Dr. Joe Whittington, 47, was an emergency doctor for two decades, but he may still find it difficult to calm his mind after leaving the hospital.
As he tried to move away after a particularly chaotic shift, he continued to think of a victim of crashing motorcycles whose vital signs had a tank, a patient who developed rot and another whose heart had suddenly stopped beating.
His tendency to repeat the events of the night – and his irregular hours of work – often made it difficult to sleep. Over the years, he has tried deep breathing, meditation and melatonin, before finally stumbling into a technique called cognitive redirection.
Sleep strategy helps to “force my mind out of this loop and in a situation where I can finally rest,” said Dr. Whittington, who shared it on his Instagram account, who has more than 750,000 fans.
“Cognitive Shuffling” has been infected with social media for years, but is it really working? We talked with sleep experts and the scientist who created the technique to learn more.
What is cognitive redirect?
Cognitive Redirection is a mental exercise that includes focusing on your mind in words that have nothing to do with each other as a way of signing in your brain that it’s time to sleep. The task is intended to get involved enough to distract you from the thoughts that may prevent you from sleeping, but not so interesting that your brain is projecting.
You start by taking a random word – “Pluto”, for example. Then think of as many words as possible with the same first letter as: “Air, Poodle, Game, Peaches”. When you run out of the words “P”, you can proceed to the next letter of your original word, which is “l”, and do the same thing: “Love, Lemur, Linger”. Take about a second to visualize each word.
Research shows that when people are naturally dragged, their minds are often full of vibrant images or distant thoughts, said Luc P. Beaudoin, a Canadian cognitive scientist who developed the cognitive redirection technique. The goal is to help your mind mimic this process, he added.
“These images do not create a clear line of history and can help your brain disconnect from problem solving or concerns,” said Dr. Beaudoin, who markets a technique based.
How did the idea come about?
Dr. Beaudoin created cognitive redirect more than 15 years ago because he suffered from insomnia and wanted to find a solution.
In 2016, he and his colleagues decided to study it. About 150 students were hired and assigned a group to make cognitive redirect. A second group was called upon to spend 15 minutes early in the evening, marking their concerns and any possible solutions, a method that psychologists refer to as constructive concern. A third group had said to do both.
After about a month, the researchers found that each of the methods was equally effective. But participants who had tried both were more likely to evaluate the cognitive redirection method as more useful and easier to use.
The study of Dr. Beaudoin, presented in 2016 at the Conference of associated Sleep companies in Denver, fell the eye of a journalist on the Forbes journalist who then wrote about it. Soon the idea was widely released online.
Should you try it?
Probably.
There is not enough evidence to support the use of cognitive redirection as primary treatment for insomnia, said Dr. Jorge I. Mora, head of the clinical affairs in the division of medical sleep at the University of Pennsylvania.
“We need to study this more so that we can be fully said. Yes, this should be a consistent tool, such as CBT-i. It is,” said Dr. Mora, referring to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, a treatment that has been shown to help people who are often struggling to fall.
However, there is no damage to a cognitive redirection of a test, provided that it is used as a supplement to methods based on evidence, experts said.
“When it works, Wow, it can really help some people,” said Shelby Harris, a clinical psychologist in the New York area specializing in Behavioral Sleep Medicine.
As the technique has grown in popularity, people have created their own unique variations. Dr. Harris sometimes suggests that her patients are trying to come with random cupcake combinations, such as red velvet with vanilla frozen or chocolate with frozen cream cheese, until they are carved.
But if you try the cognitive redirection and notice that it doesn’t work and get frustrated – or if you are no more sleepier after 20 minutes – Dr. Harris advised you to get up and find something else to calm your mind.
He suggested that he do a quiet activity in faint light – such as stretching, coloring or working in a puzzle – and then returns to bed when you feel drowsiness.
“I even read old cookbooks – I collect them – and the things I finally want to do,” said Dr. Harris. “It helps to spend time and act as a place owner for the busy brain.”
