Good News: This sleep method works!
I'm thinking of a word...
In 2025, The New York Times told me about “cognitive shuffling,” a method of lulling your brain into sleep-readiness.
You start by taking a random word — “Pluto,” for example. Then think of as many words as you can that begin with the same first letter, like so: “Plane, poodle, play, peaches.” When you run out of “P” words, you can move on to the next letter of your original word, which is “L,” and do the same thing: “Love, light, lemur, linger.” Take a second or so to visualize each word.
I’ve been doing it for the last two months and it has worked almost every time—even though each time, as I’m thinking fame-fart-fuck-fortune-familiar-fun-fund-fumes, I’m also thinking “this isn’t working.” Then I wake up many hours later and realize it did.
Try it out and let me know how it goes.
Interesting. I may try that in the future!
Have you heard of Jim Donovan's technique of rhythmic patting & breathing? He did a TEDx talk in 2018, but I found this more recent video that just shows the technique, without as much preamble, if you or other readers want to try: https://youtu.be/8wWpA8o6IGg?
I tried this when the article first came out and it has worked some of the time. I have modified it though. I find I forget what word I'm in the middle of, and it's not very sleepy-making to be getting anxious to be sure I remember. So now I just pick a random letter, do it until I am stuck with that letter and move on. I also sometimes add an image to the word, which also feels more restful. Bloom (image of flower appears) Buggaboo (monster face) Botticelli (Venus on the half shell). In my own rules, I allow people's names, which keeps the flow going. For me, the trick is not to have this be another thing I get anxious about. I also allow words that are not the correct letter if they pop up--for example, I might be on "S" and up comes "sister" and then "cistern." I don't give myself an F for flunking the process I call it S-ish enough and go on. And I allow "forgetfulness" after "forget" if I want to. One of the fun things is that you see these patterns with words--what's with all the G words that are about being big? Giant, Gargantuan, Great.