Woman discovers 'gamechanging' trick to fall asleep quickly after 25-year struggle
One woman has discovered a method of falling asleep that is definitely worth trying if you find it tough to doze off
As the benefits of a good night's sleep only grow in importance in the eyes of health experts, many continue to struggle with falling into a slumber each night. But one woman has discovered a method of falling asleep that is definitely worth trying if you find it tough to doze off.
Particularly at this time of year, when we are all readjusting our body clocks after the festive period, sleep can be a massive struggle for many.
We've all come across the various sleep hacks, herbal products and advice on what to avoid before bedtime in recent years but one woman believes she has finally found the perfect way to drift off at night, The Mirror reports.
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TikToker Pasha Marlowe, known as @NeuroQueerCoach on the social media platform, explained how she has used a psychological technique known as 'cognitive shuffling' to get over her 25-year struggle to fall asleep.
She said: "If your mind is like mine, it's very active, it's hard to quiet it at night."
Pasha explained how she's always found it hard to initially fall asleep because of her busy schedule and overactive brain, constantly compiling to-do lists in her head.
For those unfamiliar, the cognitive shuffling technique is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy that aims to disrupt a person's thought patterns by concentrating a task on specific words, phrases or images to take your mind off what may be keeping you up.
The concept was originally developed by Luc P. Beaudoin, who holds a PhD in cognitive science, and posits that focusing on random things will distract the mind from anxiety stressors, which may be getting in the way of falling asleep.
Pasha explained in her video: "You pick a word, and you take the first letter of the word and think of as many things you can that begin with the same letter." She gave the example of the word 'pumpkin' and listed words all beginning with P.
Pasha said once you run out of words, you then go to the next letter of the original word, so she then gave examples for things beginning with U - "I have fallen asleep before I finish the letters for the word I choose every time. Because it's random thoughts," she explained, adding: "It's not the thoughts that keep you up at night."
Dr. Scott Walker, a Denver-based dermatologist also took to TikTok to call this a "light-switch moment" for him, and said the technique is the same as "rearranging" the thoughts in your head, similar to shuffling a deck of cards. He said distracting your mind in this way helps to create "micro dreams" which he said "gives your brain the green light to go to sleep".
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