Cognitive Shuffling for Sleep: How It Works
Cognitive shuffling for sleep means picturing unrelated words one after another. Here is how it works, what the research says, and how to try it tonight.
10/9/20266 min read
Cognitive shuffling is a bedtime mental exercise: you picture one calm, unrelated word or object after another, for a few seconds each, so your mind has something gentle to follow instead of circling back to the same worries all night.
Many people lie in bed with thoughts that keep circling back to the same few topics. Cognitive shuffling for sleep is one simple idea people try at that hour: give the mind a slow, random picture task, so there is less room for the circling. This guide explains what it is, where it comes from, what the research shows, and how to try it tonight.
Our own answer to that is Hypnagogia-Pass, a library of 30 videos where a word and a matching picture appear one after another, so there is nothing to imagine and nothing to follow. Read why we built it. The do-it-yourself version below is the idea that inspired it, and it works with no screen at all.
Key takeaways
Hypnagogia-Pass is our screen version of the idea: each word and matching picture arrives for you, so there is nothing to imagine.
Cognitive shuffling comes from serial diverse imagining, developed by cognitive scientist Luc Beaudoin at Simon Fraser University.
The evidence is early: a 2002 study of 41 people with insomnia and a 2016 conference poster.
Picturing can be hard. Roughly 1% of people have aphantasia, rising to around 4% under broader criteria.
No screen? The do-it-yourself version: cognitive shuffling for sleep
The technique comes from a method called serial diverse imagining, developed by cognitive scientist Luc Beaudoin at Simon Fraser University. Online it is usually called the cognitive shuffle. Here is how it works.
Pick a neutral word, such as "garden".
Take its first letter, G, and think of a word that starts with it, such as "grape".
Picture a grape for a few seconds, as clearly as you can.
Think of another G word, such as "guitar", and picture that instead. Keep each image unrelated to the last.
When G runs dry, move to A, then R, and so on through the word.
The images are meant to be ordinary, calm and disconnected. A grape does not lead to a guitar. That lack of a story is the point. Try not to check the clock to see how it is going, because that tends to keep the mind busy.
If it does not suit you, stop.
Cognitive shuffling and hypnagogia
Hypnagogia is the drifting, half-lit stretch between waking and sleep. Thoughts loosen, and brief pictures or fragments of scenes can drift through the mind without much of a plot.
As Beaudoin describes it in his somnolent mentation theory, random, unconnected pictures may resemble the mental activity of that stage. On this view, picturing a grape, then a guitar, then a gate may give the mind a path that looks like the one it takes anyway when sleep is close. This is a theory, and it is not settled science.
What research says about imagery before sleep
Two pieces of research sit behind this approach, and both have limits.
In 2002, Allison Harvey and Suzanna Payne ran a study in Behaviour Research and Therapy with 41 people who have insomnia. Participants were given one of three instructions for a single night: distract yourself with an engaging imagery task, distract yourself in a general way, or no instructions. The imagery group was associated with less pre-sleep mental activity and a shorter time to fall asleep than the group with no instructions. General distraction did not show the same pattern. The authors suggest the imagery task occupied enough mental space to keep people from returning to their worries. You can read the abstract on PubMed. It was one night, with a small group, so it points to a direction rather than a result you can count on.
In 2016, Beaudoin and colleagues presented a poster on the serial diverse imagining task at the SLEEP 2016 meeting in Denver, describing it as a possible remedy for bedtime worry and other sleep-disrupting mental activity. A conference poster is an early step, and it is not a finished clinical trial.
Together, they suggest that a specific, engaging picture task may be easier to hold onto than the instruction "stop thinking". They do not show that it works for everyone.
When picturing is the hard part, and the screen is still on
Cognitive shuffling asks you to produce the images yourself, at the moment when effort is least welcome. Some people see pictures vividly, some see them faintly, and some cannot form mental images at all, which is called aphantasia. For any of them, producing a fresh picture every few seconds can feel like work. If you are tired of coming up with words, a different approach may suit you better.
