According to some sleep experts, this technique can help end nighttime anxiety and help you fall asleep in the blink of an eye.

Some say it is the evil of our century: stress can cause many problems in our daily lives. It is especially the one that can prevent us from closing our eyes at night, when it absorbs our thoughts and cannot get rid of them. Nocturnal anxiety is in fact one of the main causes of sleep disorders or insomnia. But how can we quiet our mind, which is constantly buzzing at night, when we want to sleep peacefully? Certain anti-stress techniques can help calm our thoughts when they are agitated to promote sleep. This is the case of the method of “Cognitive Blending”

Published by Marie Claire.
The idea is to try to distract your mind to prevent it from focusing on the things that stress us out and thus make it easier to fall asleep.

In any case, this is what sleep experts explain, Semi Margo in the columns of Stylist UK : “Cognitive shuffling is designed to distract the mind from thoughts that might prevent a person from falling asleep.” But how to achieve this? According to the expert, it will be “Engage in a mental task that is absorbing enough to reduce anxiety, but easy enough to signal to the brain that it is time to rest”. More concretely, we can use e.g “Conceiving positive or calming images or lucid dreams, which signal to the brain that you are safe”

Sammy Margo continues.

How to study cognitive blending?

According to cognitive psychologists, the main objective is to prevent verbal types of thoughts. Luc Beaudoin, which is responsible for anxiety and difficulty sleeping. We speak of verbal thoughts to refer to thoughts that arise in the form of words, as opposed to sensory or visual thoughts. The problem with verbal thoughts, especially negative thoughts, is that they activate the frontal lobes to signal the brain that it is not ready for sleep.

One of the easiest exercises to practice cognitive shuffling, according to Semi Margo, is to start by choosing an object at random, visualizing it, then thinking of another object that begins with the letter of the word you chose. Then visualize them and repeat the operation until you fall into the arms of Morpheus with beautiful images in your head. The key is to make sure you go to bed in a comfortable, pleasant environment conducive to sleep.

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