What is the "cognitive shuffle," and can it help you fall asleep?
The cognitive shuffle is a free bedtime trick of picturing random, unrelated things to crowd out racing thoughts. It is low-risk, but the research behind it is small, early and mostly from its creator's own team.
By The Savvy Rabbits Staff ·
✓Checked twice. Fact-checked against the original sources and approved by an editor. About our standards
The cognitive shuffle is a bedtime mental exercise: instead of lying awake with the same worries, a person pictures a string of random, unrelated things until sleep arrives. It is free, the studies described here did not report side effects, and some early findings are encouraging. But the research is thin, has been done mostly by the technique's creator and his colleagues, and has not shown that it beats other approaches.
Why is the cognitive shuffle suddenly everywhere?
The technique is getting attention again. An October 2026 wellness roundup on Substack called it the quirkiest of the many sleep strategies its author had tried and described the research as "still preliminary" (WELL-BENT). It drew wider attention in April 2025 through a CNN feature, republished by New Zealand's RNZ (RNZ/CNN).
Who came up with it?
The technique comes from Luc Beaudoin, a cognitive scientist and adjunct professor of education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. According to CNN, he began working on it as an undergraduate nearly 40 years ago, when he struggled to sleep on Sunday nights, and the name "cognitive shuffling" was in use by 2009 (RNZ/CNN). In some research it is called serial diverse imagining.
Beaudoin has a commercial stake. According to CNN, he owns CogZest and co-founded CogSci Apps Corp. and Somnolence+ Inc., which develop products based on his research (RNZ/CNN).
How is it supposed to work?
One common version, as described in the CNN piece: choose a random, neutral word. For each letter, think of as many words as possible that start with it, for about five to eight seconds each, before moving to the next letter, and picture them if that helps. The words do not need to connect.
The idea rests on Beaudoin's "somnolent mentation theory." As people drift off, their thinking normally becomes loose and incoherent. The theory proposes that this jumbled thinking is not just a side effect of falling asleep but actually helps it along, while problem-solving and sense-making keep the brain alert (Digdon and Beaudoin, CogSci 2015 abstract). The shuffle is meant to imitate that drifting state on purpose and crowd out worry at the same time. This is a hypothesis, not an established mechanism.
What does the research actually show?
The main study usually cited was presented at SLEEP 2016, a joint meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society (SFU news release via EurekAlert). It involved 154 university students, mostly female, who complained of excessive mental arousal at bedtime. According to CNN, they were randomly assigned to one of three groups: the shuffle, done in bed; a standard structured problem-solving exercise, which is done before bedtime and takes about 15 minutes; or both (RNZ/CNN; Sleep Review).
According to the researchers' announcement, the shuffle was as effective as structured problem-solving at reducing pre-sleep arousal, sleep effort and poor sleep quality. CNN reported that the shuffle group was more likely to see improvements in sleep quality, difficulty falling asleep and pre-sleep arousal, that these benefits lasted throughout the semester, and that the sample was small.
That result has clear limits:
There was no group that received nothing new, so any improvement cannot be credited to either technique.
The outcomes reported were pre-sleep arousal, sleep effort and sleep quality; none of the accessible accounts of the study mention measured sleep.
The participants were university students, mostly female.
The researchers include the technique's creator.
Searches for this article did not turn up a full peer-reviewed journal paper reporting the trial.
A broader 2020 systematic review in Sleep Medicine Reviews, which Beaudoin co-authored, looked at studies of mental strategies such as imagery and distraction at bedtime. Its abstract says the effect of these strategies on falling asleep or insomnia was "either beneficial, negligible, or detrimental," and it calls for more research on how thinking affects sleep onset (Lemyre et al., 2020). An April 2025 Psychology Today article said a fourth study comparing the shuffle with other cognitive techniques was planned for later that year (Psychology Today).
Who probably won't be helped by it?
The shuffle is aimed at a busy mind at bedtime. Beaudoin told CNN that someone who drinks a lot of coffee before bed should not expect a mental technique to help them sleep. The article says the technique is not a replacement for proper sleep hygiene, and Beaudoin said cognitive techniques are not a substitute for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, known as CBT-I. Kami McManus, a sleep psychologist at Penn Medicine, advised getting out of bed after about 20 minutes of trying, or sooner if frustrated, doing something calming elsewhere, and then trying again (RNZ/CNN). The studies described here did not report on side effects.
Ongoing sleep trouble is a different matter. The American College of Physicians defines chronic insomnia as symptoms on at least three nights a week for at least three months that cause real distress or trouble functioning. Its 2016 guideline, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, says CBT-I should be the first-line treatment for adults with chronic insomnia (ACP). CBT-I combines changing unhelpful thoughts about sleep with behavioral steps such as limiting time in bed.
What is a sensible next step?
For an occasional night of racing thoughts, the shuffle costs nothing to try for a few nights. If poor sleep has become a regular pattern, book an appointment with a doctor and ask whether CBT-I is a good fit.
This article is for general education only and is not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or other qualified health professional before changing your diet, supplements, medication, or treatment.
Sources
RNZ (republished from CNN), "Cognitive shuffling: A mental trick to help you quiet racing thoughts and fall asleep": https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/wellbeing/cognitive-shuffling-a-mental-trick-to-help-you-quiet-racing-thoughts-and-fall-asleep
Simon Fraser University news release via EurekAlert on the SLEEP 2016 study (June 10, 2016): https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/577613
Sleep Review, article on the SLEEP 2016 cognitive shuffle study: https://sleepreviewmag.com/sleep-health/parameters/quality/need-better-sleep-consider-cognitive-shuffle/
Digdon N, Beaudoin L, "A test of the somnolent mentation theory and the cognitive shuffle insomnia treatment," Cognitive Science Society 2015 abstract: https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/25896/galley/15520/download
Lemyre A et al., 2020, "Pre-sleep cognitive activity in adults: A systematic review," Sleep Medicine Reviews 50:101253: https://www.em-consulte.com/article/1353766/pre-sleep-cognitive-activity-in-adults-a-systemati
Psychology Today, "A Creatively Random Idea for Falling Asleep" (April 30, 2025): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-innovator-next-door/202504/a-creatively-random-idea-for-falling-asleep
American College of Physicians, "ACP Recommends Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as Initial Treatment for Chronic Insomnia" (May 3, 2016): https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/acp-recommends-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-as-initial-treatment-for-chronic-insomnia
Our take
This take is opinion, not professional advice.
The Savvy Rabbits Staff
Our editors' take
The interesting claim here is not that distraction helps. The claim is that random, disconnected images mimic the way the mind already drifts at sleep onset, and so push the process along. That is a testable idea, and it has barely been tested. The 2016 study split 154 students into three groups: the shuffle, structured problem-solving, or both. The shuffle came out about as effective as problem-solving, which is like learning that two routes reach the same town without knowing whether staying put would have got you there too. Nobody had a group that tried nothing new, so the passing semester and expectation could explain the change. Treat it as a cheap experiment for an occasional bad night. If bad nights have become the pattern, three nights a week for three months, the shuffle is the wrong tool and CBT-I is the one with the guideline behind it.