Effort is one obstacle, and the setting is another. Most of us do not fall asleep in a dark room with a quiet mind. We fall asleep with a screen on: a series on autoplay, a feed, a video with an ad that starts at the wrong moment. Most screens are built to keep you watching, which is the opposite of what that moment needs.
Hypnagogia-Pass is built for that exact moment, and it is made differently:
Nothing to imagine. A word appears, then a matching picture, one after another. The pictures arrive for you, so the experience is the same whether you see vivid images, faint ones, or none at all.
Nothing to connect. Every word and picture is chosen to be unrelated to the one before it. The idea is that the mind has nothing to link two in a row, so it can keep drifting from one to the next instead of building a story.
Nothing to follow. No story, no host, no talking, no cliffhanger. Soft background sound only.
Nothing to interrupt. No ads, and nothing to watch the clock for.
A dark screen. Words and pictures on a dark background instead of bright, busy scenes.
A full library. 30 videos, more than 2,400 minutes in total, so there is no need to search for something each time.
It builds on the idea behind serial diverse imagining, with the part you used to do yourself done for you. We drew on the two lines of research above.
Your cognitive shuffling questions, answered
What is the cognitive shuffle sleep technique?
It is a bedtime exercise where you picture a slow string of unrelated, ordinary things, such as a grape, then a guitar, then a gate, so no story can form. It comes from serial diverse imagining, developed by Luc Beaudoin. Hypnagogia-Pass is our screen version, where the words and pictures arrive for you.
Does cognitive shuffling really work?
The evidence is early. A 2002 study of 41 people with insomnia linked an imagery task with less pre-sleep mental activity and a shorter time to fall asleep than no instructions, and a 2016 poster described serial diverse imagining as a possible remedy for bedtime worry. Both were small or preliminary, so try it and watch what happens for you.
Can you do cognitive shuffling if you can't picture things?
Hypnagogia-Pass is built for this: each word and its matching picture arrive on screen, so nothing depends on how vividly you imagine. Roughly 1% of people have aphantasia, rising to around 4% under broader criteria (Zeman, Dewar and Della Sala, 2015), and some people find picturing hard when worry grabs the wheel.
Who developed cognitive shuffling?
Cognitive scientist Luc Beaudoin at Simon Fraser University developed it under the name serial diverse imagining. He described the idea in papers from 2013 and 2014 and presented a task study poster at the SLEEP 2016 meeting. Read how serial diverse imagining became Hypnagogia-Pass.
Is cognitive shuffling good for racing thoughts at night?
It is aimed at a busy, circling mind. A 2021 study found racing thoughts at bedtime tracked insomnia severity in people with insomnia, which is one reason people try a slow, neutral task instead of answering each thought. See how to stop racing thoughts at night.
How do you do cognitive shuffling?
Pick a random word, such as garden. For each letter, picture one unrelated, neutral thing that starts with it, hold it for a few seconds, then move on to the next letter. When the word runs out, pick a new one and keep going.
What are some cognitive shuffling examples?
Start with a seed word such as cake. For C, picture a cat, a candle, a cloud; for A, an apple, an anchor, an acorn. Spend a few seconds on each image, then let it go. Other seed words people use include duck, piano and garden.
Is cognitive shuffling evidence-based?
Cognitive shuffling was proposed by cognitive scientist Luc Beaudoin. Studies have looked at imagery before sleep, but few have tested the method itself, so it is best treated as something to try tonight, not as a proven treatment or a replacement for medical care.
Something to try tonight
Hypnagogia-Pass is waiting if you want to try it tonight. Press play, let the words and pictures pass, and stop whenever you like. If you would like a gentler first step, our post on what to try when you can't sleep right now is a good place to start. If your mind is replaying a conversation, see why an argument replays at night. For work worries, read how to stop racing thoughts at night. If the clocks have just changed, there is a guide for the week after daylight saving ends. And for the story behind the method, see how serial diverse imagining led to Hypnagogia-Pass.
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If trouble sleeping lasts for weeks, or if racing thoughts come with other symptoms that worry you, please talk with a doctor. This article is general information, not medical advice, and Hypnagogia-Pass has not been tested in a clinical trial.