This Simple Mental Trick Revealed by Doctors Promises to Cure Insomnia—But How Does It Work?
Ever find yourself wiped out all day, only to lie awake at night like your brain hit the snooze button—except it forgot to tell you? Yeah, me too. It’s like being in a bizarre club where the common ground is exhaustion paired with the frustration of counting sheep that just won’t add up. Turns out, I’m in pretty good company: a whopping 71 percent of Brits are officially playing the sleep-deprivation game, courtesy of anxious thoughts, erratic routines, and that tempting screen glow invading our bedrooms. But guess what? There’s a quirky little trick called ‘cognitive shuffling’ that’s shaking up the sleep scene, introduced by none other than Dr. Arthur, an NHS doc who’s cracked the code and claims it literally changed his nights after countless exhausting shifts. Curious about how thinking random words and images can outwit your restless mind? Stick around, because this might just be the bedtime hack you never saw coming.
Ever find yourself feeling tired all day only to struggle to nod off the second your head hits the pillow?
Well you wouldn’t be the only one. Whether it’s late nights, constantly waking up at 3am, or even simply struggling to drift off in the first place – we’ve all been there.
In fact, anyone struggling with catching Z’s is in the majority, with a 2022 study by Direct Line revealing that 71 percent of Brits fail to get the recommended amount of sleep. Charity Mental Health identified factors such as anxious thoughts, an irregular sleep-wake routine and the omnipresent glow of screens as major contributors.
So how can you get a decent amount of sleep every night? Thankfully, there are numerous hacks doing the rounds online which you can try.
One such sleeping hack is something called ‘cognitive shuffling’ which was recently put forward by Dr Arthur, an NHS Paediatrics trainee, who often shares educational videos and suggestions on TikTok.
Labelling cognitive shuffling as a sleep technique which changed his life, he said: “This is how I’ve learnt to get to sleep in a matter of minutes as a doctor that does loads of night shifts and is chronically sleep deprived.”
So, what is cognitive shuffling?
None of us are immune to bad sleep (Getty Stock Images)
According to Dr Arthur, the goal of cognitive shuffling is to take your brain out of its fight or flight mode by distracting it with random thoughts and images.
“The way it works is it distracts your brain, letting your brain know that it is safe to go to sleep,” Dr Arthur continued.
“It is getting it away from that anxious state of fight or flight that makes your thoughts race around your head and keeps you up literally all night worrying about things.”
He continued: “To do cognitive shuffling, all you have to do is think of a completely random word and then visualise the thing that that word represents. From there, think of a second word, a third and a fourth. They’re all completely unrelated. The aim here is to give random thoughts to your brain to stop it from being anxious and allow you to get off to sleep.”
Cognitive shuffling is one technique many swear by (Getty Stock Images)
Dr Arthur explained that he personally chooses to do the method by visualising a work which starts with the last letter of the previous word.
“So if we start with elephant that ends in a T, we go to tree that ends in an E. We could do elephant again, but let’s try and mix things up. Engine,” he explained.
“It will take you a matter of minutes.”
Dr Arthur isn’t the only person to sing the praises of cognitive shuffling either, with a quick search for the term online revealing numerous different tips and tricks you can use to make the technique work.
“The key is to briefly but vividly visualise mental images that have no narrative or logical connections between them, such as a yellow flower, a ball of pink wool, a wooden spoon,” Dr. Amy Reichelt, PhD in Neuroscience, told Glamour.
“By preventing your brain from creating narrative or meaning, you’re lulling it into a more relaxed state conducive to sleep.”
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