A cognitive scientist's search for relief from his own insomnia led to a genuinely novel technique now recommended by clinicians worldwide, one that works by giving the mind something to do rather than trying to force it into silence.
The Genuine Story Behind Its Discovery
Dr. Luc Beaudoin, a cognitive scientist at Simon Fraser University, developed the technique in 2009 while experiencing his own difficulty falling asleep, later explaining that he set out to understand the brain's sleep onset control system well enough to trick it into activating. Beaudoin found his own insomnia disappeared once he began applying the method, describing his surprise at how quickly and reliably it worked compared with anything he had tried before.
How the Technique Actually Works
The method, technically called serial diverse imagining, involves choosing a random, emotionally neutral word, then generating a quick series of unrelated images for each letter in that word, for example imagining a dog, a door and a diamond for the letter D before moving to the next letter. Beaudoin's theory holds that ordinary waking thought naturally seeks patterns and meaning, while this deliberately disjointed, non-narrative stream of images proves genuinely incompatible with the organized worrying and planning that typically keeps people awake.
What the Research Actually Shows
A study by Beaudoin and colleagues found that participants using this serial diverse imagining technique fell asleep faster than those using a traditional counting method, with the underlying theoretical framework drawing on a substantial body of existing research reviewed in a 2020 paper in Sleep Medicine Reviews. Clinical psychologists examining the approach note that its foundational theory, while still developing, aligns well with established principles in cognitive neuroscience and sleep psychology, particularly research on how mental arousal and rumination delay sleep onset.
Trying the Technique Tonight
- Choose any random, simple, emotionally neutral word, avoiding anything tied to worries, plans or strong emotions
- Work through each letter of the word, imagining two or three unrelated items starting with that letter before moving to the next
- Keep the images genuinely disconnected from each other, resisting the urge to build a story or find connections between them
- Consider a guided app version if generating random words feels effortful, since apps built on this technique provide a steady stream of curated prompts automatically
A Genuinely Useful Tool Rather Than a Complete Solution
Beaudoin himself emphasizes that cognitive techniques like this one work best alongside medical advice and formal cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, since chronic insomnia often involves multiple contributing factors requiring more comprehensive treatment. For occasional racing thoughts at bedtime, however, this technique offers a genuinely accessible, evidence informed tool worth trying before reaching for anything more involved.
The takeaway: The cognitive shuffle offers a genuinely clever, research grounded way to quiet a racing mind by replacing organized worry with deliberately random, disconnected imagery, giving the brain something incompatible with rumination to focus on instead.