The mySleepButton press kit can be downloaded here.
Media Highlights
- 2022-01-13. Luc P. Beaudoin was interviewed along with Dr. Elliot Lee by Matt Galloway on The Current (c. 25 min interview). The CBC published an article about it on its website. Summary and links here.
- The May 2017 issue of O Magazine (Oprah’s print magazine) includes an article on the cognitive shuffle and Dr. Luc P. Beaudoin (also available online). (Beaudoin is a CogSci Apps co-founder.)
- 2017-05-02. Global TV News prime time interview of Luc P. Beaudoin about the cognitive shuffle and its rationale.
- 2017 article in The Guardian “My top recommendation remains the visualisation method known as the “cognitive shuffle”. 2016 article The Guardian article by Oliver Burkeman explains the cognitive shuffle and mySleepButton (2016-07-15), and recommends
- 2014-05-09 Global TV News BC video recording of Luc P. Beaudoin for their 6 O’clock newscast: Linda Aylesworth interviewing cognitive scientist, inventor and co-founder, Dr. Beaudoin.
- 2016-07-20. Radio interview: Aaron Rand Show of CJAD 800 interviewed Beaudoin about the cognitive shuffle.
Recent Press
mySleepButton® and CogSci Apps Corp. co founder, Dr. Luc P. Beaudoin, have frequently featured in the media and news.
- 2024-08-24. CNET published Skip Counting Sheep. This New Sleep Hack You’ve Never Heard of Can Put You Right to Sleep article by Sean Jackson.
- 2024-08 @DrSermedMezher’s youtubbe short on cognitive shuffling garnered over 1.4 million views.
- 2024-07-26. Hannah Yasharoff reported on the cognitive shuffle for Women’s Health Magazine.
- 2023-2024. If you do a web search for “cognitive shuffle” over the last year, 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.
- 2023-02-06. mySleepButton and the cognitive shuffle were recommended in a Well+Good article.
- 2022-09-29. Luc P. Beaudoin was interviewed by Jason Osler for CBC Radio nationally syndicated content regarding psychological effects and possible uses of brown noise, in response to an article in The New York Times. This aired in Montreal Oct 1 and is expected to be aired in all provinces.
- 2022-07-16. mySleepButton was listed amongst the top 5 Best Smartwatch Sleep Tracking Apps to Help You Get a Good Night’s Rest.
- 2022-07-12. Luc P. Beaudoin was interviewed by Claire Wilson for an article on sleep apps which also appeared in Squamish Chief.
- 2022-05-21. The editorial team of LINFO.RE, a private French TV station, published an article on the cognitive shuffle. However, the article did not correctly report the results.
- 2022-01-15. Luc P. Beaudoin was interviewed along with Dr. Elliot Lee by Matt Galloway on The Current (c. 25 min interview). The CBC published an article about the segment on its website. Summary and links here.
- 2021-12-31. Luc P. Beaudoin was interviewed by Chad Pawson of CBC News “Looking for self-improvement in the new year? Developing better sleep habits may be your best choice”.
- 2021-11-09. Luc P. Beaudoin was interviewed by Jane Adie on CBC radio about sleep, insomnolence and mental perturbance. (Second part of this audio.)
- 2021-06-18 IFLScience “Sleep Expert Shares Simple Trick To Help You Fall Asleep Quickly”.
- 2021-06-16. LifeHacker published an article by Meghan Moravcik Walbert: Fall Asleep Faster Using ‘Cognitive Shuffling’ .
- 2020-03-26. A long-form article by science journalist Peter Brems was published on the public Belgian news site (in Flemish). It presents sleep tips for the covid-19 era. It has a big section on Luc’s research and the cognitive shuffle.
- 2020-02-06. Luc was interviewed by Neetu Garcha on Global TV BC regarding brain fitness and cognitive productivity.
- 2019-09-22. Luc was interviewed by Maureen McGrath The Sunday Night Health Show | Global News about sleep issues.
- 2019-08-30. Luc was interviewed by Monique Polloni @ Radio-Canada (BC and Yukon). He discussed insomnolence and perturbance, two of his scientific (technical) neologisms and concepts at the heart of his R&D on “insomnia” and “emotions”. Summary here.Or listen here: Boulevard du Pacifique | ICI Radio-Canada.ca Première.
- 2019-07-13. Luc was interviewed by Radio-Canada (CBC Radio in French) : Le sommeil réparateur: un rêve à dormir debout? More information in English here.
- 2019-04-01. For a new podcast, Luc Beaudoin was interviewed about sleep by Ryan Takagi, Simon Fraser University rowing coach. Ryan specializes in athletic wellness & performance.
