Use Amazon Echo to get the best sleep of your life – CNET

Falling asleep can be tricky when you have a million things running through your head. Did I remember to send that email? Feed the goldfish this week? Should I have done that differently? It’s enough to keep anyone up at night, especially if you’re not getting enough sleep. Fortunately, your Amazon Echo ($100 at Crutchfield) can help ease your mind and get you sleepy in no time. 

Alexa can help you fall asleep by using guided meditation and relaxation sounds to clear your head. The bot can even read bedtime stories to your little ones to help them fall asleep. Here’s how to get started on your journey to relaxation and peaceful sleep.

Use guided meditation to calm your mind

Before bed, you should really think about easing your mind from all of the day’s stresses you’ve encountered. Meditation is a great form of stress and anxiety relief that can help you relax and calm your thoughts enough to lull you into sleep. 

Your Amazon Echo has guided meditation built-in, so all you have to say is “Alexa, open Guided Meditation.” There’s a meditation of the day, so you’ll always have a new one to follow along with.

Fall asleep to rain sounds

If you easily fall asleep when it’s raining outside, then you’ll love this one. It puts me right to sleep. Just say, “Alexa, play rain sounds” and your Echo will immediately conjure up the sound of a shower. 

It’ll continue playing until you tell Alexa to stop. But if you don’t want rain sounds playing all night, you can always create a routine to make it stop at a specified time. When you’re creating the action, select Device Settings and tap Stop Audio.

Read more: The secret to better sleep: White, pink, blue and brown noise.

Try the Sleep and Relaxation Sounds skill

If you want to fall asleep to a different sound every night, this is a good skill to use. It has over 125 sounds to choose from, including thunderstorms, ocean sounds and crickets. When you’re ready for a snooze, just say “Alexa, tell Sleep Sounds to play thunderstorms” or whatever sound you want to hear. You can set a sleep timer so it won’t play all night by saying “Alexa, set a sleep timer for three hours.”

To download it, open the Alexa app, go to your Skills section and type “sleep” in the search bar. Scroll until you see the Sleep and Relaxation Sounds skill (it has the highest reviews). Select it and tap Enable to use. 

Sleep with a night light on

Not everyone can sleep in a pitch-black room and a TV can be distracting when you’re trying to snooze. If all you need is a little light, then put your Echo’s ring light to use. Just say “Alexa, open night light” and the top of your Echo will start glowing and pulsing. 

This is especially useful if you find yourself needing to get out of bed at night because it offers just the right amount of light. When you’re ready to turn the night light off, just say “Alexa, stop.”

Get your kids to sleep with a short bedtime story

If you’re busy finishing up work or home errands, you can have Alexa read short bedtime stories to your little ones. You’ll have to enable to skill in the Alexa app (there are several to choose from). The Short Bedtime Stories skill offers nine different stories that can be customized to include your child’s name. 

Once the skill is enabled, you can say “Alexa, open bedtime stories and play all stories” or “Alexa, open bedtime stories and play Little Red Riding Hood.” If there’s a story your child doesn’t like, they can say “Alexa, next” to skip and move on to the next story.

Want to know more things your Echo can do? Check out how Amazon Echo’s auto features will make your day smooth as buttah and see the six essential Amazon Echo tips you’ll use every day.