10 prompts to improve your sleep

Everyone's got a nighttime ritual they swear works: the exact pillow angle, the show they half-watch until their eyes give out, the "just one more scroll" that turns into forty minutes. None of that touches the stuff that's actually keeping you up: the lights, the phone, the schedule. What actually works is boring and consistent: dim the lights on a schedule, keep your phone from buzzing at 2AM, stop your brain from running a mental checklist about the garage door right as you're trying to drift off.

None of that has to be something you remember to do. IFTTT (If This Then That) connects the apps, devices, and services you already use so they work together automatically. That means one thing happening, like your Oura Ring logging a short night or your Withings sensor feeling you climb into bed, can automatically trigger another: a calendar block, a light dimming, a notification. And with IFTTT Chat, setting it up is just typing out what you want, the way you'd say it to a person, and letting it find the right trigger and action for you.

Below are 10 prompts that cover a full night, start to finish: winding down, actually staying asleep, and waking up without your alarm feeling like a fire drill.

1. Dim the lights before your brain gets the memo

"Every night at 9:30, change my Hue lights to a warm 3500K white."

Bright, blue-toned light is basically a signal to your brain that it's still 2PM, which is exactly the wrong message an hour before bed. This Applet is modeled on the same idea as f.lux: it shifts your Hue bulbs to a warmer, dimmer color temperature on a schedule, so the light in the room stops working against you right when you need it to start working with you.

2. Cut off the calls

"Every night at 10PM, mute my Android ringtone."

One wrong-number call at 2AM can undo an hour of decent sleep, and most people don't remember to check their ringer volume before they pass out. This one runs on a fixed schedule and mutes your phone for you, so the only thing that can wake you up on purpose is your actual alarm.

3. Lock up without getting off the couch

"Every night at 10PM, close my MyQ garage door."

A lot of "why am I still awake" nights trace back to a small, dumb mental loop: did I lock the door, is the garage actually shut. This Applet closes your MyQ garage door at whatever time you set, every night, so that loop has nothing left to run on.

4. Give your own cameras the night off

"When I get home, turn on Sleep mode for my EZVIZ camera."

If you've got an indoor security camera, there's no real reason it needs to be monitoring you once you're the one home for the night. This Applet uses your phone's location to detect when you've arrived, and flips your EZVIZ camera into Sleep mode automatically. The camera stops recording the second you're the only person it would be recording.

5. Let climbing into bed be the light switch

"When my Withings Sleep tracker detects I've gotten into bed, turn off my Hue lights."

This skips the part where you're already lying down and have to reach back out for a switch. Withings Sleep is a sensor that sits under your mattress and detects when you actually settle in for the night, and the moment it does, your Hue lights shut off on their own.

6. Know tomorrow's weather before you close your eyes

"Every evening at 9PM, send me tomorrow's weather forecast."

A good chunk of late-night phone checking is just "what do I wear tomorrow" wearing a disguise. This Applet sends you tomorrow's forecast, including the high, low, and conditions, at a set time each evening, so that question's answered before you're tempted to check one more time.

7. Turn your bedtime into a spreadsheet row

"When my Withings Sleep tracker detects I've gotten into bed, add a row to my Google Sheet with the time."

You can't fix a bedtime that keeps drifting later if you're not actually tracking it. This one logs a timestamp to a Google Sheet every time Withings Sleep detects you've climbed in, so a month from now you've got real numbers on whether "I go to bed around 11" holds up, instead of a guess.

8. Let a short night protect the next one

"If Oura logs less than 6 hours of sleep, block 9PM to 11PM tonight on my Google Calendar as wind-down time."

One rough night tends to turn into two if nothing steps in. This Applet watches your Oura Ring data, and the moment it sees you've dipped under a sleep threshold you set, it blocks off your evening on Google Calendar before a late meeting or a "just one more episode" can eat into it, with a note in the event showing exactly how much you slept and your Oura Sleep Score, so the reminder comes with a receipt.

9. Get a nudge when your body says otherwise

"If my Whoop recovery score falls below 25, send me a push notification."

Recovery score is Whoop's read on how ready your body actually is, and it's built largely from how you slept the night before. This Applet checks your recovery score daily, and if it drops below the number you set, it sends a notification with your score, resting heart rate, and HRV, so you get an objective heads-up before you push through a day your body's not ready for.

If Oura's your wearable of choice, it has its own version of this same idea, running off readiness score instead of recovery score.

"If my Oura readiness score is below 70, block 9AM to 12PM on my Google Calendar as recovery time."

Oura runs the same idea off its own readiness score, just through your calendar instead of a notification: when your score comes in low, it blocks a recovery window in the morning so meetings don't crowd out a day you're not actually ready for.

10. Wake up to a sunrise instead of a siren

"Every weekday at 6:45AM, change my Yeelight to a warm sunrise color."

Getting jolted awake by a blaring alarm is a rough way to start a day you were just asleep for. This Applet eases your Yeelight into a warm glow at whatever time you set, so your body gets a gradual cue instead of an abrupt one.

Connect your tools

None of this works without the tools behind it. Here are a few more that fit naturally into a sleep routine:

Ten prompts, one full night covered

Every one of these took a single sentence to set up. Describe the trigger and the outcome you want, and IFTTT Chat fills in the actual mechanics.

Got a bedtime habit you're still doing by hand? Try describing it to IFTTT Chat and see what it comes back with.