- 2019-02-08. A new CogSci Apps invention was praised in Lifehacker. That’s the second CogSci Apps® invention to get such accolades there. The new product is Hook (productivity) for macOS.
- 2018-10-24. University of British Columbia, which is ranked among the top 20 public universities worldwide and top three in Canada, lists mySleepButton in its short list of Suggested Mental Health Apps.
- 2018-10-04. Luc Beaudoin was interviewed for a major Airline’s website about sleep and travel. Details to follow.
- 2018-06-11. Luc Beaudoin was interviewed on Radio-Canada (CBC)about a recent study on sleep and health across Canadian provinces. Noteworthy is the lack of quotes as Beaudoin refused to read anything in these tables.
- 2018-04-19. Luc Beaudoin participated in a TV panel on “sleep and aging” hosted by Carmen Ruiz y Laza for Zoomer Media with Farouq Manji and Geoff Cowman.
- 2018-01-24. Health Magazine, an American magazine focused on women’s health, owned by Time Inc., recommended mySleepButton as one of “9 Things to Do When You Can’t Sleep Because Your Mind Is Racing“. (The only app they recommended). (“one out of every seven Internet users visits a Time Inc. website (more than 26 million unique visitors)”).
- 2018-01-17. Moneyish , a Dow Jones Group publication, updated “You have to try this scientist’s technique for falling asleep faster” by Catey Hill.
- 2018-01-13. Australian web site Nine.com.au, a Microsoft partner, published “Feeling insomniac? The ‘cognitive sleep shuffle’ could be a night-time game changer” written by .
- 2018-01-11. Monica Torres wrote on New York based jobs website, Ladders, “When you fail at counting sheep, try this word game to fall asleep”.
- 2017-09-20. Luc Beaudoin was interviewed about poor quality sleep and sleep apps (including mySleepButton) by CBC Television (Christine Birak) for The National. Due to an earthquake in Mexico and a Hurricane elsewhere, parts of it were broadcast elsewhere on CBC TV instead and written-up on CBC’s web site.
- 2017-09-08. Oliver Burkeman wrote another article for The Guardian in which he mentioned, “My top recommendation remains the visualisation method known as the “cognitive shuffle”.”
- 2017-08: Beaudoin interviewed by Roundhouse Radio again, this time about the cognitive shuffle and kids sleep.
- 2017-08-07. HuffPost published Kelly DiNardo’s article on the cognitive shuffle and mySleepButton.
- 2017-05-20. Beaudoin’s research, the cognitive shuffle and BoutonDodo/mySleepButton covered in France today: “Troubles du sommeil : un chercheur canadien a trouvé une solution simple“
- c. 2017-05-19. Inc Magazine’s Jessica Stillman published “Does Your Restless Mind Keep You Up at Night? Try This Simple Mind Trick“
- 2017-05-16. Luc Beaudoin was interviewed by Cory of Roundhouse Radio. (Audio recording.) Talked about insomnia as an emotion process (perturbance), and hinted at new developments of the cognitive shuffle and mySleepButton that will soon be published.
- 2017-05-08. Chatelaine Magazine: “Can’t sleep? Here’s a new technique that might help”. This is the first article in the popular press/media, we think, that used the term perturbance, that Beaudoin coined in 1992 to refer to a specifically human class of emotional phenomena. In April, at the University of Bath, England, and the University of Birmingham, England, Beaudoin presented a paper co-authored with Drs. Sylwia Hyniewska and Eva Hudlicka on the concept of perturbance: “Perturbance: Unifying Research on Emotion, Intrusive Mentation and Other Psychological Phenomena with AI.” (Symposium on Computational Modelling of Emotion: Theory and Application at AISB–2017.) Paper available from http://summit.sfu.ca/item/16776. An extension of this idea will be presented by Beaudoin, Sylwia Hyniewska and Célyne H. Bastien at ISRE-2017. Perturbance will also figure in the papers they are writing about the cognitive shuffle.
- 2017-05-07.”KNOCKED OUT” Lila MacLellan of Quartz (New York) writes an elegant article “A cognitive scientist has devised a drug-free sleep trick for your restless mind“.
- 2017-05-01 to 2017-05-04. Luc P. Beaudoin accepted over 20 interview requests from radio stations, TV stations and journalists across Canada in English and French (Global TV, SiriusXM, CBC, Radio-Canada, Chatelaine, CJAD 800 in Montreal, etc.). From Victoria to St-Johns Newfoundland, and as far north as Yellowknife. E.g., Tasha Kheiriddin By AM640 (also this podcast of 2017-05-03, she qualified the cognitive shuffle as “Sleep techniques for lazy people”). (Why? Well this is his contribution to getting the word out about extensions/applications of cognitive science to the unique window into the human mind that is sleep onset. And what easier way is there to visit potentially millions of Canadians coast-to-coast?) Here’s a recording of Beaudoin interviewed on Mainstreet Halifax \x96 CBC Radio.
