Sleep ToolboxAn Everyday Insight tool

Word pictures

Picturing simple, unrelated things one at a time, to give a busy mind something dull to do.

Once it starts, you can turn the screen off and set the phone face down.

When the mind is busy at night, trying to stop thinking rarely works. This gives it something easy and harmless to do instead, a string of simple pictures that don’t connect or lead anywhere. You can play it in bed at lights out, as a way to let sleep come. If you’re still awake after what feels like about 20 min, or you start to feel alert or frustrated, get up and go to another room. You can keep playing there, sitting up in dim light, and go back to bed when you’re sleepy. The idea comes from Luc Beaudoin, a cognitive scientist. So far it has been tested in one early study with university students, shared at a conference and not yet published in a journal, so treat it as something to try and keep if it suits you.

Narration

Read along

  1. Settle in the way you usually would. You can close your eyes now. The words will come one at a time.
  2. For each word, picture the thing. Its shape, its color, maybe where it sits. Keep the picture loose. It doesn’t have to be right.
  3. When the next word comes, let the last picture go. The things have nothing to do with each other. That’s on purpose.
  4. The word is maple. Start with M.
  5. Mitten.
  6. Mushroom.
  7. Marble.
  8. Mailbox.
  9. Melon.
  10. Mug.
  11. A.
  12. Anchor.
  13. Acorn.
  14. Armchair.
  15. Accordion.
  16. Avocado.
  17. Apron.
  18. P.
  19. Pebble.
  20. Parrot.
  21. Pumpkin.
  22. Piano.
  23. Pinecone.
  24. Paperclip.
  25. L.
  26. Lemon.
  27. Ladder.
  28. Lighthouse.
  29. Llama.
  30. Leaf.
  31. Lunchbox.
  32. E.
  33. Envelope.
  34. Egg.
  35. Easel.
  36. Elephant.
  37. Eraser.
  38. Elbow.
  39. If you’re still awake, pick a calm word of your own and keep going, one letter at a time. If you start to feel alert or frustrated, it’s fine to get up for a while.
  40. Keep the pictures coming at your own pace.

Everyday Insight’s tools are for education and personal reflection. They are not therapy or medical care, and they are not for emergencies. In an emergency, call 911. If you are in crisis in the United States, call or text 988.