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5 Alexa Sleep Tricks To Get The Best Sleep Ever

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Alexa can help you get the best sleep of your life

A good night’s sleep. That elusive white whale we all search for every time we turn in. But it’s not so easy, is it? Just the proximity to your cell phone could be getting in the way of catching those zzz’s, or maybe your mind is on hyperdrive, trying to keep track of important dates, meetings, reminders and more.

Tonight, relax. Dock your phone elsewhere and leave bedtime to Alexa and that Echo speaker beside your bed.

Women under covers in bed with dog.

Here are 5 game-changing Alexa sleep tricks to try tonight:

1. Use Alexa to get into the sleep zone with guided meditation for you & bedtime stories for the kids

Guided meditation    

The sound of a soothing voice. Breathing exercises that prep your body and mind for blissful rest. Hands-free ease so you can fall asleep seamlessly. Alexa has it all for you!

Open the Headspace skill for a treasure trove of short guided meditations and sleep exercises designed to get you from stressed to shut-eye. No robot noises here, the soft voices are as calming as they get, and the techniques really work.

To get sleepy — I mean started! — say “Alexa, open Headspace” and follow the prompts to choose a guided meditation or sleep exercise. Or, skip the navigation entirely and get right to it: Say, “Alexa, ask Headspace to help me fall asleep.” Then, take off those slippers, pull up those covers and zzz…

Pro Tip: If you’re a Headspace subscriber, you can continue your practice both through your Echo speaker and the Headspace app by connecting your account. To link to your Headspace account, just say “Alexa, ask Headspace to connect my account” and follow the prompts.

Bedtime stories

Girl in bed with star night light.

Alexa takes story time to the next level with Amazon Storytime, a free skill that houses over a hundred kid-friendly stories with full-cast narration (i.e. professional actors, not Alexa’s robot voice!).

To get your kids drifting off to dreamland in no time, tap/click here to enable the skill (you’ll need to give you parental consent before launching).

Once you’ve enabled the skill, just say “Alexa, open Amazon Storytime.” You can choose a story by category (like Bedtime) or spin the story wheel and see what you get! (I got Dora the Explorer, always a hit with the young ones!) You can also request a story by genre such as “Alexa, read me a Lego story.” 

Want to go on an interactive adventure? Say, “Alexa, tell me a Ripley’s story” for an exciting choose-your-own-adventure tale kids will love.

Say “Alexa, next” to skip a story. “Alexa, start over,” “Alexa, pause” and Alexa, resume” to navigate.

2. Set an Alexa alarm

The sun rising over buildings in a city.

Set a simple Alexa alarm

It couldn’t be simpler to use Alexa as an Alexa alarm clock. Just say, “Alexa, set an alarm for 7 am tomorrow.” When your Alexa alarm goes off in the morning, just say “Alexa, stop” to turn it off.

Pro Tip #1: If you’re like me and you want to be 1,000% sure that your Alexa alarm clock is set for the right time so you don’t oversleep, check it in the Alexa app:

  1. Open the Alexa app
  2. Tap the hamburger icon in the upper left corner
  3. Tap “Reminders & Alarms”
  4. Tap the “Alarms” tab to see your alarms (you can also add (or delete) an Alexa alarm, adjust the schedule and revise your wake-up sounds)

Set multiple Alexa alarms

If you want one alarm to wake you up and another to tell you it’s time to actually get up and out of bed, Alexa can handle that!

To add an additional Alexa alarm, just say “Alexa, set an alarm for 7:15am (or whichever time your desire).” Add as many Alexa alarms as you need!

Set recurring Alexa alarms

Just say “Alexa, set a 9am alarm for every weekday” or “Alexa, set a 6am alarm every Wednesday.”

Wake up singing with a music Alexa alarm

Create your own music Alexa alarm by saying “Alexa, wake me up to Wake Me Up Before You Go Go at 7am” (insert song, artist or genre of your choice!).

Pro Tip: If you’d rather have your favorite celebrity nudge you out of bed, set a wake-up call from country singer Blake Shelton, Tara Reid and more (even Man City Football!) with a few easy steps:

  1. Open the Alexa app
  2. Tap the hamburger icon in the upper left corner
  3. Tap “Reminders & Alarms”
  4. Tap the “Alarms” tab to see your alarms
  5. Tap an alarm to edit it or tap “Add” to create a new one
  6. Tap “Sound” then select your choice under the “Celebrity Sounds” section
  7. Just tap the “<” on the upper left corner then “Save” in the upper right corner, and you’re done!

This morning I woke up to Blake Shelton’s “Dang, is it time for a drink yet? I mean coffee? Time to get up y’all!” Haha 🙂

Change your Alexa alarm sounds

Just follow the simple steps below to wake up to “Glimmer,” “Nimble,” “Clarity” or one of many other Alexa alarm sounds instead of the default “Simple Alarm.”

  1. Open the Alexa app
  2. Tap the hamburger icon in the upper left corner
  3. Tap “Reminders & Alarms”
  4. Tap the “Alarms” tab to see your alarms
  5. Tap an alarm to edit it or tap “Add” to create a new one
  6. Tap “Sound”
  7. Scroll down to the “Sounds” section and tap different Alexa alarm sounds to hear them
  8. Once you’ve selected the sound of your choice, just tap the “<” on the upper left corner then “Save” in the upper right corner, and you’re done!

Make sure your Alexa alarm volume is set high enough so you’ll hear it go off

Your Alexa alarm volume level will be whatever volume level your Echo device is set to. So if you have your Echo set to a volume level of 2, for example, your Alexa alarm volume might be too low for you to hear it.

I recommend setting your Echo device to a volume of 3 or higher (depending on how close your Echo is to your bedside) to make sure you can hear your Alexa alarm when it goes off!