- 2017-04-30. Luc P. Beaudoin was interviewed by CBC TV News about the cognitive shuffle. CBC also published an article based on the interview.
- 2017-04-28. The May issue of O Magazine (print edition of Oprah’s magazine) includes an article on the cognitive shuffle by Kelly DiNardo. (Their annual readership is apparently > 11 million.)
- 2016-11-23. The December issue of Women’s Health Magazine (UK) includes an article by Virginia Woodhall on mental wellbeing. The article has a 243-word section about the cognitive shuffle, based on Virginia’s recent interview with Luc. (Globally, WHM reaches 8 million readers annually.)
- For Roundhouse Radio’s “Sense of Place” Minelle Mahtani interviewed Luc live this morning about sleep at this time of year.
- 2016-10-08. Opus Magazine’s article “Welcome to the world of online mental health support” includes mySleepButton and other online mental health tools.
- 2016-09-28. National Magazine, the official periodical of the Canadian Bar Association, covered mySleepButton: Insomnia? There’s an app for that.
- 2016-09-08. Phil Melnychuk wrote an article about Luc for the Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows News: “The Science of Thinking“.
- 2016-08-29. A Bangladesh news article on mySleepButton.
- 2016-08-11 Sympatico news (French) article on the cognitive shuffle and BoutonDodo (French version of mySleepButton.)
- 2016-07-26. New article by Emma Haak (on Oprah): “Doing [serial diverse imagining] Can Take Your Mind Off Whatever’s Keeping You Up“. See our documentation for our perspective.
- 2016-07-20. Aaron Rand Show of CJAD 800 interviewed Beaudoin about the cognitive shuffle. Great questions!
- 2016-07-20. Luc Beaudoin was interviewed by Virgin Radio UK @ 10:30 AM GMT.
- 2016-07-18. Luc Beaudoin was interviewed on CTV news (a national Canadian news network), where he briefly explains the technique. This link includes the recording (c. 4 min).
- 2016-07-15. The Guardian published an article by Oliver Burkeman that briefly explains the cognitive shuffle and mySleepButton.
- 2016-07-07. mySleepButton was featured in the New York Times as “A Snooze-Worthy App”.
- 2016-06-27: In the last couple of days, mySleepButton and CogSci Apps Corp. co-founder/inventor Dr. Luc Beaudoin were featured in The Globe & Mail, CBC News and GlobalTV , discussing wearable technologies to improve health.
- 2016-06-23: A Forbes Magazine article by David DiSalvo featuring Dr. Beaudoin’s research and mySleepButton was published today.
- 2016-06-16. This week, co-founder Dr. Beaudoin was interviewed three times: on Radio-Canada (“Phare Ouest”), on News1130, and CFAX (Victoria, Ian Jessop), regarding his research with Dr. Nancy Digdon (MacEwan University) presented at SLEEP-2016 (Denver, CO).
- 2016-06-10. R&D related to mySleepButton was featured by Simon Fraser University.
- 2016-05-02. Dr. Beaudoin published an article on SharpBrains.com about cognitive techniques to promote sleep onset.
- 2016-03-19. A great review of mySleepButton on Lifehacker.
- 2016-03-18. A great review of mySleepButton on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools web site, which reviews “tried […] true [and] wonderful” products. (KK.org is the site of the founding executive editor of Wired magazine)
- On 2015–03–09 (Monday afternoon). Luc was a guest on CFAX 1070 (Victoria) – The Drive with Terry Moore, to discuss the pros and cons of Daylight Saving Time (DST). One of Luc’s points was that most psychological research about DST focuses on 1 to 14 days before and after time change. We need more research on this issue to consider the possible psychological and health impacts of abandoning DST. This research needs to consider recent societal changes (e.g., information technology.) More important than DST effects are the effects of sleep deprivation throughout the entire year: we are a chronically sleep deprived society. Time change is an opportunity for entire states and provinces to consider the importance of sleep and to plan the next several months of sleep.
- On 2015–03–09 (Monday morning). Luc was interviewed by Sophie Lui & Steve Darling for the Global TV MORNING NEWS BC on napping and DST.
- On 2015–03–08 (Sunday) Luc was interviewed by Anne-Diandra Louarn of Radio-Canada TV for their 6PM newscast and Monday radio news slots about Daylight Savings Time.
- On 2015–03–07 (Saturday) Luc was interviewed by CKNW. “Clocks tick tock an hour ahead Sunday | (CKNW AM) AM980”.
