Here are five nightstand essentials that come highly recommended by doctors and sleep experts, according to MindBodyGreen.

Doing a “brain dump” at night, writing down all your lingering thoughts, lists, and to-do’s from the day that’s passed, can be extremely cathartic. Writing down what you’re grateful for can do wonders in calming the mind before bed, too, according to research out of the United Kingdom.

“It’s also good to have a journal when you wake up to write your dreams in or thoughts, so you can go back to sleep,” adds Eva Selhub, M.D., a physician and lecturer at Harvard Medical School.