How to Use Alexa to Help You Fall Asleep
Having trouble dozing off? Your Amazon Echo or Alexa-enabled device can play sounds, music, stories, and guided meditations to send you off to dreamland, and turn them off as you snooze with an Alexa Sleep Timer.
If you’re having trouble sleeping, meditation apps are plentiful—but if you have an Alexa-enabled device, you can turn it into a sleep aid. Place your Alexa device near the bed and turn to skills that will play soothing sounds, offer guided sleep meditations, play restful music, or tell you a bedtime story.
Open the Alexa app on your mobile device. Tap the hamburger icon in the upper left and select Skills & Games from the sidebar. Tap the search icon in the upper right and search for “sleep” in the app. Now let’s look at some specific skills to assist you in your quest for a good night’s sleep.
Sleep Sounds by Sleep Jar
This particular Sleep Sounds skill offers a host of different sounds and noises designed to lull you to sleep. Choose from a vast array, including rain, a train, crickets, wind, a shower, wind chimes, a whale, a waterfall, a lake, and seagulls. (A full list is on Amazon.com and the Sleep Sounds website; get it sent to your Alexa app by saying “Alexa, ask Sleep Sounds for a list.”)
Hear a specific sound, by saying “Alexa, ask Sleep Sounds for [name of sound],” such as “Alexa, ask Sleep Sounds for ocean waves” or “Alexa, ask Sleep Sounds for fireplace,” and Alexa plays your chosen sound. The skill does try to sell you a premium subscription, but if you can get past the marketing pitch, you’ll find a lot of soothing sounds here.
Relaxing Sounds
Similar to Sleep Sounds, Relaxing Sounds can play an array of sounds, such as ocean waves, a babbling brook, a rainforest, frogs, pink noise, windy trees, rain on a tent, dripping water, a blizzard, an owl, cicadas, and loons.
To learn all the sounds, check the skill’s Alexa page or say “Alexa, ask Relaxing Sounds for a list.” To hear a specific sound, say: “Alexa, ask Relaxing Sounds for [name of sound],” such as “Alexa, ask Relaxing sounds for windy leaves” or “Alexa, ask Relaxing sounds for a boat ride.” You can also say “Alexa, ask Relaxing Sounds for a random sound,” to let the skill pick the sound.
Sweet Dreams: Sounds & Meditations for Sleep
Sweep Dreams is a skill that can play either sounds or short meditations. For a sound, say “Alexa, ask Sweet Dreams to play [name of sound].” You can hear rain, surf, a stream, a forest, a canyon, a desert, or a brook.
For a short meditation, say “Alexa, ask Sweet Dreams to play [name of meditation].” Here, you can opt for meditations such as “Falling Asleep,” “Soften and Relax,” “Breathing in Waves,” and “Review the Day.” Each mediation runs for a certain number of minutes and provides guided steps for deep breathing and other actions designed to calm your mind and body.
sleep w/ me
The sleep w/ me guided sleep meditation offers just one meditation, but it’s soothing with a comforting voice that takes you through deep breathing. Say “Alexa, play Sleep meditation.” The 18-minute meditation starts off by prompting you to lie down and listen to the sound of the person’s voice. After asking you to take three deep breaths, the voice gently helps you relax in your quest for sleep.
Guided Sleep Meditation: Ultimate Deep Relaxation
With the Guided Sleep Meditation skill, a calming voice helps you combat insomnia by providing a soothing and reassuring meditation. Say “Alexa, open Guided Sleep Meditation” to begin, and the skill will end on its own so you don’t have to worry about turning it off or setting a timer.
Yoga Nidra For Sleep
Yoga Nidra is designed more for relaxation than sleep. However, the Yoga Nidra for Sleep skill can help calm your mind and body to put you in a restful state before sleep. Say “Alexa, open Yoga Nidra Meditation.” A voice starts off by asking you to inhale and exhale while counting backwards. The meditation continues for 20 minutes, after which time you hopefully will feel more relaxed and restful.
Relaxing Sounds: Spa Music
You can listen to restful music before going to sleep with the Relaxing Sounds skill. Say: “Alexa, play spa music.” Alexa immediately starts playing soothing music designed to help you relax. Simply let the music play as you try to fall asleep.
Relaxation Music
Relaxation Music is another skill that aims to help you drift off to sleep by serving up relaxing music. Say “Alexa, play Relaxation Music.” Alexa plays restful music accompanied by soft wind chimes to clear your mind and relax your body as you fall asleep.
Sleep Stories
Whether you’re an adult trying to fall asleep or you have a child struggling to drift off, sometimes a good bedtime story can help. With the Sleep Stories skill, a male or female voice tells you a story designed to help you drift off.
Say “Alexa, play Sleep Stories,” and the voice starts narrating a random story. If you don’t like the current story, just say “Alexa, ask Sleep Stories to play next story” and a new story starts playing.
Alexa Sleep Timer
Many of these skills will continue playing until you say “Alexa, stop.” If you don’t want them running all night, activate your skill and then say “Alexa, set a sleep timer for [period of time].”
So, for example, you could say “Alexa, ask Sleep Sounds for ocean waves.” When the wave sound begins, say “Alexa, set a sleep timer for one hour.” Alexa will acknowledge the request, and the wave sound will shut off after 60 minutes.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
