Can’t Sleep? Try ‘Cognitive Shuffling,’ a Doctor-Approved Way To Drift Off
- Joe Whittington, MD, emergency medicine physician known as “Dr. Joe” on TikTok and Instagram.
- Shelby Harris, MD, PsyD, clinical psychologist, sleep specialist, author of The Women’s Guide To Overcoming Insomnia, and Director of Sleep Health at Sleepopolis
“Cognitive shuffling works by easing your brain into a relaxed sleep-ready state,” Joe Whittington, MD, the TikTok-famous doctor known as “Dr. Joe,” says in a now-viral video about cognitive shuffling. “It’s rooted in psychology, and you might be surprised how well it works.”
Dr. Whittington says cognitive shuffling is his “number one technique” for dealing with “intrusive thoughts” that keep your brain from sleeping.
What is cognitive shuffling?
Sometimes our thoughts refuse to go to bed, and then we have to deal with them in the middle of our ZZZs. From meditation to deep breathing, there are plenty of ways to do this. But distraction can be effective when simply trying to “empty your mind” isn’t cutting it.
“Mental distraction can help with racing thoughts or lingering anxiety from the day,” Shelby Harris, MD, PsyD, author of The Women’s Guide To Overcoming Insomnia and director of sleep health at Sleepopolis, previously told Well+Good about tips for sleep difficulties.
Cognitive shuffling is a technique to refocus your mind on thoughts that are conducive to falling asleep rather than whatever has you tossing and turning. It’s basically a simple—but powerful—mind game.
A professor of cognitive science, Luc Beaudoin, PhD, created the cognitive shuffling method in 2014 because he posited that other distraction techniques weren’t actually compelling enough to adequately quiet the mind. We get it: your mental demons can still come hunt you down even when you’re envisioning yourself relaxing in a field of wildflowers. Here’s what Beaudoin recommends instead.
How to try the cognitive shuffle
Think of any “random, non-emotional word,” advises Dr. Whittington. Take the first letter of that word, and think of as many other words as you can that start with that letter. For example, if you think of “tree,” start listing “T” words. Once you’ve exhausted that supply, move onto the next letter, “R,” and start listing “R” words. And so on. If you come to the end of the word, pick a new word, and start again.
Another type of cognitive shuffling is called “Serial Diverse Imaging” (SDI), which is more visual than word-centric. As you’re listing words, you can visualize whatever you associate the word with. You can also practice SDI without the word component. Visualize anything—a person, a place, an action, a scene, or an object! Imagine the details: what does it look and feel like? What other senses are associated with it? Once you’ve mentally drawn the details, move on to the next random (and unrelated) thing.
The actual thing you’re visualizing doesn’t matter, as long as it’s something neutral to you—not emotionally charged or overly stimulating. What’s most important is to keep your mind switching from one thing to another. Don’t linger too long on any one image. With that “shuffling,” intrusive thoughts could have a harder time dominating your mind.
Why does cognitive shuffling work?
Since the thoughts occupying your mind with cognitive shuffling are, essentially, nonsense, it won’t prompt a stimulating response from your brain. That can help you drift off.
“The visualization and neutral aspect of this technique can help turn off the analytic, verbal narrative part of the brain that often keeps us up,” says Dr. Harris.
But while the thoughts themselves are neutral, there is a significant mental challenge involved in the exercise. That mental effort is why it works.
Thoughts that promote sleep might be relaxing. But they can also be boring. You know what’s not boring? Intrusive thoughts that keep your mind churning when you’d rather be sleeping! Or, in scientific lingo, these intrusive thoughts keep you in an “insomnolent” state, meaning, a non-sleepy state. Thoughts that are conducive to sleep put you in a “somnolent” state, a sleepy state of mind.
If you’re having trouble sleeping, what you really need to think about is something that’s boring but engaging at the same time. Beaudoin called this “super-somnolent mentation.” Essentially, you need to distract your mind with a mental shiny object—something compelling enough to take your mind off your troubles, but not too shiny that your brain is going haywire. Hey, if you’re trying out cognitive shuffling for the first time, you could even go with the word “shiny”!
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