There are a lot of TikToK trends out there claiming they can help you sleep better. Over the past few months, for example, everyone has been talking about cricketing, which involves rubbing your feet together in bed to calm your nervous system and reduce stress.
The latest TikTok health trend making the rounds is cognitive shuffling for sleep. What exactly is cognitive shuffling—and, most importantly, does it really work? Keep reading to learn all about cognitive shuffling for sleep and whether it’s effective.
What is cognitive shuffling?
Cognitive shuffling—more formally known as Serial Diverse Imagining (SDI)—is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) technique used to distract the mind by scrambling the thoughts that are keeping you too alert to fall asleep.
It involves shifting your mind’s focus from what might be anxious or troubling thoughts to neutral images and words that are more conducive to sleep.
Other CBT techniques besides cognitive shuffling are also useful for falling asleep. For example, cognitive reframing aims to reduce the anxiety that can keep sleep at bay by replacing negative thoughts with more positive ones.
Cognitive shuffling—more formally known as Serial Diverse Imagining (SDI)—is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) technique used to distract the mind by scrambling the thoughts that are keeping you too alert to fall asleep.
Meditation can help you be more relaxed by clearing your mind before sleep, focusing on breathing, reducing muscle tension, and turning down the body’s stress hormones.
What may be the oldest CBT technique, dating to the 12th century, is counting sheep in your mind.
Like these other CBT techniques, cognitive shuffling can help disrupt the mind’s processes of memory, evaluation, planning, scheduling, and problem-solving. It can move you from a state of alertness to one in which you’re better able to fall asleep.
Benefits of cognitive shuffling
Cognitive shuffling can be helpful in reducing anxiety and bringing sleep more quickly.
“The main thing,” says Lauri Leadley, founder, president, and clinical sleep educator at Valley Sleep Center in Ariz., “is that cognitive shuffling takes your mind off whatever is weighing heavily in your thoughts and gets you to imagine both visually and mentally other random things.”
Cognitive shuffling techniques
“If I were to practice cognitive shuffling,” Leadley says, “I’d lie down, close my eyes, and think of a letter. I’d then think about a word or words that begin with that letter—that have nothing to do with anxious thoughts—and spell it, visualize it, and imagine it in the context of whatever it means to me at the moment. And then I’d move on to another random ‘thing.’”
Whatever technique you use, the goal is simply to move you from a high state of alertness to the point where you’re drifting off to sleep.
Watch sleep scientist Matthew Walker, PhD, explain the benefits of CBT for insomnia:
Cognitive shuffling vs. traditional meditation
Leadley, who considers herself “a strong proponent of breathing and meditation practices before bedtime,” says the difference between cognitive shuffling and traditional meditation is that meditation “involves setting an intention.”
She describes meditation as “dwelling on the thought, manifesting it within your mind’s eye, breathing in, out, allowing the thought to calm and relax you, make you smile, sigh, doze.”
On the other hand, Leadley says cognitive shuffling thoughts “are random—there’s no rhyme or reason why your mind goes ‘there.’ It’s a distraction from the stress and anxiety of the day.”
“If I were to practice cognitive shuffling, I’d lie down, close my eyes, and think of a letter. I’d then think about a word or words that begin with that letter—that have nothing to do with anxious thoughts—and spell it, visualize it, and imagine it in the context of whatever it means to me at the moment. And then I’d move on to another random ‘thing.’”
-Lauri Leadley, founder, president, and clinical sleep educator at Valley Sleep Center
How to try cognitive shuffling for sleep
A simple DIY cognitive shuffle technique can look like this:
- Get yourself into bed and ready for sleep.
- Think of a random, emotionally neutral word with at least five letters and no repeating letters.
- Gradually spell out the word. For each letter of the word, think of a word that starts with that letter. Imagine the item that word represents. Repeat this as many times as you like for each letter of the word.
FAQs
Does cognitive shuffling work?
“It does for some people,” Leadley says, adding, “For me, it’s no different than counting myself to sleep, creating a pattern with numbers, running them on repeat—backward, forward, in pairs or groups. It doesn’t have any emotional meaning—it’s a distraction and an attempt to get to sleep.”
What is the cognitive shuffle sleep hack?
Here’s how to do the cognitive shuffle sleep hack:
- Pick a random letter.
- Visualize a word that begins with that letter—something you can picture that’s emotionally neutral.
- Keep thinking of new words that begin with that letter. Pause and imagine each item, but don’t linger on them or create stories about them.
- Move on to the next letter when you get bored or stuck for images that begin with the letter.
- Keep going until you fall asleep.
Can a breathing necklace calm your anxiety and help you catch more Z’s? Next, learn all about the benefits of breathing necklaces for sleep.
