{"id":627584,"date":"2026-06-08T13:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/627584\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T13:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:47:11","slug":"dr-amir-khan-shares-easy-brain-trick-for-when-you-just-cant-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/627584\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Amir Khan shares ‘easy’ brain trick for when you ‘just can’t sleep\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This method tells your brain it\u2019s ‘safe to sleep’\"Dr<\/p>\n

Dr Amir Khan shared his “best” technique for getting a good night’s sleep(Image: Dr Amir Khan\/Instagram)<\/p>\n

A doctor has shared an \u201ceasy\u201d brain trick to use when you \u201cjust can’t get off to sleep\u201d. He said this is his \u201cbest advice\u201d for shutting your mind off at night.<\/p>\n

Getting enough sleep is vital for your health and well-being. Not only does a poor night\u2019s sleep leave you tired, irritable, and unable to function properly, but long-term insomnia has been shown to raise your risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.<\/p>\n

According to the NHS<\/a>, around one in three of us will experience sleep issues at least once in our lives<\/a>. With this in mind, Doctor Amir Khan<\/a> shared a simple technique for falling asleep, even when your mind is racing.<\/p>\n

In a video posted to Instagram<\/a>, Dr Amir – who is best known for his appearances on ITV<\/a> – explained cognitive shuffling. This is a method that tells your brain it\u2019s \u201csafe to sleep\u201d.<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

In the video caption he said: \u201cI get so many DMs [direct messages] about sleep and how it can be improved, alongside all the usual sleep hygiene stuff – this is honestly my best advice. Try it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the video, he said: \u201cLet’s talk about a technique called cognitive shuffling. You know that I’ve talked at length about the health benefits of sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what if you just can’t get off to sleep<\/a> because your brain won’t let you? Imagine it – everyone else is asleep, the house is quiet, you’re lying there in bed but your mind won’t stop churning out stressful thoughts, work, money, kids, planning, scheduling, problem solving.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour brain is too active to let you sleep. In fact, the stress of all of these thoughts tells the brain that it’s not safe to sleep, and you have to stay on high alert.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, how do we fix this?\u201d Dr Amir then suggested cognitive shuffling as an \u201calternative\u201d to counting sheep.<\/p>\n

\"Insomnia\"<\/p>\n

Long-lasting insomnia can have a huge impact on your health(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

The idea is that this method interrupts your \u201cracing mind\u201d and instead invites the brain to \u201cgo into sleep mode\u201d. Dr Amir then explained exactly how to perform this technique.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, get into bed, lie down,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, think of a word that has no emotional connection to you.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really important that the word is completely neutral and ideally has no repeating letters. Good examples are \u2018bed\u2019 or \u2018dream\u2019, but let’s use the word bed as our example.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, take each letter of the word bed and think of as many words as you can beginning with that letter, and as you do picture those objects in your mind’s eye. So bed begins with the letter \u2018B\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther words that begin with the letter \u2018B\u2019 include \u2018binoculars\u2019, \u2018baseball\u2019, \u2018banana\u2019. As I’m thinking of them, I’m also picturing them in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve exhausted the letter B, I move on to the next letter, which is E. Dr Amir continued: \u201cNow, I’m thinking \u2018emus\u2019, \u2018elephants\u2019, eyes\u2019 and picturing them at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo the same with the letter \u2018D\u2019.\u201d If you\u2019ve not fallen asleep by the end of this word, move on to another word and do the same again.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

The average adult needs between seven and nine hours of sleep a night(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

Dr Amir said: \u201cAnd once I finish with the word \u2018bed\u2019, if I’m not already asleep, I’ll think of another word and do the same with that until I do fall asleep. If you’re struggling with sleeping, give this technique a go, it’s worth a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you’re really worried about sleep, speak to a healthcare professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much sleep we need<\/p>\n

The NHS states that the average adult needs between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. On average, children need nine to 13 hours, while toddlers and babies need 12 to 17 hours.<\/p>\n

The health body says you should see a GP if:<\/p>\n

Changing your sleeping habits has not helped your insomniaYou’ve had trouble sleeping for monthsYour insomnia is affecting your daily life in a way that makes it hard for you to cope<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This method tells your brain it\u2019s ‘safe to sleep’ Dr Amir Khan shared his “best” technique for getting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[24190,147134,10577,7811,102,115289,2960,65666,17695,2750,23498,103,347,104,370,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-627584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-amir-khan","tag-body-health","tag-fitness-and-health","tag-good-health","tag-health","tag-health-and-leisure","tag-healthcare","tag-healthy-life","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-heart-disease","tag-insomnia","tag-instagram","tag-itv","tag-nhs","tag-sleep","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}