Monday, July 7, 2025

Cognitive Shuffling

Greetings all!

Have you heard about cognitive shuffling? I have been seeing a lot of articles about this technique to help you fall asleep faster, so I decided to give it a try!

Dr. Scott Walter says, “It’s a way to rearrange or reorganize your thoughts similar to shuffling a deck of cards — basically, distracting your mind from conscious thought patterns that may keep you awake.”

There are several ways to shuffle random ideas and thoughts:

  1. Think of random words that are not connected.
  2. Select a letter of the alphabet, count your heartbeat, and every eight beats, think of a word that begins with that letter.
  3. Pick a word. Then then think of words that begin with each letter and visualize each word. Move through each letter but do not overthink or try to make any connections.

I decided to try the formula #3 and added another layer to help me think of words. I picture an alphabet and then words just flow through my mind. For example, for the word ‘amuse,’ my words that started with letter A were:

  • aBacus
  • aCacia
  • aDagio
  • aFfogato
  • aGate

I think this technique works as I do not remember going through every letter so I must have fallen asleep! 

Give it a try and let me know what you think. 

In the meantime, I will be dreaming of enjoying a refreshing affogato under an acacia  tree while the agate stones on the abacus are clinking out some adagio notes.

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