Toss and turn. Count sheep. Stare at the ceiling. Sigh when looking at the clock on the nightstand. Read a book. Or simply give up and phone-scroll.

Let’s face it: Falling asleep can be difficult.

According to the National Council on Aging, insomnia affects about one in three Americans. A recent survey commissioned by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) found that 12 percent of Americans have been diagnosed with chronic insomnia. It also affects as many as 24 percent of adolescents.

The challenge of sleep onset can also include staying asleep and awakening earlier than desired, even though a person allows for sufficient time for sleep in bed (AASM, 2024).

The chronic dilemma doesn’t only affect people’s nights. According to AASM president, Dr. Eric J. Olson, it concerns daily functioning and can also be linked to lower mental health and wellness. In addition, it can be connected to a heightened risk for Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease (AASM, 2024).

Treatments include medication and a form of psychotherapy called CBT-I, which is offered over six to eight sessions and includes various methods of helping to induce sleep.

How, then, does innovation enter the sleep world?

Cognitive scientist Luc P. Beaudoin is fascinated with “insomnolence,” which, in his words, is “simply the difficulty one sometimes experiences falling asleep.” That difficulty, he reasons, is not always the same as insomnia.

That desire to fall asleep is a time of the night—or day—that can be maddening to many people. For some individuals, it’s a “small window of time,” in Beaudoin’s words. For others, it can be an immense picture window.

He has devised an idea for falling asleep consistent with a “random word” technique in the field of creative thinking. In deliberate creative thinking, a person takes a random word and applies it to the problem at hand. The two things may not fit naturally, causing the brain to develop creative connections that perhaps lead to innovative solutions. Imagine trying to improve vending machines. Using the random word of “casino,” an idea could be to modify the machines into a roulette-style game where people insert money, and, if the roulette wheel stops on their lucky number, their selection is free.

Beaudoin’s sleep idea—cognitive shuffling—uses a random word approach to slumber, a topic that has interested him since his undergraduate studies. Even then, he wondered if it would be possible to derive a prediction of falling asleep.

The idea was also personal. “Sometimes, on Sunday nights, as an undergraduate, I had difficulty falling asleep,” Beaudoin admitted.

He began a serious investigation on sleep onset starting in 2012. A pilot study on his notion of cognitive shuffling ensued. He presented his idea at a conference in 2014, and his notion was picked up in the media, including by O, The Oprah Magazine (CBC, 2017).

Beaudoin is quick to clarify that his cognitive shuffling technique is grounded in his theory of the Sleep Onset Control System.

Instead of turning the brain switch to “off” while trying to fall asleep, his theory says the opposite. A person should engage their brain at that time, but not in a way pointed toward life’s problems.

The process of cognitive shuffling is straightforward. While attempting to fall asleep, choose a random word, then come up with other words that start with the same letter. If the random word, for instance, is “dog,” subsequent “d” words could be “dart,” “dragon,” and “dinghy.” Visualize the word as it comes to mind. When unable to think of more “d” words, the person chooses the second letter of the first word, “dart,” and develops a list of “a” words. With no clear storyline, the brain might disengage from problem-solving

Beaudoin, who is also an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University, related that he has done three studies on cognitive shuffling. A fourth investigation comparing cognitive shuffling with other cognitive techniques is planned for later this year.

The initial results have been promising. “We have found that cognitive shuffling is as effective as other techniques that have been tested against,” Beaudoin said.