A new study from the University of Edinburgh suggests that workers over 50 may be experiencing a largely hidden sleep crisis. Since I’m well into my fifth decade, I’m comfortably inside that risk group, and like many people, my biggest obstacle to sleep is not always tiredness; it’s getting my brain to stop working.
The researchers found that nearly 70% of participants in its study (which admittedly was quite small at just 45 participants) experienced persistent, clinically significant sleep problems, despite having no known history of sleep disorders. Even more concerning, almost 92% met the clinical threshold for a sleep disorder at least once during the study.
Many of these sleep problems were closely linked to work-related stress, researchers said — which got me thinking about ways I could reduce my own work-related stress, and whether AI could help.
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It struck me that there were three easily achievable things that I could do with AI to help me sleep better, so I tried them — and the results surprised me.
Task one: emptying your head
It’s difficult to sleep when you’ve got a million thoughts from the day buzzing around your head. What can help is writing them down. It makes you feel like you don’t need to keep them alive in your brain, because there’s a record of them somewhere. It turns out that AI can be very helpful for this. I used the prompt:
“I’m going to tell you everything currently occupying my mind. Sort it into things I need to do tomorrow, things that can safely wait, and things I cannot control. Keep the response short and practical.”
I then used ChatGPT’s Voice mode to perform a brain dump into the AI. ChatGPT turned my vague mental noise into a finite list, and it felt like a weight had been lifted. I could then close the app and put down my phone knowing my thoughts have been “stored” somewhere and weren’t going to be forgotten.
Task two: challenging the worry
For this one I took a real concern, like a deadline, unfinished article or packed schedule. Then I described it to ChatGPT, using this prompt:
“This thought is keeping me awake: [insert thought]. Don’t simply reassure me. Tell me what is factual, what I may be assuming, what I can act on tomorrow, and what I need to let go of tonight.”
That instruction to not simply reassure you is important, otherwise ChatGPT may produce soothing but meaningless encouragement. It worked for me, but if you find that still doesn’t get you exactly what you want, you could also also ask:
“What is the smallest useful action I can take tomorrow that would make this problem feel more manageable?”
Using this prompt the AI reduces a large amorphous worry to one single action.
Task three: Voice Mode
My last idea was to get ChatGPT to help me wind down. ChatGPT has recently improved its voice mode, and that inspired me to use it to help me wind down at night. Listening to ChatGPT’s voice is a lot more relaxing than looking at a screen of course, since you can close your eyes. I tried this prompt:
“Guide me through a five-minute wind-down exercise. Speak slowly, leave pauses, and do not ask me questions. Begin with breathing, then relax each part of my body, and finish with a calm visualization.”
If that doesn’t work for you then you can always get ChatGPT to tell you a story :
“Tell me a calm, deliberately uneventful 10-minute story designed to help me fall asleep. Nothing dramatic should happen, and there should be no questions or cliffhangers.”
I started the voice routine, placed the phone face down and treated ChatGPT like an audio player rather than continuing to chat with it. It worked for me, even if the voice I’d chosen to use wasn’t quite as relaxing as it could have been. It’s worth experimenting here to find a voice you like.
Best practice
I found all three of these prompts quite effective. The first one, which enabled me to turn all the thoughts spinning in my head into a practical list to deal with tomorrow, was especially helpful.
With all of these exercises, the key is to put your phone down after you’ve done one or more of them. You need to stop interacting with it; remember, the goal is closure, not an endless bedtime conversation.
Once you’ve closed down your day with ChatGPT, you need to close down ChatGPT, too.
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