Best Alexa Bedtime Skills to Help You Sleep

Alexa might not be the first thing you turn to for better sleep, but Amazon’s personal assistant has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Alexa can play soothing sounds like white noise and ocean waves. You can ask Alexa for a bedtime story or meditate with Alexa to help you settle down and nod off on those particularly stressful days.

There’s no monthly fee for Alexa, and many functions are free. However, some sounds, meditation exercises, and other functions are provided by third-party applications that Alexa hooks into and provides through the cloud.

This article reveals the best Alexa skills to help you sleep, including basic functions and add-on functions for meditation and sleep sounds.

Let’s jump in!

“Alexa, open Sleep Sounds”

Sleep Sounds is a free add-on for Alexa that gives you free access to over a dozen sounds and stories. Premium membership gives you access to a library of hundreds, and you can combine multiple sounds to create a unique mix.

We love the ability to create extended loops that repeat for up to ten hours and mix stories and sounds for customised relaxation.

Whether you like ocean waves, chirping birds, waterfalls or the sound of traffic, or stories that make you think, Sleep Sounds has you covered.

“Alexa, open night light”

If you have an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, you can ask Alexa to open a night light to cast a soft glow over your bedroom.

You can ask Alexa to open the night light for a set period of time, such as ten or twenty minutes, or ask it to run the night light all night. It’s free to use and comes in handy when you get up in the middle of the night.

“Alexa, set a sleep timer”

If you want to sleep for a set period, you can ask Alexa to set a sleep timer. The beauty is you can set a timer to run immediately, or you can ask it to kick in half an hour from now so you have time to nod off.

Timers can help you fall asleep faster by putting pressure on you to fall asleep, although some people find they trigger sleep anxiety.

We recommend giving a timer a go and seeing if it works for you.

“Alexa, play sleep meditation”

You can ask Alexa for guided meditation sessions with the sleep w/ me add-on. It works brilliantly, providing simple instructions that you listen to with closed eyes. Free users get one meditation, while paid users get unlimited sessions.

Lots of reviewers say the same thing – that they fall asleep way before the meditation finishes because it is so effective. It’s worth a go if you suffer from insomnia.

“Alexa lights off”

You can set up Alexa to control your bedroom lighting, including switching the lights on and off and dimming them.

There are a few ways to do this. The most popular is installing smart light bulbs that connect to your home Wi-Fi, but you can also use smart switches or plugs. They work in the same way – by linking to your Alexa account.

As we discussed in our bedroom temperature and lighting article, lighting plays a critical role in helping you fall asleep.

“Alexa, open bedtime stories”

Short Bedtime Stories is the best bedtime story skill for Alexa. Although it’s designed for children, the voiceovers are smooth and relaxing, helping you nod off, and you can skip and repeat stories with simple voice commands.

One of the neatest features is the custom story mode, where the skill uses a custom name (such as your child’s name) in the story.

Summing up

Alexa is a powerful tool for helping you sleep, although the best features are provided by add-ons called skills. The skills in this article are best of breed, but Alexa also offers smart functions like lighting control to give your bedroom a relaxing atmosphere.

Looking for more sleep tips? Check out our 10 sleep tips article.