How does Toby Barlow get to sleep? In a Thrive Global questionnaire published March 9, 2020, the Detroit novelist and founder of the marketing agency Lafayette American gave a short answer with one fixed part: he reads. The phone stays in the kitchen, and the book stays open until something in it gives him a thought to take into sleep. He called that reading “the dream before the dream.”
The phone sleeps in the kitchen
Asked about his relationship with his phone and whether it sleeps with him, Barlow said: “I try to never take it in the bedroom. It sleeps in the kitchen.” The word “try” matters. He described an aim, not an unbroken rule, and the questionnaire did not ask how often he keeps to it.
He was less disciplined about email, which he said he handles “sloppily,” adding that “email is my social media.” He named mindless scrolling through social media as his personal sign that he is depleted, and said he stays away from Facebook.
Reading until a thought arrives
Barlow did not describe a long wind-down. Asked about his evening routine, he said the end of the day is “more like a different kind of car wreck into bed,” and that what follows is reading. “That’s the key,” he said.
His answer to a separate question gave the reading a specific job. Asked about a small change he had made around sleep, he said he needs to read “until I see an impactful thought, scene, story, something I can mull over as I go to sleep.” He said he started doing this about a decade before the interview. The stopping point, in his account, is not a page count or a time but the moment he finds something worth thinking about.
He also said a book is what he reaches for when he notices stress building during the day, and that he makes his bed every morning, so that “at least I come home to a made bed.”
What the questionnaire cannot show
This is one written Q&A from early 2020. It gives no bedtime, no wake time and no indication of how long the reading usually lasts. Barlow mentioned drinking much less coffee and alcohol, but he linked that change to focus, not sleep, and SleepStacks does not draw a sleep conclusion from it. The account describes his habits at that time, not his evenings now.
These are personal accounts, not recommendations or personalized medical advice. For other people who read their way to sleep, see Patti Smith and Lisa Jewell. Read more about SleepStacks. Sources checked November 9, 2026.
Thrive Global, “The Small Change Toby Barlow Made to Improve His Focus and Connections,” 2020-03-09