Struggling to fall asleep? Reporter Fiona shares her experience with cognitive shuffling
Reporter Fiona tried a technique recommended by Dr Amir Khan after struggling with sleep(Image: Getty)
It’s a feeling countless Brits are familiar with – lying awake in bed, shattered but unable to drop off, frantically trying to force yourself to sleep. You check your mobile, which displays “3am” – merely four hours until the alarm sounds for work.
You might be completely knackered and have stuck to all the expert recommendations – avoiding screens and caffeine before bed, yet somehow, sleep remains elusive. That was my situation last week, over four nights in a row where I would finally drift off at roughly 6am, not long before I need to wake up.
The reason was quite obvious – the second my head touched the pillow, my thoughts would start racing out of control. However, having wrestled with periods of insomnia throughout my life, those entirely unexplained sleepless nights are nothing unusual for me.
Thankfully, during the fifth night, I remembered some advice from Doctor Amir Khan. In a clip shared recently on his Instagram page, Dr Amir revealed a technique known as cognitive shuffling.
This is an approach that indicates to your brain that it’s “safe to sleep”. He proposed that this could work as an effective “alternative” to counting sheep, proving especially helpful when your mind is “too active” to let you sleep.
Having tried numerous sleep methods over the years, cognitive shuffling is undoubtedly one of the most simple I’ve come across – one where I can remember each stage without requiring to check it again.
Essentially, the steps are:
- Think of a word, ideally one containing a diverse mix of letters
- For each letter in that word, you need to think of another word beginning with that letter and picture it clearly in your head
- Keep going until you’ve run out of words starting with that letter before progressing to the next
- If you’re still awake once you’ve finished the word, simply choose another one
In the clip, Dr Amir selected the word “bed” as his example. For whatever reason, the first word that sprang to my mind that night was “basketball”.
I was surprised by the sheer number of words beginning with “B” I was able to find. “Bed” appeared first, undoubtedly influenced by Dr Amir’s suggestion, then “ball”, but then “bologna” and “bolognese”, followed by “bad”.
I continued with “B” for much longer – refusing to give up. Finally, I progressed to “A”, where I considered “ants”, “Australia”, “angry”, and “acne”. But at some point along the way, I did fall asleep.
I’ve got no recollection of considering the letter “S”, which suggests to me I must have nodded off after just two letters. It almost seems absurd – to have lost so many nights of sleep only for this to prove the answer.
Where did it originate?
Cognitive shuffling was brought into the mainstream by Canada-based researcher Luc P. Beaudoin more than a decade ago, after he published his paper examining how what he called “serial diverse imagining” could help with sleep.
The method seeks to replicate the thought patterns of those who sleep well by mimicking the dream-like and scattered thinking they typically experience before nodding off.
According to The Conversation, Beaudoin’s research differentiates between two categories of sleep-related thinking: insomnolent (or sleep-preventing) and pro-somnolent (sleep-encouraging) thoughts. Insomnolent thinking encompasses activities like worrying, planning, rehearsing, and dwelling on perceived problems or shortcomings.
Pro-somnolent thoughts, on the other hand, involve thinking that can assist you in falling asleep, such as dream-like images or keeping a peaceful, relaxed mental state. Cognitive shuffling functions to distract from or interrupt insomnolent thinking. It provides a calm, neutral route for your busy mind, and can lessen the anxiety linked to sleeplessness.
Cognitive shuffling also signals to your brain that you are prepared for sleep. The act of “shuffling” between various thoughts mirrors the way your brain naturally moves into sleep. Throughout this transition towards sleep, brain activity decreases.
Your brain begins to produce unconnected images and brief scenes, called hypnagogic hallucinations, without any deliberate attempt to interpret them. By replicating these fragmented, disjointed and random thought patterns, cognitive shuffling might help facilitate your transition from being awake to falling asleep.
When to consult a GP
The NHS advises that the typical adult requires between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. On average, children require nine to 13 hours, while toddlers and babies need 12 to 17 hours.
The health body recommends you should consult a GP if:
- Altering your sleeping habits hasn’t improved your insomnia
- You’ve experienced difficulty sleeping for months
- Your insomnia is impacting your daily life in a manner that makes it difficult for you to manage
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.dailyrecord.co.uk
