9 Ways Tech Can Help When You Can’t Sleep at Night

Jun 23, 2023

Sleep is vital for performing multiple daily functions, and technology can help you get a better night of rest.

Chances are that you've spent nights tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. On the other hand, perhaps you've fallen asleep fairly easily but woken up and struggled to get back to sleep.

You're not the only one. Many people can't sleep at night, and it could be caused by many things from stress and anxiety to bad bedtime habits and too much caffeine.

The good news is that if you're having issues falling asleep or simply staying asleep, there are things you can do and tech you can use to make it easier to catch some z's.

Do you remember when you were a child and a bedtime story used to put you to sleep almost immediately? Well, there are not only bedtime stories for kids, but apps with bedtime stories for adults to induce sleep and sweet dreams.

One of the best apps available is Calm, as it includes a range of different sleep stories with genres like non-fiction, travel, and ASMR. What makes a lot of these bedtime stories special is that they're actually narrated by the well-known voices of your favorite celebrities like Camila Cabello and Matthew McConaughey.

Additionally, you can use the Calm app to improve your mindfulness through meditation, breathing exercises, music, and so much more.

Download: Calm for iOS | Android (Free, subscriptions available)

Gone are the days when you had to stick one of your legs out from under the covers in order to cool down your body temperature. That being said, if you can't sleep at night, it really helps to have something like the Eight Sleep Pod 3 Cover to cool down your temperature the smart way.

The Pod 3 Cover is a mattress cover that you can slip onto your bed like a fitted sheet. It has a significant difference, though—it connects to the smart Hub set next to your bed to allow you to easily regulate the temperature on each side of your bed.

Moreover, you can use the Eight Sleep companion app to monitor your sleep score and track your sleep statistics.

The worst thing you can possibly do when you can't sleep is to look at your bedside alarm clock to check the time. This typically can add more anxiety to the situation, so it's best to avoid it altogether with a smart device like the Casper Glow Light.

The Casper Glow Light is far from an ordinary alarm clock. Instead, it uses light to soothe you to sleep and wake you up in the morning. In addition, you can even twist it to turn it into a soft reading light if you want to read a few pages of your favorite book to help you doze off.

Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique that can help you through those sleepless nights. In simple terms, it is a deep relaxation tool that involves slowly tensing or tightening and then relaxing each muscle group throughout your body.

This progressive muscle relaxation video from the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube channel is under 10 minutes long and completely free to watch on YouTube. The video begins with deep breathing exercises followed by muscle tensing and relaxing from your feet all the way up to your face.

It is recommended that you practice progressive muscle relaxation regularly and make it part of your bedtime routine for better sleep.

When you're lying in bed at night, and you can't fall asleep, try repeating a few mantras or chants. Don't know where to start? Fortunately, the Insight Timer app has an entire section dedicated to this content called Chanting & Mantras.

Insight Timer's chants and mantras can help you to reduce any stress and tension caused when you're struggling to sleep, and you can browse through them according to duration, narrators, and background music.

Moreover, there's even a fitting course called Learn To Still Your Overactive Mind Using Mantras, which consists of 10 lessons over 10 days.

Download: Insight Timer for iOS | Android (Free, subscriptions available)

Are you tired but just can't fall asleep? No problem. BetterSleep can lull you to sleep in no time with its impressive sleep content, including sleep sounds. However, BetterSleep differs in that you can mix and match their variety of sounds, white noise, ASMR, brainwaves, melodies, and music to create your own unique, custom soundscapes to help you relax and sleep.

BetterSleep has something for you based on what your wants and needs are, whether you love listening to the sound of the city while you drift off or listening to a gentle mix of relaxing nature and animal sounds.

Download: BetterSleep for iOS | Android (Free, subscriptions available)

It's certainly not a good idea to jump out of bed and start doing some heavy-duty bathroom cleaning or vacuuming when you can't sleep at night. However, some mellow household chores like folding the laundry can take your mind off worrying about not sleeping. The Tody app can make managing your chores so much easier—no matter when you decide to do them!

You can add the various rooms and areas in your home and then set up a list of tasks for that specific space. From there, check off the tasks as you complete them to earn points and see if you can beat the app's character Dusty.

Download: Tody for iOS | Android (Free, subscriptions available)

A study conducted by Penguin Random House showed that reading can be an effective method to fall asleep. From the original Amazon Kindle to the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Oasis, there is a selection of Kindle devices, and which one you use depends on your needs.

The Kindle Oasis, for instance, is waterproof and features page-turning buttons while the Kindle Paperwhite is just a better, thinner, lighter version of the regular Kindle.

Alternatively, if you don't have an Amazon Kindle device, you can access millions of books on your smartphone or tablet by merely downloading the Kindle mobile app.

Download: Kindle for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

A study from Science Direct stated that aromatherapy improves sleep quality. So, if you want to use your sense of smell to put you to sleep, you need to try aromatherapy. The Atomi Smart Aroma Diffuser is a must-have smart device for your bedroom.

By simply connecting and syncing to the Atomi Smart mobile app, you have full control of your diffuser—including its on/off schedule. Plus, when the water is running low, the device automatically switches off by itself to avoid damage.

If you've ever had to suffer through hours of not being able to get any shuteye, you know that you'd do anything to not have to go through another sleepless night.

Luckily, there are a few basic tricks and techs that can help when you're unable to fall asleep. So be sure to try them before you give up on sleep and decide that it's going to be an all-nighter!

Christine has been writing professionally about tech since 2014. Now, with her knowledge about health, fitness, and food, she specializes in writing about wellness-related tech at MUO.