04/20/2026
Love this!
I recommend this strategy to EVERY one of my coaching clients as well as anyone who is suffering from insomnia!
Thank you for sharing the data and studies to support this!
Two minutes. One notebook. Three things. That's the entire practice.
And the research behind it is astonishing.
A 2024 study published in JAMA Psychiatry followed nearly 50,000 women from Harvard's Nurses' Health Study. Those with the highest gratitude scores had a 9 percent lower risk of death from any cause over the study period. The effect was strongest for cardiovascular death.
A separate study in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics used MRI scans on 478 older adults and found that people with higher gratitude had measurably larger brain volumes in regions related to emotion, memory, and social processing.
Gratitude is not just a nice feeling. It's a measurable intervention.
Here's the practice: every night, before bed, write down three things you're grateful for. Be specific. Not "my family" but "the way my husband laughed at dinner tonight." Not "my health" but "the fact that my knees let me walk up those stairs today."
Specificity is what activates the neural pathways. Vague gratitude is like vague gym work. You need to target it.
In my practice, I've watched patients transform their sleep, mood, and resilience just from this one habit. Two minutes a day. For a lifetime.
You're not manufacturing gratitude. You're noticing what was already there.
And noticing changes your brain.
What are three specific things you're grateful for right now?