00:00Let's talk about a technique called cognitive shuffling.
00:04You know that I've talked at length about the health benefits of sleep, but what if
00:08you just can't get off to sleep because your brain won't let you?
00:12Imagine it, everyone else is asleep, the house is quiet, you're lying there in bed, but your
00:17mind won't stop churning out stressful thoughts.
00:21Work, money, kids, planning, scheduling, problem solving.
00:25Your brain is too active to let you sleep.
00:28In fact, the stress of all of these thoughts tells the brain that it's not safe to sleep
00:33and you have to stay on high alert.
00:35So how do we fix this?
00:37Well, rather than counting sheep, there is now an alternative technique you can try.
00:43It's called cognitive shuffling.
00:45And the idea is that it interrupts your racing mind and instead scrambles your thoughts, inviting
00:52the brain to go into sleep mode and assuring it that it is safe to sleep.
00:57So how do you perform cognitive shuffling?
01:00Well, it's fairly easy.
01:02First of all, get into bed, lie down.
01:05Now, think of a word that has no emotional connection to you.
01:09It's really important that the word is completely neutral and ideally has no repeating letters.
01:14Good examples are bed or dream.
01:17But let's use the word bed as our example.
01:20Now, take each letter of the word bed and think of as many words as you can beginning with that
01:27letter.
01:27And as you do, picture those objects in your mind's eye.
01:30So bed begins with the letter B.
01:33Other words that begin with the letter B include bat, binoculars, baseball, banana.
01:39As I'm thinking of them, I'm also picturing them in my head.
01:43Once I've exhausted the letter B, I move on to the next letter, which is E.
01:48Now I'm thinking emus, elephants, eyes and picturing them at the same time.
01:53I do the same with the letter D.
01:56And once I finish with the word bed, if I'm not already asleep,
01:59I'll think of another word and do the same with that until I do fall asleep.
02:05If you're struggling with sleeping, give this technique a go.
02:08It's worth a try.
02:09But if you're really worried about sleep, speak to a healthcare professional.
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