5 ways Alexa helps you get a good night’s rest

We all know that Alexa is great at helping out around your smart home (albeit a bit reluctantly sometimes), but Amazon’s virtual assistant can also be helpful with a host of other things. If you have trouble falling asleep, we’ve found five ways Alexa can help you finally get a good night’s rest.

1. Fall asleep to a beautiful sunset

You probably know those lamps that simulate a sunset or sunrise to fall asleep more naturally without the rude awakening of an alarm in the morning. Did you know Alexa can do the same thing? All you need to do is set up a routine. Create a new routine in the Alexa app and select “When this happens” to determine at what time your sunset should happen. Then tap “Schedule” and choose “Sunset”. That’s all there is to it.

2. Soothing sounds

Another way Alexa can help you drift right off at night is by playing sleep inducing sounds. There are several skills to help out with this one. Sleep Sounds offers a bunch of different sounds, including rain, crickets, wind, a waterfall, and a shower. Then there’s also Relaxing sounds, that pretty much does what it says. Sleep by Nature Made also offers soothing sounds, but has the extra option of visualizations.

5 Alexa sleep skills

3. Sleep meditation

If you don’t just want to hear sounds, you could also let Alexa help you with meditations to fall asleep. Try out the Guided Sleep Meditation skill and have a calming voice guide you through a reassuring and soothing meditation. Or maybe check out sleep w/ me for some more guided meditation to help you relax and finally get that good night’s rest.

4. Bedtime story

If you’re not into meditation, maybe a bedtime story could help in your journey to the land of dreams. Luckily Alexa has a few skills to help out with that. The Sleep Stories skill is great for either you or your children. You could also go for Bedtime Stories, featuring 7 different story genres to make you drowsy.

5. Right time to sleep

Last on the list is Sleep Buddy. This skill helps you determine at what time you should go to bed or go to sleep, based on the properties of REM sleep. So if you have to get up at 9 AM, just ask Alexa at what time you should go to bed so you’ll feel well rested in the morning.

Ilona Braam

Ilona is a Digital Media Design graduate, content writer/creator and a whole bunch of other things. A few words that would describe her are jolly, creative, nerdy, curious and a bit dark.