Based on the "cognitive shuffle" technique, the app works by prompting
users to imagine various objects or scenes in rapid succession.Scientists have developed a first-of-its-kind smartphone app that harnesses the power of the imagination to help users nod off.
The app called mySleepButton works by preventing sleep-interfering thoughts and activating a mechanism that could help trigger sleep.
It incorporates concepts from cognitive science, a multidisciplinary study of the mind and its processes.
Based on the “cognitive shuffle” technique developed by Simon Fraser University, Canada, researcher Luc Beaudoin, the app works by prompting users to imagine various objects or scenes in rapid succession.
“For example, one moment, users may be directed to think of a baby, then next a football game, then beans, a ball, London and so on,” he said.
The method is based on the uniquely incoherent nature of sleep onset “mentation” a term used by Beaudoin that refers to all kinds of mental activity.