Cognitive Shuffling and Mind Soup methods are tools that can help to induce sleep, whether it’s at the beginning of the night (for sleep onset) or for middle of the night wakeups (for sleep maintenance). The Mind Soup method is similar to, but different from, the popular Cognitive Shuffling method developed by Luc Beaudoin*. I argue that the Mind Soup Method is a gentler approach to inducing sleep and can be a useful tool to get to-or back-to sleep.
The widely known Cognitive Shuffling method works by having you think of a letter while trying to fall asleep. Once you decide on a letter, think of several words that start with that letter. For example, if you think of the letter “B”, you might think of a bear, beehive, beach, Beyonce, etc. Then, think of the next letter and things that start with that letter. Repeat until you fall asleep.
Cognitive Shuffling can help wrangle the mental rumination that occurs during the initial phase of trying to fall asleep or when you wake in the middle of the night.
However, this exact approach might not be for everyone. Many people, including myself, report that this method can actually stimulate the brain into further wakefulness. Furthermore, some people report turning this practice into a self-imposed competition, saying they race to think of all the words that start with a particular letter before moving on. If sleep does not come quickly, Cognitive Shuffling may subtly turn into “Why isn’t this working?” which can lead to a cycle of sleep anxiety and sleeplessness. Furthermore, it keeps attention on the mind instead of the body and can actually keep the brain engaged rather than allowing deeper physical downregulation.
The Mind Soup method is a spin-off of Cognitive Shuffling, but it requires less thought and less active attention. This method tries to mimic the hypnagogic state of pre-sleep, a twilight zone of consciousness where you are drowsy, but not fully asleep. This state is often marked by vivid, dreamlike feelings. The experience is full of sensory sensations like lights, sounds, the feeling of falling, fluid thoughts, as well as heightened creativity. Similar to Cognitive Shuffling, Mind Soup is designed to illicit what Beaudoin* calls “super-somnolent action” which mimics the early stage of sleep where the brain starts producing random imagery, signaling to your brain that it is safe and time to sleep. My argument is that the Cognitive Shuffling method can backfire if the imagery becomes too stimulating and you get pulled into thoughts instead of gently drifting.
The Mind Soup method is softer and requires less logical thinking. In order to induce a hypnogogic state, start off by imagining a scene that you remember from previous times that you have fallen asleep. For example, is there something you used to think of as a child while trying to fall asleep? Go back to a time where you didn’t battle sleep and remember the thoughts that floated between the stages of wakefulness and sleep.
Take those images and let them flow as they will. Flow is the key! Don’t actively think about what you are thinking about. Don’t try to make your thoughts make sense. In fact, let your thoughts be illogical, impractical, and as random as possible. Try to let your conscious, logical mind go. Let cruise control take over.
At this point you still have some awareness of your thoughts, but you are internally observing the illogical and irrationality of your mind. Slowly let that irrationality, the subconscious take over. Your thoughts don’t have to make sense. Remember, let your mind flow!
For example, to get myself into the hypnogogic state, I think of laying in my childhood bedroom, listening to my dad mowing the grass outside. That is the basic imagery that I use to release my mind and let my thoughts flow.
Then, I might think of my curtains blowing in the breeze. All the while, I’m loosening the conscious hold that I have on the story.
Maybe then a bird flies into my room and sits on the tail end of my curtain while it is blowing in the breeze. At this point, I know my logical mind is becoming fuzzy. A gentle breeze could have not kept the curtain and bird afloat.
Keep letting go of your thoughts and let them get as weird as they can. For me, the bird starts eating ice-cream, and so on and so forth into silliness and illogicality. Let it flow until your conscious mind fully releases.
I encourage you to try out the Mind Soup method. It sometimes works for me. Other times, I just can’t let go of the racing mind. But, this is a tool for your toolbox. There is no downside of trying.
If you are looking for a gentler approach toward addressing your chronic problems with sleep, please consider learning about The Rest ReSET program. It is a specific journaling practice that will help your nervous system purge the negative thoughts, emotions, and fears that may be at the root of your chronic insomnia. It will assist with releasing the stronghold of the subconscious mind and its influence on sleep.
* Beaudoin, Luc. (2014). A design-based approach to sleep-onset and insomnia: super-somnolent mentation, the cognitive shuffle and serial diverse imagining. Conference: Cognitive Science Society Annual Conference’s workshop on “Computational Modeling of Cognition-Emotion Interactions: Relevance to Mechanisms of Affective Disorders and Therapeutic Action” At: Québec
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