If your to-do list is keeping you up at night, a recent study suggests writing it down may help you sleep.

Researchers at Baylor University monitored the nighttime brain activity of more than 50 busy college students. One group of students took five minutes to write down their unfinished tasks before turning in for the evening; the other group listed the things they had accomplished over the previous few days.

Those who chronicled their to-do lists fell asleep more easily than those who enumerated their finished projects.

More than 35 percent of U.S. adults report getting less than seven hours of sleep in a typical 24-hour period.

Lead author Michael Scullin, director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, theorized that writing down tasks may help people “offload” their worries and concerns so they can rest better.

“We live in a 24/7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and causing us to worry about unfinished tasks at bedtime,” Scullin wrote. “Most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, and so we wanted to explore whether the act of writing them down could counteract nighttime difficulties with falling asleep.”

More than 35 percent of U.S. adults report getting less than seven hours of sleep in a typical 24-hour period, according to the American Sleep Association. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends seven to nine hours of sleep per night for people aged 18 and older.

Rather than tossing and turning, stressing about the unfinished items on your to-do list, write them down — and then give them to God. Worrying can’t add a single hour to your life (Matthew 6:27), but letting it go might get you an extra hour of shut-eye. As 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”