One in three people in the world have trouble sleeping every week. A problem that begins to worsen in middle age. But Dr Kiran Rajan of the UK’s National Institutes of Health believes that this is not necessarily the case.
He suggests trying a technique called ‘cognitive shuffling’ to fall asleep in less than five minutes. This method means deliberately obfuscating ideas so that they no longer make sense.
newspaper The Sun writes that Dr. Karan, in a video shared on TikTok, described the method as a biological version of turning the power button (on and off).
They say that when you lie in bed, you’re usually caught up in a series of thoughts over and over again, which can trigger a stress response and prevent you from falling asleep. The longer you’re awake, the more unwanted thoughts you’ll be stuck with, which means less sleep.
A technique called ‘cognitive shuffling’ or cognitive disruption can break this dreaded cycle of overthinking. This state is achieved by inhibiting the active cognitive efforts of your brain. It’s a bit like choosing a random song from a song list (shuffle option) which puts less stress on the brain than making a conscious choice each time.
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To accomplish this cognitive diversion while you sleep, think of a word (any word). Then try to think of other words starting with each letter of the same word. It is important that these consecutive words are truly meaningless, otherwise you may fall into the trap of re-thinking.
Pick a random word like ‘bedtime’ and then think and imagine another word that starts with that letter, says Dr. Raj. That is, think about words that start with ‘B’ until you’re tired. Like baby, butter, belgium, baseball and banana (banana). It is also important to visualize these words because it helps the micro-sleep stage (the transition stage from wakefulness to sleep) and calm the mind and initiate the sleep process more easily.
When you get tired of one word, move on to the next. This recipe helps calm scattered thoughts. So, if your sleep system is not working properly, try this.
Cognitive disruption, also known as ‘Serial Diverse Imagining’, was invented by Dr. Luke P. Beaudine of Simon Fraser University in Canada.
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2024-08-24 02:42:25
