Guide
Before you sleep: the Prophet's ﷺ routine as a checklist
The short answer
The hadith record a set of bedtime acts, from wudu and the right side to Ayat al-Kursi and a short supplication. None of the texts mentions dreams, so each item is listed with its source and exactly what the text says follows.
Traditional interpretations, not a fatwa and not a prediction. How we source.
In this article
Al-Bara ibn Azib once read the Prophet's bedtime words back to him to be sure he had them, and said "Your messenger" (rasulika) where the Prophet ﷺ had said "Your prophet" (nabiyyika). The answer was immediate: no, say nabiyyika (Bukhari 247). The narration gives no reason, but the scene shows how closely the Companions guarded the wording of what they were taught for the night. This page keeps to that standard. Each item is tied to a hadith you can open, and where a text names no effect, we say so.
The night list, with the hadith behind each tick
Tick as you go; the ticks stay on this device. The order is a convenience. The texts give only fragments of a sequence: wudu, then the right side, then words that are to be the last you say (Bukhari 247).
- Put out the lamps and any fire, close the doors, tie the mouths of the water skins, cover food and drink (Bukhari 5624, Bukhari 6293). Bukhari 6295 gives a reason in one sentence: a small vermin may drag a burning wick and burn the household.
- Shake out the bed with the inside of your waist sheet, since you cannot know what has come onto it while you were away, then say the short supplication that follows (Bukhari 6320).
- Make wudu as you would for prayer (Bukhari 247).
- Lie on your right side (Bukhari 247, Bukhari 6315). One narration adds that he put his hand under his cheek (Bukhari 6314).
- Recite Ayat al-Kursi, all of it (Qur'an 2:255), the words Abu Huraira was taught in Bukhari 2311.
- Recite the last 2 verses of Surat al-Baqara (Qur'an 2:285-286). The hadith says "at night" and "sufficient" (Bukhari 5009).
- Cup your hands, blow into them after reciting al-Ikhlas, al-Falaq and an-Nas, then wipe over as much of your body as you can reach, starting with head and face; do this 3 times (Bukhari 5017).
- Glorify, praise and magnify Allah, 33 times each, as the Prophet taught Ali and Fatima (Bukhari 6318). Bukhari adds a remark attributed to Ibn Sirin that the glorification is said 34 times.
- Say "Bismika Allahumma amutu wa ahya", "In Your name, O Allah, I die and I live" (Bukhari 6324).
- Say the words of al-Bara', and let them be your last words (Bukhari 247).
What each text says follows, and what it leaves unsaid
Read the list again with one question: what does each hadith say will happen? The table answers in the narrations' own terms.
| Practice | What the text says | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Wudu, the right side, al-Bara's words | Whoever dies that night dies on the فطرة fitra (the English edition renders it "the religion of Islam"); the words are to be the last said | Bukhari 247, Bukhari 6311, Bukhari 6315 |
| Ayat al-Kursi | The visitor says a guard from Allah will stay with you and no Shaytan will come near until morning; the Prophet answers that he told the truth although he is a liar | Bukhari 2311 |
| Last 2 verses of al-Baqara | Recited at night, they "suffice him" (kafatahu) | Bukhari 5009 |
| Al-Ikhlas, al-Falaq, an-Nas into the hands | Reported as his habit every night; this narration names no result | Bukhari 5017 |
| 33, 33 and 33 | "Better for you than a servant", said when Fatima, her hand blistered from the mill-stone, had asked for one | Bukhari 6318 |
| Shaking out the bed | The sleeper does not know what has come onto it | Bukhari 6320 |
| Lamps, fire, doors, vessels | A dragged wick can burn the house | Bukhari 6295 |
| "Bismika Allahumma amutu wa ahya" | No result stated; the narration reports what he said | Bukhari 6324 |
Not one of these texts speaks of dreams, good or bad, and none says that doing it keeps bad dreams away. The effects the texts do name are of other kinds: a guard against Shaytan until morning, dying on the fitra, something better than a servant, and, for the two verses, sufficiency. Any claim that the routine brings or stops particular dreams is one we could not find in the texts we checked, so we do not make it. The promise the Sunnah ties to dreams is attached to what you do after a disliked one: seek refuge in Allah and keep it to yourself, "for it will not harm him" (Bukhari 6985).
A word on the Ayat al-Kursi item. In Bukhari 2311 the advice is first spoken by the thief, and only afterwards does the Prophet tell Abu Huraira who he was. What gives the words standing is the confirmation, which is in the same narration.
The Arabic, as the collections give it
Ayat al-Kursi is one verse in the book, Qur'an 2:255. Look at the words in the middle: neither drowsiness nor sleep takes hold of Allah. It is a strange verse to recite at the moment you lose consciousness, and an apt one.
ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلْحَىُّ ٱلْقَيُّومُ ۚ لَا تَأْخُذُهُۥ سِنَةٌۭ وَلَا نَوْمٌۭ ۚ لَّهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ مَن ذَا ٱلَّذِى يَشْفَعُ عِندَهُۥٓ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِۦ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَىْءٍۢ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِۦٓ إِلَّا بِمَا شَآءَ ۚ وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ ۖ وَلَا يَـُٔودُهُۥ حِفْظُهُمَا ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَلِىُّ ٱلْعَظِيمُ
The last 2 verses of al-Baqara, which Bukhari 5009 mentions without quoting them, are the final 2 of the 286 verses of that surah.
