A Simple Hack To Distract a Worried Mind When Falling Asleep

Dermatologist Scott Walter explained a simple hack that lets a worried mind know that it’s okay to fall asleep. This hack, which is known as cognitive shuffling, essentially occupies the mind and distracts from thoughts that would otherwise keep you awake.

It’s a simple mental exercise we call cognitive shuffling … 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.

The method is very simple and doesn’t require any medications or books. Instead, it uses deliberate thoughts to distract.

There’s a couple ways to do it one is just thinking of random words or objects that have nothing to do with each other. For example, cow, leaf sandwich, butter, liver –  things like that just random words that make no sense. But if you don’t like random, there’s another method. First you pick a letter of the alphabet, Number two you start counting your heartbeat, then every eight beats you think of a word that begins with that letter.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.