How to do the cognitive shuffle for sleep

The cognitive shuffle was developed by Luc Beaudoin, a cognitive scientist and adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Its best known form is called serial diverse imagining. It is meant for the minutes between lying down and falling asleep.

Why random words

Just before you fall asleep, thinking tends to go loose. Images appear that do not connect, and a thought drifts off before it has finished. Planning and working things out are the opposite: they follow a thread, one step leading to the next.

Beaudoin's idea is that the brain treats that loose, disconnected state as a sign that it is safe to let go, and that you can imitate it on purpose. A string of unrelated pictures gives your mind nothing to follow and nothing to solve. The theory is his, and the research behind it is still small, so it is best treated as something to try rather than something proven.

How to do it

1. Lie down the way you normally would to sleep, and close your eyes.
2. Choose a word of five letters or more with no emotional weight. "Garden" or "window" work. Avoid names and anything to do with work.
3. Take the first letter and think of a word that starts with it.
4. Picture that thing for a few seconds. Not vividly, just enough to see it.
5. Think of another word with the same letter, and picture that one.
6. When the letter runs dry, move on to the next letter of your word.

If you notice you have started planning tomorrow or replaying something from today, there is nothing to correct. Just go to the next word.

Where it goes wrong

Words that connect. Bread, butter, breakfast is a story, and stories are exactly what the method is trying to avoid. If one word reminds you of the next, skip it and pick something further away.

Words that pull something along. A person, a place you used to live, a thing you still have to buy. Anything that brings a memory or a task with it turns into a thread. Plain objects are better.

Trying too hard. Straining to picture each object in detail, or hunting for the cleverest word, keeps you busy in the way you were trying to stop being. A rough picture is enough.

Checking the result. Asking yourself every minute whether you are getting sleepy is its own kind of thread. The aim is to lose track of which letter you were on.

When thinking up words is the problem

For some people the searching is the part that keeps them alert. Coming up with words is a small task, and small tasks can hold attention. If that is how it goes for you, the method still works when someone else supplies the words, so that all you do is picture them.

How Calm Moments does it

In the app it is called Let your mind drift, and it only appears between ten at night and six in the morning. Single, unrelated words show up on their own, one every four seconds, so there is nothing to think up: you picture each one, let it go, and close your eyes whenever you like. You end it with a button that says Enough.

If you are still scrolling before bed, there is more on making that last part of the evening calmer in something calmer to scroll before bed.

Calm Moments is a feed of slow scenes, with guided breathing and a grounding exercise alongside it. Free, no ads, collects no data.

Common questions

What is the cognitive shuffle?

A way of falling asleep by picturing a run of random, unrelated words or objects, one after the other. It was developed by the Canadian cognitive scientist Luc Beaudoin. Its best known form is called serial diverse imagining.

How long does the cognitive shuffle take to work?

There is no set time, and watching the clock works against it. The aim is to lose track of which letter you were on. If you are still wide awake after a while, stop rather than force it.

What words should you use for the cognitive shuffle?

Neutral, concrete things that are easy to picture and have nothing to do with each other, like an apple, an umbrella and a train. Leave out people, work and anything that brings a memory or a plan along with it.