A Mental Exercise to Calm Racing Thoughts for Sleep

(SeaPRwire) –   When stress keeps you awake, counting sheep may not be enough. Instead, experts recommend a simple mental technique that can calm even the most active thoughts. They rely on it themselves.

This method is called “cognitive shuffling.” It’s a mental exercise that gives your brain something neutral and mildly engaging to focus on, helping it relax into sleep rather than staying stuck in overthinking mode. Here’s what you need to know—and how to determine if it could work for you.

What is cognitive shuffling?

The idea was introduced more than ten years ago by Dr. Luc Beaudoin, a cognitive scientist who first developed it due to his own struggles with insomnia.

Here’s how it works: After following your usual bedtime routine, pick a word that doesn’t carry strong emotional weight and consists of five to twelve letters. “The word should be emotionally neutral—avoid anything linked to stress or intense feelings,” says Patricia B. Pedreira, a health psychologist and postdoctoral associate at Duke University Medical Center specializing in behavioral sleep medicine. “Stay away from words like ‘money,’ ‘deadline,’ or anything that might trigger anxious thoughts.” Some of her preferred choices include blanket, garden, bedtime, and kitchen.

Once you’ve chosen your word, go through each letter one by one, coming up with as many unrelated words as possible for each. For example, if your word is “bedtime,” your list might look like this: B: butterfly, basket, bagel. E: envelope, Egypt, emerald. (In practice, continue until you run out of ideas.) “The key is keeping them unrelated,” Pedreira notes. “If your mind starts making connections or building stories, you’re missing the point.”

Every time you name a new word, take a few seconds to briefly visualize it. If you landed on “goat” for the letter G, for instance, “you’d picture a goat in your mind,” Pedreira explains. “You don’t need to create a highly detailed image—just a quick mental snapshot will do.” Hold that image for a moment, then move on to the next letter.

Ideally, you won’t finish the entire word—instead, you’ll drift off to sleep. “You might fall asleep mid-letter, complete the whole word, or lose track of where you are,” Pedreira says. “None of that matters. The goal isn’t to finish perfectly.” If you reach the end of the word still awake, simply choose another word and start over.

If you find yourself stuck or repeating the same words, the issue might be your initial choice. Nina Kaiser, a psychologist in San Francisco who teaches cognitive shuffling to both children and adults, suggests avoiding words with repeated letters. Once you’ve exhausted all options starting with a particular letter, encountering another instance of that letter later in the word forces you to repeat the same list—which can easily lead to mental looping. This makes “Google,” with its double Gs and Os, a poor choice, while “planet,” with six distinct letters, is much better.

Why it works

When your brain is replaying or analyzing recent events, those thoughts can keep you in an alert, problem-solving state that prevents sleep. “Your task is to shift gears and redirect focus toward something more conducive to falling asleep,” Kaiser explains. “You’re choosing something deliberately dull instead of stimulating—giving your brain a clear activity rather than just telling it, ‘Don’t think about what’s worrying you.’”

The method also provides a constructive alternative to lying awake watching the clock. “It replaces rumination with purposeful action,” Pedreira says. “Instead of passively obsessing over sleeplessness, people have something active and positive to do.”

There’s also a neurological explanation. During the day, your brain operates with faster waves tied to focused attention; as sleep approaches, these slow down into slower, more diffuse patterns. “It’s a gradual transition into a relaxed, loosely connected mental state,” explains Sarah Gray, a psychologist and instructor at Harvard Medical School who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Cognitive shuffling helps guide your brain through this shift instead of keeping it trapped in analytical mode.

That’s why it often outperforms counting sheep, according to Gray. Counting quickly becomes monotonous, allowing stressful thoughts to resurface. In contrast, cognitive shuffling offers just enough stimulation—generating words, holding onto letters, imagining objects—without overexciting the mind. The visualization component is especially important: briefly picturing each item keeps the brain occupied enough to block intrusive thoughts. “It genuinely helps the brain disengage and settle into a softer, more open state,” she says.

Who benefits most

Cognitive shuffling is most effective for individuals struggling to fall asleep due to repetitive thinking or racing thoughts. “I frequently see this in otherwise good sleepers who bring daytime stress into bed with them,” Pedreira observes.

In other words, it’s not a cure-all for sleep disturbances. It doesn’t address chronic insomnia disorder, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, circadian rhythm disorders, or insomnia caused by medication side effects or hormonal changes—all of which require medical treatment. It also tends to be less effective for people with aphantasia, a condition characterized by difficulty or inability to form mental images. Similarly, it may not suit anyone for whom visualization feels taxing or activating rather than calming.

One crucial reminder: avoid turning cognitive shuffling into a chore. “If someone believes they must perform it flawlessly or visualize with perfect clarity, they’ve undermined its purpose,” Pedreira warns. “This technique should feel effortless and gentle, not like a test.”

If you don’t nod off within the first minute or two, don’t panic—and certainly don’t start fixating on the clock. “It’s completely normal to remain awake with an active mind for ten to fifteen minutes,” Gray points out. The real problem arises when people become anxious about not falling asleep immediately, as that worry perpetuates wakefulness. That’s precisely why cognitive shuffling exists: to offer a low-stakes activity while your brain gradually unwinds, rather than adding another layer of stress.