Cognitive shuffling: a simple trick to fall asleep twice as fast

academic psychologist, lecturer at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, author of therapeutic courses

“How often do you spend hours agonizing in bed, trying to fall asleep to no avail? The more actively you try to send your body to sleep, the less likely it is to fall asleep at all. But there is a way to trick your brain into sending it to rest.”

Causes of insomnia

Insomnia can be the result of different problems: injuries, diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), physiological features of human metabolism.

In this article we will focus on social causes, that is, situations when prolonged stress, tension at work or at home, difficult life circumstances interfere with night rest. When the head “does not let go”, constantly scrolls inside some program of thoughts, thinks about solutions to problems and does not let you distract yourself. From time to time, such “sleepless” nights occur in every normal person, especially during a period of difficult external environment.

However, it is important not just to fall asleep quickly, but also to allow yourself to go into the right phases of sleep, the ones that really allow for recovery and renewal. Both are essential to rebooting your brain and getting a good night’s rest.

If you are faced with the problem of insomnia, the main advice is not to try to fall asleep by force. The brain has already realized that it wants to be forced to go to sleep and will definitely not let it do so. The human body is arranged in such a way that after missing sleep one night you will fall asleep like a baby on the second night without any techniques.

Insomnia is an important and very clear indicator that you need to make/find some decision. The brain, continuing to work without shutting down for sleep, as if “telling” you “wait… the solution is somewhere close, you need a little more and we will find it with you”.

The point is that the thought process never stops. And it’s what keeps us awake. We run through thoughts in our head, often they are complex, filled with an attempt to find a solution, working out some situations that happened during the day and worried the subconscious mind.

The main problem is that even if you manage to fall asleep, your sleep will be superficial, with strange dreams and “labyrinths” of scenarios. Then you will still wake up broken and tired.

However, going to sleep quickly is just a skill that can be trained by learning a few techniques. We can’t turn off this brain function, but we can trick it with cognitive shuffling.

What is cognitive shuffling

Cognitive shuffling, or cognitive shuffle, is a technique designed to facilitate the initial falling asleep with the help of visualized images. It was developed by Canadian cognitive scientist Luke P. Baudouin and involves repeating random words and presenting a series of pictures that the brain has no time to focus on and eventually relaxes.

The goal of the technique is to switch from logical thinking to imagination.

How cognitive shuffling works

As soon as you’re ready to fall asleep, remember the alphabet and think of two or three words for each letter. Once you’ve thought of one, move on to another letter.

Or you can take some word, for example, “fate” and for each letter of this word remember three or four words. Then move on to the next letter. The main thing is that the word should be simple and emotionally neutral.

Try to imagine an image for each word: it does not necessarily have to be detailed. The author of the technique, for example, offers the following options:

• baby. Imagine a baby;
• ball. Imagine it rolling down the street;
• a bean. Imagine yourself in the grocery store looking for this product;
• Belgium. Imagine the country’s endless plains;
• Bob. Imagine a person named Bob, whom you do not like or, on the contrary, sympathize with.

As a rule, as soon as 10-15 minutes after applying the technique, you manage to fall asleep. This is because the brain “does not know how” to engage in meaningless activity and in this case “turns off” the flow of thoughts, allowing us to rest.

The main thing is not to give meaning to this exercise. Make up words easily. Take the first ones that come to mind. And fast asleep you will definitely be ensured!

Chronic insomnia worsens the quality of life, so do not neglect to visit a competent specialist who will help to deal with the problem.