anything that's going to activate the nervous system is a no-go), the story should be engaging enough that it pulls your mind away from stressful thoughts.

Certified sleep consultant and founder of Live Love Sleep Kaley Medina also flags high-interest reads—the page-turners you've been dying to get your hands on and simply cannot put down out of sheer curiosity about what comes next.

You'll most likely want to read these all the way through, so they may not be the best for bedtime. "You will most likely find yourself delaying bedtime or staying up late thinking about what happens next," Medina tells mbg.

So what sort of bedtime reads strike the perfect balance between not too interesting but not too boring? Well, it depends who you ask. The general consensus is to pick something lighthearted, with happy themes, that can also be calming for your busy mind.

Teitelbaum reveals he tends to reach for a romantic comedy, while Turgeon and Wright recommend travelogues, light fantasy, stories about friendship, and some biographies.

Reading can help you fall asleep by transporting your mind to a fantastical place far removed from your everyday reality. But not just any book or story will do.

Choosing the right bedtime read can be the difference between falling asleep fast and staying asleep the entire night through or struggling to get some much-needed shut-eye.