'I tried this simple bedtime trick and slept for the first time in four days'

'I tried this simple bedtime trick and slept for the first time in four days' As someone who's dealt with insomnia for years, it was surprising to find a technique that worked It’s a feeling many of us are familiar with - lying in bed, tired but unable to sleep, and praying you drift off soon. You check your phone, which reads “3am” - only four hours before you have to get up for work. You might be physically tired and have done everything they say to do - avoiding screentime and caffeine before bed, but for whatever reason, you just can’t sleep. That was me last week, for four nights in a row where I would finally fall asleep at around 6am. And the reason was fairly clear - I couldn’t stop my mind from racing as soon as my head touched the pillow. But having dealt with bouts of insomnia my whole life, I am also no stranger to those completely unexplained nights of no sleep. Luckily though, at some point on the fifth night I recalled some advice from Doctor Amir Khan. In a video posted recently to his Instagram account, Dr Amir shared a technique called cognitive shuffling. This is a method that tells your brain it’s “safe to sleep”. He advised that this can be a good “alternative” to counting sheep and works well if your brain is “too active” to allow you to sleep. Having tried countless different sleeping methods in the past, I have to admit cognitive shuffling is one of the simplest out there - one that I can remember all the steps for without having to look it up. In a nutshell, the steps are: - Think of a word, preferably with a good mix of letters in it - For each letter of the word, you then must think of another word beginning with that letter and also picture an image of that word in your mind - Do this until you run out of words beginning with that letter and move on to the next letter - If you haven’t fallen asleep by the time you finish the word you should try another word In the video, Dr Amir used the word “bed” as his example. For some reason, the first word I thought of was “basketball”. I was surprised at how many words for “B” I came up with. And perhaps more surprising was the fact that some of the words were quite abstract, proving more difficult to picture in my head. “Bed” was my first choice, prompted I think by Dr Amir’s advice, followed by “ball”, but then “bologna” and “bolognese”, followed by “bad”. I carried on with “B” for quite a while longer - determined not to admit defeat. Eventually, I moved on to “A”, where I thought of “ants”, “Australia”, “angry”, and “acne”. But somewhere along the line, I actually did fall asleep. I have no memory of thinking about the letter “S”, which to me suggests I must have drifted off after only two letters. It almost feels ridiculous - to have lost so many nights of sleep only for this to be the solution. Where does it come from? Cognitive shuffling was made famous by Canada-based researcher Luc P. Beaudoin more than 10 years ago, when he published a paper about how what he called “serial diverse imagining” could help with sleep. Cognitive shuffling seeks to replicate the thought processes of proficient sleepers by imitating the dream-like and scattered thinking patterns they typically experience before nodding off. As reported by The Conversation, Beaudoin's research identifies two categories of sleep-related thinking: insomnolent (or sleep-preventing) and pro-somnolent (sleep-encouraging) thoughts. Insomnolent thinking encompasses activities such as worrying, planning, rehearsing, and dwelling on perceived difficulties or shortcomings. Pro-somnolent thoughts, conversely, involve thinking that can assist you in falling asleep, such as dream-like visualisations or maintaining a peaceful, relaxed mental state. Cognitive shuffling works to distract from or disrupt insomnolent thinking. It provides a peaceful, impartial pathway for your busy mind, and can alleviate the anxiety linked with sleeplessness. Cognitive shuffling also signals to your brain that you are prepared for sleep. The act of "shuffling" between various thoughts mirrors the way your brain naturally transitions into sleep. During this shift towards sleep, brain activity decelerates. Your brain begins to produce unrelated images and brief scenes, referred to as hypnagogic hallucinations, without any deliberate attempt to interpret them. By replicating these fragmented, unconnected, and random thinking patterns, cognitive shuffling may facilitate your transition from alertness to sleep. When to see a GP The NHS states that the average adult needs between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. On average, children need nine to 13 hours, while toddlers and babies need 12 to 17 hours. The health body says you should see a GP if: - Changing your sleeping habits has not helped your insomnia - You've had trouble sleeping for months - Your insomnia is affecting your daily life in a way that makes it hard for you to cope