How to Set up Alexa Sleep Sounds

Play ambient or other sounds to get a soothing night’s rest

By
Karen Marcus
Karen Marcus
Karen Marcus
Writer
  • University of Colorado at Denver
  • Colorado State University
Karen Marcus is a former Lifewire writer who has also written for companies like HP, Intel, IBM, Samsung, and others.
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Updated on June 19, 2022
Reviewed by
Jessica Kormos
Jessica Kormos
Reviewed by Jessica Kormos
  • Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
Jessica Kormos is a writer and editor with 15 years' experience writing articles, copy, and UX content for Tecca.com, Rosenfeld Media, and many others.
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Getting a good night’s rest isn’t always easy, but hearing soothing sounds can help. Amazon Alexa Sleep Sounds includes a variety of soothing selections you can play on your Alexa-enabled devices.

If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can access Amazon Prime Music through Alexa. Just say, “Alexa, play sleeping sounds on Amazon Prime Music.”

A woman is sleeping peacefully in a bed.

Piotr Marcinski / EyeEm / Getty Images

Use Soothing Alexa Sleep Sounds

Different sleep sounds come from various Alexa skills. For example, the Sleep Sounds skill allows you to choose between a wide variety of sounds, including ocean waves, fireplace, rainforest, crickets, frogs, wind, rain, dishwasher, and waterfall. Zen Sounds includes options for thunder, Japanese garden, beach, desert, wolf, or sailing sounds. 

Whether you love the sound of rain, wind, thunder, the ocean, or ambient music, you can tell Alexa to play it for you. Other possibilities include a guided meditation, a bedtime story, or white noise.

Several Alexa skills, such as Short Bedtime Story, will play you (or your kids) a story. Some, such as Mindful Meditation, will lead you through your choice of guided meditations. Still others, like Sleep Sounds: White Noise, offer, you guessed it, white noise. If bedtime music is more your thing, there are many skills for that, too.

You can use Alexa to create your own sleeping sounds playlist. While Amazon Prime Music is playing, say, “Alexa, create a new playlist.” Then, when a track you want to add to it is played say, “Alexa, add this track to my playlist.”

How to Play Ambient Sleep Sounds

To use any of the skills mentioned above, you must first enable them:

  1. Say, “Alexa, enable [skill].”

  2. Alexa may ask you to differentiate between several similar skills.

  3. Respond with the skill you’re interested in.

Activate Your Alexa's Skill

Once you’ve enabled some Alexa sleep sounds skills, you’re ready to activate them at bedtime:

  1. Tell Alexa the skill you want to enable by saying, “Alexa, play [skill].”

  2. Alexa may ask you some follow-up questions. For example:

    You: Alexa, play Sleep Sounds.

    Alexa: Welcome to Sleep Sounds by Invoked Apps. I can play many relaxing sound loops like Thunderstorms and Rain. Or you can ask me for a list. You can also tell me two sounds to play at the same time. Which sound would you like?

  3. Respond with your choices.

    You: Ocean Waves.

    Alexa: [Ocean Waves sound]

  4. Enjoy your rest!

Alexa Routines

Another way to get your soothing sounds going is by using an Alexa Routine. A Routine allows you to use your own command to tell Alexa what to do. For example, if, instead of asking her to play a particular skill, you want to say, "Alexa, help me get my beauty sleep," you can set up a Routine to do this. Here's how to do this using the Amazon Alexa app.

  1. Open the Alexa app and tap More from the bottom right.

  2. Tap Routines.

    In the Amazon Alexa app, select More > Routines

  3. Tap Create Routine to add a routine.

  4. Tap When this happens > Voice.

    Tap Create Routine and then select Voice

  5. Type in the phrase you want to use, then tap Next.

  6. Tap Add action, and then tap Music.

    Type your custom Alexa wording and then add music

  7. Select the station and source you want to play. Optionally, tap Timer to set a timer. Tap Next > Save.

    Save your Sleep Music routine and timer

  8. Now, when you want to use the Routine, give Alexa the voice command you just created: "Alexa, help me get my beauty sleep."

Using the Alexa Sleep Timer

Once you have your sleep sounds going, you can tell Alexa to stop them after a certain period of time. This is called a sleep timer. 

  1. Say, “Alexa, set a sleep timer for one hour.” 

  2. Whatever is playing will stop after an hour.

  3. If you want the sounds to stop before then, just say, “Alexa, stop.” 

Once you have your sleep sounds going, you can set up a loop to ensure the sounds continue uninterrupted. Just say, “Alexa, loop this sound.” 

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