Spend 5 minutes recalling what you learned today before bed
Practicing recall from memory helps you remember more days later than rereading for the same time.
You switch off the lamp, and the chapter, podcast or meeting from this morning has already gone a little fuzzy. Rereading your notes tomorrow feels like the obvious fix, yet in studies, pulling the material out of memory kept more of it a week later. A few minutes of recalling before you sleep, with the notes closed, is one of the smallest ways to hold on to what you learned.
What it helps with
Forgetting what you study
Practicing recall from memory helps you remember more days later than rereading for the same time.
Learning that doesn't stick
People who slept between two learning sessions relearned words faster and remembered more a week later than those who stayed awake.
Key facts
- 1In a 2006 study, students who practiced recalling a text remembered more of it a week later than students who reread it.
- 2Rereading tended to look better on tests taken minutes later, yet recall practice came out ahead after two days and after a week.
- 3A 2014 review of many experiments found that practice tests improved later memory more than restudying, by a moderate amount on average.
- 4In a 2016 study, people who slept between two learning sessions relearned word pairs faster and remembered more a week later.
- 5Learning shortly before sleep has been linked in studies to better recall than learning followed by many hours awake.
Why recalling beats rereading
Rereading feels productive because the page looks familiar. Familiar is a weak signal, though, and that feeling often fades by the next week. Psychologists call the act of pulling information out of your head retrieval practice, and the benefit it brings is known as the testing effect. Students sometimes call a version of it blurting: writing down everything you remember before you look. The whole habit fits in a few words: close the notes and recall.
Recall also shows you what you actually know. The parts that come back easily are probably safe for now. The parts that stay blank are the ones worth a second look tomorrow.
Why bedtime is a good slot
While you sleep, the brain keeps working on recent memories and makes some of them more stable. Researchers call this consolidation, which simply means a fresh memory becoming a lasting one. Studies suggest that material learned shortly before sleep tends to be kept better than material followed by a long stretch awake. Recalling right before bed puts the two ideas together: you strengthen a memory by retrieving it, and sleep follows soon after.
A common question is whether longer sessions work better. A few minutes is enough to get started; in the well-known 2006 study, the recall period was only about seven minutes. Coming back to the same idea on another night tends to help more than one long session. If you usually turn off the light at 11 p.m., get into bed at 10:50 and the recall is done before lights out.
What the research found
In that 2006 study by Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke, students read short science passages and then either reread them or wrote down what they remembered. Five minutes later, the rereaders did slightly better. After two days and after a week, the students who had practiced recalling remembered clearly more. A 2014 review that pooled many experiments found the same pattern overall, with a moderate advantage for testing yourself over restudying.
Sleep adds its own piece. Researchers in France had adults learn the meanings of Swahili words in two sessions, with either a night of sleep or a day awake in between. The group that slept needed fewer attempts to relearn the words and remembered more a week later. One plain limit: most of these studies used students and word lists or short texts in a lab. The bedtime pairing of recall and sleep has been studied less than either part alone, so treat the timing as a helpful extra.
Making it stick
Tie the habit to a moment that already happens every night: getting into bed. Keep a small notebook and pen on the nightstand, so recall doesn't quietly turn into checking your phone. When the lamp is still on and the day is done, close the notes and recall, either by writing a few lines or by going over it silently. The phone will make a strong case for itself, so leave it charging across the room. After a few weeks, you become someone who ends the day by asking what stuck.
On a tired or busy day, one thing is enough: a single fact, name or idea from today. Drawing a blank is useful too, so jot a word and check it in the morning. If you often lie awake for a long time, or you are worried about your memory, talk to a doctor rather than relying on this habit. What is one thing from today that you would like to still know next week?
Action steps
- 1Put a notebook and pen by your bed. Leave them on the nightstand tonight, so recalling is easier than reaching for your phone.
- 2Recall for 5 minutes with the notes closed. After you get into bed, spend 5 minutes writing or silently listing what you learned today, from a fact at work to an idea from a book.
- 3Check one gap the next morning. If something came back blurry or blank, look it up the next day and compare it with what you remembered.
Suggested routines
- Phone distractions
Check notifications only 3 times a day
People felt less distracted in a week with phone alerts silenced and the phone out of sight than in a week with alerts on.
- Decision fatigue
Set 3 daily goals the night before
Resisting temptation may leave less willpower for hard tasks, though later studies found this effect is smaller than first thought.
- Memory decline with age
Take 5 grams of creatine daily
Creatine improved memory in healthy people, most of all in older adults.
References
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
- Rowland, C. A. (2014). The effect of testing versus restudy on retention: A meta-analytic review of the testing effect. Psychological Bulletin, 140(6), 1432–1463. doi.org/10.1037/a0037559
- Mazza, S., et al. (2016). Relearn faster and retain longer: Along with practice, sleep makes perfect. Psychological Science, 27(10), 1321–1330. doi.org/10.1177/0956797616659930
- Gais, S., et al. (2006). Sleep after learning aids memory recall. Learning & Memory, 13(3), 259–262. doi.org/10.1101/lm.132106