- On 2015–02–05, Isabelle Lacasse featured mySleepButton on Entré-Principale, a 4 PM TV talk show (Radio-Canada).
- On 2015–01–14 at 17:45, co-founder, Dr. Luc P. Beaudoin will be interviewed again by Jacques Dufresne on Boulevard du Pacifique, a Radio-Canada (CBC Radio French) show.
- EurekaWeb, European web site that covers new inventions, featured “mySleepButton: an app to help you fall asleep” in French and in English.
- c 2015–01–08, mySleepButton (BoutonDodo) was discussed on Le Véro Show, 98.1, Eastern Townships of Quebec.
- 2015–01–02. Lots of press recently, including Google News and MSN, TMC.TV, l’informatique, Le Lézard and larep.fr (short for “la République”) and Femme Actuelle, following our recent release of mySleepButton for Android and in French as BoutonDodo.
- On 2014–08–11, mySleepButton was listed by DailyTekk as a promising product to help you sleep better.
- mySleepButton is listed as “Some things are just … better” in the August 2014 print edition of Popular Science (circulation > 1.3 million copies).
- On July 24, 2014, Luc was interviewed by Radio 1550 AM regarding mySleepButton and the science behind it.
- On June 17, 2014, Luc was quoted in an article by Pooja Bhatia on OZY in her article “The Spoken-Word Revolution”. This is not about sleep, but it is pertinent to cognitive productivity, which mySleepButton and future CogSci Apps products promotes. She interviewed Beaudoin because of an article he wrote on CogZest.com about the cognitive productivity benefits of dictation.
- On May 20, 2014. The Government of Canada’s Canadian Institute of Health Research posted two entries about mySleepButton and Luc’s research on the cognitive shuffle on their Facebook pages (Health Research in Canada/La recherche en santé au Canada). That’s the IRSC/CIHR .
- On May 13, 2014 Luc P. Beaudoin was interviewed by Mary-Ann Russon of International Business Times (London), “Can’t Sleep? MySleepButton App Hijacks Thoughts to Help Sleep”.
- On May 9, 2014, Luc was interviewed by Linda Aylesworth on Global TV News BC, “SFU researchers launch a new sleep app” The interview appeared on the 6 O’clock newscast. The interview was filmed that day during and after Luc’s presentation on sleep and cognitive productivity at Simon Fraser University’s Learning Together Conference. A great television-interview!
- The BC Medical Journal reported on mySleepButton on its web site.
- On May 12, 2014, an article in Metro Vancouver: “Banana! Trucks! Pluto! … Feeling sleepy yet? SFU researcher creates app to help people sleep”.
- On May 9, 2014, Luc was interviewed by Carol Off on CBC As It Happens. From Wikipedia: “One of the most popular and acclaimed shows on CBC Radio; it is also distributed in the United States by Public Radio International”. The interview with Luc is at the tail end of that episode.
- On May 12, 2014 Luc was interviewed by Jacques Dufresne in French on Radio Canada Colombie-Britannique et Yukon (French) : “Santé: Une application pour mieux dormir”. On travaille sur une version française de cet app.
- On May 12, 2014. Luc was interviewed by Gord Vizzuttu AM1150 Radio in Kelowna (BC) 2014–05–12 at 7:45 AM.
- On May 11, 2014 (3:45PM to 4:00PM). Luc was interviewed live on World Today Weekend on The World Today Weekend with Sean Leslie CKNW Radio in Vancouver, “Focus: Having Trouble Sleeping? There’s a New App for That. An SFU Professor Has Developed a New Sleep Aid App Called ‘mySleepButton’ Which Helps You Sleep Better by Harnessing the Power of the Imagination. How Does It Work?”
- Also an article by the Georgia Straight.
- An article in The Vancouver Sun
- Several radio interviews , including CKNW and News 1130 in Vancouver.
- CTV News Vancouver, “Sleep app shuffles your thoughts”
- The Province, “SFU researcher develops app to help you go to sleep”
- May 20th, 2014: The Peak: Insomnia? There’s an app for that
App shuffles thoughts before sleep to interrupt busy thinking Check out the cartoon of mySleepButton in use there. - May 28, 2014, Carleton University’s Independent Weekly published: BC professor develops app to help insomniacs
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 insomnia (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. Further, the theory has evolved since its initial publication. (Dr. Beaudoin, Dr. Daniel Kay, Dr. Célyne H. Bastien and Dr. Monika Pudlo are preparing a manuscript.) It will require a large number of experiments to tease out the diverse implications of this new theory. 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.
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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mySleepButton Shuffle Your Thoughts to Sleep™