Bedtime Routine
Thirty evenings of a slow session before bed, at about six breaths a minute. A dark, calm screen and a one-tap question in the morning.
4 min read
Bedtime Routine is a program that keeps track of you doing slow breathing before bed for thirty evenings. It's a way to close the day on a calm rhythm.
How an evening goes
Breathe in slowly through your nose and out even more slowly through pursed lips. The pace is about six breaths a minute. The suggested length is fifteen minutes, and you can make it shorter or longer during setup.
If Pursed Lip Breathing isn't unlocked yet, the program starts with Coherent Breathing at the same slow pace, and you breathe out through your nose. Once Pursed Lip Breathing unlocks, the program switches to it on its own from the next evening, and a short explanation appears that evening.
Whatever the app's theme, the session opens on a dark, calm screen, and the sounds are softer. The microphone can stay on, but no warnings appear during the session. Later in the program the screen dims on its own after a few minutes. If you want to stop, just tap the screen.
When the session ends you see a plain Good night screen. No other question comes that evening, so you can put the phone down.
Its time
When you set up the program you pick an evening time, and if you like, the program reminds you at that time every evening. Only a session done in the evening counts toward the program. A session after midnight still counts as that evening's session.
The program session opens at seven in the evening and can be done until four in the morning. Earlier in the day the program card in the technique picker looks faded, with the time it opens written underneath.
The morning question
If you did the evening session, the next morning the app asks How did you sleep last night? when you open it. You answer with a single tap. If you tap Not now, it isn't asked again that day. If you opened the app from a notification, a widget or quick start, the question comes at the end of that session instead.
You can change or delete your answers from the program map, or add one for a day you didn't answer. When the program finishes, you see how your morning answers went over time. This is how your own answers went, not a measurement of your sleep.
Who it suits
Anyone who wants a regular routine to slow down in the evening. The program can always be set up, so you don't have to wait for a technique to unlock. If you chose sleep as your goal in the intro quiz, this program may be suggested to you.
If you feel dizzy with the slow breathing, let go of the pace a little and take a few ordinary breaths.
How to set the program up, what happens when you miss a day and what you see at the end are in Setting up a program and keeping it. For more on breathing in the evening, see Breathing before sleep.
What it is based on
The program follows the dose of the study Laborde, Hosang, Mosley and Dosseville published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine in 2019. In it, one group did slow breathing at six breaths a minute for fifteen minutes every evening for thirty days: four and a half seconds in through the nose, five and a half seconds out through pursed lips. The other group spent the same time on social media. The study compared participants' own ratings of their sleep quality and measures of the heart's resting activity.
The program is a relaxation exercise, not a treatment for sleep.
- Laborde, Hosang, Mosley and Dosseville (2019), Journal of Clinical Medicine 8(2):193 — "Influence of a 30-day slow-paced breathing intervention compared to social media use on subjective sleep quality and cardiac vagal activity". Full text