ءَامَنَ ٱلرَّسُولُ بِمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِن رَّبِّهِۦ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ وَمَلَٰٓئِكَتِهِۦ وَكُتُبِهِۦ وَرُسُلِهِۦ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍۢ مِّن رُّسُلِهِۦ ۚ وَقَالُوا۟ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ ٱلْمَصِيرُ لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا ٱكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَآ إِصْرًۭا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦ ۖ وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَآ ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرْنَا عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ
Hudhayfa reports the 2 short lines that mark going to sleep and waking. The three narrations differ a little: Bukhari 6312 has "bismika amutu wa ahya" without "Allahumma", while Bukhari 6314 and Bukhari 6324 include it, and Bukhari 6314 adds the hand under the cheek.
قَالَ " بِاسْمِكَ اللَّهُمَّ أَمُوتُ وَأَحْيَا ". وَإِذَا اسْتَيْقَظَ مِنْ مَنَامِهِ قَالَ " الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَحْيَانَا بَعْدَ مَا أَمَاتَنَا، وَإِلَيْهِ النُّشُورُ ".
And the words of al-Bara', from the wudu to the instruction about the last words. In the English edition "fitra" becomes "the religion of Islam". The Arabic word is the one the Qur'an uses in Qur'an 30:30 for the nature on which Allah created people.
فَتَوَضَّأْ وُضُوءَكَ لِلصَّلاَةِ، ثُمَّ اضْطَجِعْ عَلَى شِقِّكَ الأَيْمَنِ، ثُمَّ قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ أَسْلَمْتُ وَجْهِي إِلَيْكَ، وَفَوَّضْتُ أَمْرِي إِلَيْكَ، وَأَلْجَأْتُ ظَهْرِي إِلَيْكَ، رَغْبَةً وَرَهْبَةً إِلَيْكَ، لاَ مَلْجَأَ وَلاَ مَنْجَا مِنْكَ إِلاَّ إِلَيْكَ، اللَّهُمَّ آمَنْتُ بِكِتَابِكَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلْتَ، وَبِنَبِيِّكَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلْتَ. فَإِنْ مُتَّ مِنْ لَيْلَتِكَ فَأَنْتَ عَلَى الْفِطْرَةِ، وَاجْعَلْهُنَّ آخِرَ مَا تَتَكَلَّمُ بِهِ ".
One thing in the shaking-out supplication of Bukhari 6320 is easy to miss. It asks Allah to have mercy on the soul "if You keep it" and to guard it "if You release it", and those are the same two verbs, to keep and to release, that Qur'an 39:42 uses where Allah takes souls in sleep, keeps those whose death is decreed and releases the rest. That is our observation about the wording, not a statement in the hadith.
On waking, and when you wake frightened
The waking list is shorter.
- Say the praise Hudhayfa reports: praise is for Allah who gave us life after He made us die, and to Him is the rising (Bukhari 6324).
- Clean your mouth with the siwak if you get up in the night, as he did (Bukhari 245).
- Remember Allah, make wudu, and pray. The Prophet said Shaytan ties 3 knots at the back of a sleeper's head, and each of these three undoes one (Bukhari 1142).
- If you saw something in your sleep, follow the manners in what to do after a good or a bad dream.
The praise on waking is blunt. It says "after He made us die" (amatana), and it treats waking as being given life again. The Qur'an describes sleep the same way, as Allah taking the souls "during their sleep" (Qur'an 39:42).
The text we found that names a remedy for being frightened in sleep is Tirmidhi 3528. The Prophet said that whoever is frightened during sleep should say that he seeks refuge in Allah's perfect words from His anger and punishment, from the evil of His servants, and from the whisperings of the devils and their presence, and the narration ends with a promise that no harm will come to him. Al-Tirmidhi calls it hasan gharib, and Shakir, al-Albani and Bashar Awad Maarouf grade it hasan, while Zubair Ali Zai calls it daif. The same words are in Abu Dawud 3893, where al-Albani and Zubair Ali Zai say daif and Muhyi al-Din Abd al-Hamid says hasan. The narration then reports what the Companion Abdullah ibn Amr did with the words for his children. That is his practice and not the Prophet's wording, and we leave it there.
The Prophet's own morning had a question in it. After the dawn prayer he would ask whether any of the people had seen a dream (Abu Dawud 5017), and Samura ibn Jundub says he did so very often (Bukhari 7047). What to do with the answer is set out in the three kinds of dreams and in the page on recurring nightmares.
Common questions
Do I have to do every item on the list each night?
The items come from separate narrations, told to different people on different occasions, and no hadith here says to do them all together. Which are obligatory, recommended or optional is a question for scholars of fiqh, and we leave it to them. The checklist exists so you can see each practice and its source in one place, not to set a minimum.
Where is the Ayat al-Kursi story told, and who was the speaker?
Bukhari tells it in 3 places (Bukhari 2311, Bukhari 3275, Bukhari 5010), at different lengths. Abu Huraira was guarding the Ramadan charity store when a stranger kept taking handfuls of food and finally offered to teach him words that would benefit him. Only at the end does the Prophet tell Abu Huraira who the visitor was, and he confirms that the words were true.
Is it fine to go back to sleep after waking in the night?
The Prophet did. Ibn Abbas, who spent a night in the house of Maimuna, saw him wake, relieve himself, wash his face and hands and sleep again. He rose later, made wudu with little water and prayed (Bukhari 6316). The narration is an account of what he did that night, not a rule about how often to wake or sleep.
Reviewed 5 October 2026 by The Editorial Team. We cite our sources and fix mistakes openly: see our editorial standards, or report a correction.