Life With Chronic Conditions: Improving sleep using cognitive shuffle

The more articles that come out on sleep, the more I hear from people who are stressing and anxious that they wake up and can’t get back to sleep. I often wake up once a night to go to the bathroom and sometimes that would be it for the night. However, I find that if I do a little “cognitive shuffling” I go right back to sleep. 

 I touched on this topic in my post Preparing for 2025 Since I’m now getting requests for more information on this topic, I figured it needs its own post. 

 

As a kid, my sister and I shared a room and we’d play a game where we’d fall asleep after just a few rounds. One of us would name a country, town, or city and the next person would have to do the same starting with the last letter of the place given. So for example if the first person would say Poland, the next person would name a place that began with a D, such as Denmark. Little did I realize it was a form of “cognitive shuffling.”

 

What is Cognitive Shuffle? Cognitive shuffling, developed by Dr. Luc Beaudoin, involves imagining random, emotionally neutral objects or scenarios to prevent the mind from focusing on worries, thereby promoting quicker sleep onset.

 

The technique works by engaging the brain with straightforward, distracting mental activities, such as Serial Diverse Imagining (SDI), which involves switching between various images, words, or scenes to disrupt anxiety-inducing thought patterns and signal to the brain that it’s time to rest.

 

Cognitive shuffling not only helps improve sleep quality but also aids in reducing anxiety, managing symptoms of mental health conditions like PTSD, and can be combined with other techniques such as deep breathing or progressive relaxation for greater effectiveness. Bay Area CBT Center 

 

How do you do it? : Get comfortable in your bed and prepare for sleep.

Variation 1: Word

1.Pick a simple word, like “chair.” It should have five letters, with no repeats.  Make sure it’s not a word that's  loaded with all kinds of meaning and can be distracting for you. 

 

2. Break the word down into letters and for each letter, think of as many words as possible that start with that letter. So for chair, it could be something like:

C-Carrot, cabin, carriage

H-Harp, house, hippo

A-Ant, apple, ape

I-Igloo, ink, iguana

R-River, radio, rug

 

3. Visualize each word as it comes to mind.

 

4. If you get distracted by a worrying thought, gently bring yourself back to the word.

 

Variation 2: Alphabet/Category: Pick a category, such as animals, and work your way through the alphabet thinking and visualizing animals for each letter. For example. A can stand for ant, ape; B for baboon. This is by far the most successful approach for me. So below are various categories to try out:

• fruits,

• mammals

• plants

• vegetables

• outdoor activities

• names of people

• places-this can be categorized by places you’ve visited; cities; in a particular country; historical places

• things you’d fine in a house; an office; outside

• music related, band names, musicians, 

• authors, book titles

 

You want a category or word that’s not too difficult so you become frustrated or too easy and you’re at Z and wide awake.