A new study conducted at Baylor University suggests that writing a “to-do” list at bedtime may help people to fall asleep.

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The study, which was published in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Experimental Psychology and involved 57 students from the University, compared sleep patterns of participants who took five minutes to write down forthcoming duties with participants who recorded completed activities.

Dr. Michael K. Scullin, the lead author, director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory said: “We live in a 24/7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and causing us to worry about unfinished tasks at bedtime. Most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, and so we wanted to explore whether the act of writing them down could counteract nighttime difficulties with falling asleep.”

According to the National Sleep Foundation, nearly 40% of American adults…