The benefits are unexplainable, but for some reason if you do this before you go to sleep, you will sleep better and wake up happier. Try it and tell me it doesn't work.

This is a very different exercise than what most people do. Most people say thanks for things or people, such as "I'm thankful for my mom." But that kind of prayer would never change. It's better to add a specific thing that happened so that the memories will add up to a whole stockload of gratitude. So instead you might say, "I'm thankful for the conversation with my mother over dinner at her house."