What prayers do you say before bed?

What is night prayer and how can we incorporate it into our bedtime routine?

Do you say prayers before bed? The time right before I fall asleep seems sacred somehow. When I was little, I remember saying the guardian angel prayer before bed. If I couldn’t sleep, my mom told me to say a Hail Mary for someone on each of my fingers until I fell asleep. It must have worked because I always went to sleep.

All over the world, in many languages and countries, religious and lay people pray the Liturgy of the Hours. It’s a set of prayers that are said at different points of the day. While I don’t have the discipline to pray all of them, I often come back to night prayer, the last prayers said before falling asleep.

Right when I crawl into bed, it’s late and it’s quiet. All the distractions are gone-essentially the perfect time to pray. What sticks with me from night prayer is “Into your hands Lord, I commend my spirit”. I am offering my day to the Lord, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s over and I can come at it fresh the next day.

A friend once told me that at the end of each day, she opens her hands and gives all her worries and struggles of the day to God. Then, the next morning, she commits to not picking them up again for that day. I admit that I don’t always give up my worries and struggles so easily and this takes practice. I have time. And if I don’t, I asked God to take care of it.

There isn’t a wrong way to pray, if you prefer the formal prayers of night prayer, go for it. If you prefer just to talk to God and tell Him what’s on your mind, do that, but at the end, open your hands and ask Him to take care of whatever it is. If it helps, imagine that you are resting in God’s hands as you fall asleep. Try it tonight. You may find tomorrow much more peaceful.