Free Creative Writing Prompts #46: Sleep

We spend around one-quarter to one-third of our time sleeping every day. This, of course, makes it extremely important and we don't always realize that there is a ton to write about this effort to get some shut eye. Whether you are an insomniac or a person who couldn't be woken by a freight train going through your living room, these free creative writing prompts about sleep can help you to get some writing out of your experiences. If you're interested in sharing this writing with the rest of us, feel free to use the space below. Enjoy! 


Free Creative Writing Prompts: Sleep

1. You have been tossing and turning all night and you can't seem to go to sleep. You go over to your desk and begin writing your insomniac thoughts in a stream of consciousness style. Detail that account and everything that's going on around you.

2. Talk about the first time you had to sleep in bed with someone else. Whether it be a sibling you had to share a bed with, a significant other, or just an awkward situation. How did you adjust to having someone else in there with you? If it wasn't a big deal, imagine that it was for you or the other person and run with it.

3. Discuss a recurring dream that you've had at some point in your life. Did you ever figure out the meaning? Write out all the details you can think of about the dream and then write out the possible meanings for it.

4. You have a big test the next day and you can't fall asleep because of the noises coming from the next door neighbors. Talk about your frustration, your walk over there, and the results that occur.

5. Sleep deprivation. It happened during school and it still happens in life. Talk about your attempts to survive on very little sleep and how effective they were/are.

6. Detail a day in which you've decided to stay in bed from top to bottom. You on and off sleep the entire time, waking to little interesting scenes of other people in the house with you. Talk about this crazy, lazy day.

7. What was your scariest nightmare ever? Talk about who is in it with you and why it was so frightening. Then, write an account of you going into your dream to battle the scariness of it all.

8. What is the most comfortable bed that you've ever slept on? What was it about the bed that made sleeping nearly immediate and divine? Talk about the creation of that bed as if it were some kind of magical construction.

9. The weirdest place you've ever fallen asleep: perhaps the subway, the forest, on a rooftop? Talk about your strangest sleeping location ever and what led up to it, resulted from it.

10. If you are having trouble sleeping, what is your tried and true method to make sure that you conk out? Warm milk? A little bit of TV? Go into one of these situations in a story, and make it a sort of Mission Impossible thing to get to sleep. As if the world depended on it. 


A lot of people feel that sleep is overrated. That they can be more productive if they're getting much less sleep. I think this has led to things like the creation of polyphasic sleep, which sounds cool, but has to be somewhat unhealthy. Try to find time to get the doctor recommended amount of sleep every day, it'll probably improve your health and your writing. These free creative writing prompts about sleep may help you to realize that. Happy writing! 


Bonus Prompt - You no longer have to sleep. The world has been granted a full night's rest with the push of a button. What do you do with this new chunk of your day? 

Related Articles to Free Creative Writing Prompts about Sleep
Free Creative Writing Prompts from the Heart, Part 1
Free Creative Writing Prompts #2: Love
Creative Writing Exercises #2: Relaxation

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