Dismissing your Alexa alarm can even kick off a morning Alexa routine

Picture this: Your Alexa alarm wakes you up, your lights turn on gradually, your home warms to the perfect temp without you laying a finger on a thermostat or checking the weather. Then, a nice voice tells you the top stories of the day while brewing your favorite cup of coffee. And, by the way, this happens every single morning.

Is this real life? It is with Alexa! Your Alexa alarm can now trigger your morning Alexa routine, so you can wake up just the way you want, every day. Tap/click here to learn how to get set up.

Don’t forget about this Alexa alarm command!

Bet you didn’t know that you can snooze your Alexa alarm if you want! After your Alexa alarm goes off, just say, “Alexa, snooze!” to catch 9 more minutes of zzz’s.

If you’d like to rest for just two more minutes or even an hour? Say “Alexa, snooze for X minutes” and she’ll wake you up then.

3. Start your sleep soundtrack

A crackling fire, a crashing ocean wave, or just blissfully simple white noise, Alexa offers an impressive selection of serene sleep sounds to help you drift away after a long, busy day. Forget that expensive sound machine — these dreamy sounds are absolutely free. 

First, select your sound

If you know your favorite sleep sound… just ask for it! Say, “Alexa, play rain sounds” or “Alexa, open wind chimes” or “Alexa, open babbling brook.” Check out my complete list of the best free Alexa sleep sounds to find yours. 

Not sure which sleep sound is right for you? Say “Alexa, open sleep sounds.” You can then ask Alexa for a list of sounds by simply saying “list” when she prompts you. If you’d rather have Alexa decide for you, just say “random” when she asks for your selection.

Decide how long you want Alexa sleep sounds to play

Some Alexa sleep sounds play continuously on a loop by default, and some stop after a certain amount of time.

If you want to make sure the sounds keep coming all night… Just say “yes” when Alexa asks if you want them to loop. You can also say “Alexa, ask Thunderstorm Sounds to loop.”

Don’t want to hear the pitter-patter of raindrops or that whirling fan all night long? Just say “Alexa, set sleep timer for 2 hours,” and your Alexa sleep sounds will turn off in your requested time. Since not all Alexa sleep sounds turn off at the same time, and some don’t turn off at all unless you say “Alexa, stop,” it’s helpful to set a sleep timer.

Pro Tip: Turn on do not disturb while you are sleeping.

This way, you can avoid middle-of-the-night surprise Alexa announcements. (You really don’t need to know at 3am that your paper towel delivery is expected to arrive tomorrow.)  Better yet, schedule a nightly Alexa routine that turns on do not disturb automatically.

4. After a blissful night of Alexa sleep, wake up peacefully with a morning Alexa routine

Morning coffee and toast with open notebook.

One surefire way to get a good night’s sleep is knowing that your morning will be smooth. With an Alexa routine, you can make sure your morning goes exactly how you want it to, every single day.

Here’s my morning Alexa routnie

I have a 6:30am Alexa alarm set for every weekday morning, and when I dismiss it my smart home comes to life to help me get up and out of bed!

  • 6:35am: Bedroom lights dim to the lowest level (thanks to the magic of Alexa Hue lights), and shades come up to let some natural light in
  • 6:40am: Lights become slightly brighter, and an Alexa smart plug turns on my coffee maker
  • 7am: Lights come on at full brightness (so if I’m not up, I now have no choice but to get up), and Alexa turns on my morning get-out-of-bed playlist
  • 9am: Lights turn off (so I don’t have to worry about turning them off). 

You can easily do all these things in one routine by adding the “Wait” routine action set to 5 minutes the between different-timed routine actions.

More ideas for your morning Alexa routine

There is so much more Alexa can do for you in the mornings via an Alexa routine. Check out these suggestions:

Now that you have some ideas, here’s how to set up an Alexa routine with your alarm…

  1. Create a new Alexa routine (click here to see simple step-by-step instructions)
  2. Tap “When this happens” to choose your routine trigger (click here for helpful screenshots)
  3. Tap “Alarm” (click here for helpful screenshots)
  4. Tap “Next”
  5. Tap “Add action” to set the actions you want to happen when your alarm goes off (such as the ones suggested in the list directly above!)
  6. Set an Alexa alarm by saying “Alexa, set alarm for 7am tomorrow” (or “every weekday”)
  7. When the alarm goes off, dismiss it by saying “Alexa, stop” to kick off your new Alexa routine!

Pro Tip: Don’t have smart lights yet? Check out VoiceBrew’s guide to Alexa Hue lights to learn out how to easily set up smart lights in your home and find which type of smart lights are the right ones for you.

5. Last but not least, a bedtime Alexa routine is one of the best Alexa sleep tricks

It’s just as easy to create a bedtime routine as it is a morning one. But instead of triggering my nighttime routine with my Alexa alarm, I kick off the routine with an Alexa voice command. That way, I can start the routine whenever I’m ready to hit the sack. Here’s how I settle in with Alexa…

When I say “Alexa, good night,” Alexa does the following…

  • Says “good night Katherine” back to me
  • Turns off the lights
  • Sets my Echo devices to “Do Not Disturb” mode until 6:30am. This way I won’t receive any messages, calls or notifications while I’m sleeping. 

The set-up for a bedtime routine is the same as a morning one, and you can add as many or as few actions to your routine as you’d like. You can even have Alexa play ambient sounds or start a guided meditation as part of your nightly ritual. It’s totally up to you!

Pro Tip: Did you know your Echo speaker doubles as a night light? No need to stumble in the dark, just say “Alexa, open night light” and the Echo ring will glow, offering just the right amount of light for you to find your way. When you’re all tucked in, say “Alexa, stop” and she’ll turn out the light.

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