The mySleepButton press kit can be downloaded here.

Please note (per disclaimers at end of this page), we do not endorse any media report, we are just reporting on some of them. We hope the media attention will encourage sleep researchers to do studies comparing the cognitive shuffle with other bedtime cognitive techniques such as monotonous imagery (Morin & Azrin, 1987),  articulatory suppression and Cognitive Refocusing Treatment for Insomnia.

Media Highlights

Recent Press

mySleepButton® and CogSci Apps Corp. co founder, Dr. Luc P. Beaudoin, have frequently featured in the media and news.

If you do a web search for web pages containing the “cognitive shuffle” that were published after November 2023 , you’ll see there have been too many articles and videos about it to be captured here. We haven’t been doing any promotion. It’s just going viral. So below is just some of the coverage.

Psychology, Medicine and Other Mental Health Disciplines

Sleep researchers, such as Allison Harvey of UCLA Berkley, have long been calling for new cognitive treatments for insomnia. “Recognizing the complexity of different forms of thought and systematically identifying management strategies that are helpful and unhelpful for effectively managing unwanted thought while trying to get to sleep will be an important direction for future research” (Allison G. Harvey, Nicole K.Y. Tang and Lindsay Browning, 2005, p. 600). The cognitive shuffle is a rare response to this call.

 

Caveats and the Importance of Critical Information Processing

While the cognitive shuffle is based on a theory of sleep onset and insomnolence (now called the “Somnolent Information-Processing” theory) that taps into and extends prior research (e.g., on sleep onset mentation and monotonous imagery training), it is also innovative.  It calls for an empirical research programme. The theory raises a large number of new empirical questions. There have as yet only been preliminary empirical studies specifically on this theory. It would/will take years to tease out its implications. As such we  make no claims about the effectiveness of particular treatments derived from the theory including the cognitive shuffle.  Further, the theory has evolved since its initial publication.  A chapter by Luc P. Beaudoin and Sheryl Guloy about the somnolent information processing theory and the cognitive shuffle will appear in the upcoming Cambridge University Press book on Sleep Theories (edited by Daniel Kay, expected in late 2025).

We see an acute need for studies comparing different forms of the cognitive shuffle with  other bedtime cognitive techniques such as monotonous imagery (Morin & Azrin, 1987), articulatory suppression and Cognitive Refocusing Treatment for Insomnia. The cognitive shuffle shares features with the latter techniques (e.g., tying up the visual-spatial scratchpad and the phonological loop) but goes beyond them (e.g., attempting to mimic sleep onset mentation). The pro-somnolent mentation concept is particularly original and in need of testing; i.e., SDI is not just distraction. Beaudoin & Guloy (in paper referenced above)  proposed serial diverse kinesthetic imagining which should be even more counter-insomnolent than non kinesthetic imagining as it ties up more of the connectome, including the corpus callosum.

The cognitive shuffle is not intended as a replacement for CBT-I, rather it is a technique that could, if validated, be part of CBT-I. It is a possible adjunct to sleep hygiene, not a replacement for it. Moreover, according to the SIP theory, the cognitive shuffle only (hypothetically) acts on a few of the postulated mechanisms of sleep onset and insomnolence.

Please refer also to “the science” page. Moreover, we have derived new treatments from the extended Somnolent Information-Processing theory, which we intend to implement in mySleepButton.

As noted elsewhere, we hope to see incorporated in articles on the cognitive shuffle mention of Beaudoin’s concept of insomnolence (difficulty getting [back] to sleep) which is different from insomnia. Not all insomnolence is insomnia, nor vice versa. Insomnia is a clinical condition whereas insomnolence is often normally benign.

Co-founder Dr. Luc P. Beaudoin is committed to knowledge translation, that is, applying scientific findings and educating the public about them. This page is not meant as a recommendation for information about mySleepButton or insomnia. Media interviews are typically very short and informal. They are aimed at a general audience. Moreover, we do not control writing or editing about our work, and take no responsibility for claims, nor does linking imply agreement or approval. Interviews are not suitable for highly nuanced, technical and scientific discussion.

We encourage anyone interested in mySleepButton and related subjects to read books and articles on sleep and cognitive science by scientific authorities (books, podcasts, articles, etc.). More generally, we encourage readers to educate themselves about how to assess knowledge resources. Chapter 11 of Luc Beaudoin’s book, Cognitive Productivity, and his new book, Cognitive Productivity with macOS®: 7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge, provide detailed tips for assessing knowledge resources, including news media resources.

Readers might also wish to check out our Sleep Tips and read the publications on Luc P. Beaudoin’s academic web site. Stay tuned there for more research publications related to Somnolent Information-Processing theory.

Further

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