These books are scientifically proven to help you fall asleep

Books


These books are scientifically proven to help you fall asleep

By Megan Murray

Updated 5 years ago

A London hotel has found out exactly which books you should be reading before bed, and has stocked its library full of them. 

We’ll do almost anything to get a good night’s kip. From religiously tracking our unconscious hours (although there’s a reason you might want to give that a rest), confiscating phones from the bedroom, splurging on sleep-inducing Lush products and even sleeping underneath a weighted blanket

But according to Sheraton Grand London Park Lane, the secret may be in the pages of some very relaxing books in the hotel’s library. 

Aware of the nation’s problem with getting a proper rest, the Sheraton Grand has partnered with London’s oldest bookshop Hatchards to come up with a list of the books that are most likely to help you fall asleep.

Working with sleep expert and chartered psychologist Dr David Lewis, the hotel has done some research on what exactly makes a book the perfect bedtime aid, looking at everything from sentence structures to plot twists. 

Lewis found that the most important factors are short sentences and concluding chapters that meet the brain’s desire for completeness. 

He also noted that books that avoid lots of detail and follow a simple narrative structure make it easy to fall asleep, as the more complicated the story structure, the greater the cognitive effort needed to make sense of it. Similarly, the reader will find it hard to drift off if the book they are reading has a lot of chapters that end in a cliff hanger. This triggers something known as the ‘Zeigarnik Effect,’ which makes the brain think that something isn’t finished and therefore can’t switch off. 

Books to make you fall alseep

Credit: Getty

For these reasons the books that the Sheraton Grand is adding to its shelves include the Penguin Book of English Short Stories thanks to its simplistic structure, One Fine Day and Still Me because of their rounded off chapters and Conversations With Friends because of the lengthy sentences used by the author, which cause the brain to slow down and go into a relaxed state.

Here’s the full list below:

Tangerine by Christine Mangan 

Penguin Book of English Short Stories by Christopher Dolley

Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gower

Still Me by Jojo Moyes

Don’t point that thing at me by Kyrii Bonfiglioi

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz 

Circe by Madeline Miller

Story of Mr Sommer by Patrick Suskind

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Expurey 

Last Orders by Graham Switft

Collected Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker

Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M.Dellafield

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

What I talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami 

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

This is What Happened by Mick Herron

The Young Hornblower Omnibus by C.S. Forester

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach

The Complete Hercule Poirot Short Stories by Agatha Christie

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany’s 

The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes

One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes

Violins of St Jacques by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Century Girls by Tessa Dunlop

The Sheraton Grand London Park Lane’s ZZZ-list of sleepy books is now open in the Club Lounge and available for Lounge members and those staying in a Club Room or Suite to use, but you can of course buy these relaxing tomes for yourself and read them at home. 

If you’re still struggling to fall asleep though, check out our Sleep Diaries series, which details how different women organise their evenings to give them the best night’s sleep. 

Images: Getty 

Sign up for the latest news and must-read features from Stylist, so you don’t miss out on the conversation.

By signing up you agree to occasionally receive offers and promotions from Stylist. Newsletters may contain online ads and content funded by carefully selected partners. Don’t worry, we’ll never share or sell your data. You can opt-out at any time. For more information read Stylist’s Privacy Policy

Thank you!

You’re now subscribed to all our newsletters. You can manage your subscriptions at any time from an email or from a MyStylist account.