WORD:
W is for weird, wisp, water, world, wonder, whisker, whisper, wait, watch, witty, walk, winter……
O is for — Oh! Sorry. Ha ha. I drifted off there. You see, I'm trying a "fall asleep" technique a friend told me about.
Here's how it works. Once you get into bed, (or if you wake up in the middle of the night), think of a four letter word that has no repeating letters. Then, in your head, list all the words you can think of that start with each letter, in turn. Such as, let's say you choose the word "WORD." You'd go through W, then do O, then R, then D.
The inventor, a BC-based researcher at Simon Fraser University named Luc Beaudoin, calls it a "cognitive shuffle." He came up with this word-play sleep theory way back in April 2017. It has since been featured on CBC News, in the New York Times, and in Oprah's "O" magazine.
I'm loving this exercise. Most nights, I fall asleep before even getting around to the second letter in my Word of the Night. Or, if my brain has been overdrive all day, I might complete a whole word and then start on another. I find this fun. I go to sleep happy.
It's a little like meditation. My mind can concentrate on the task for a short time. Take R, for example. My list might be: radical, radiate, rascal, repetition …. and then my thoughts will drift away on totally unrelated topics — a review of the day, worries about tomorrow — you know the drill. And then, I'll interrupt myself and remind my crazed brain to go back to the word list. Oh, yeah, R: rhyme, rhythm, room, rumor, rude…..rude, yeah, that so and so waitress today was so rude……alright, back on track, Lesley. Okay. R: rerun, rotten, rival, roof…..
The whole idea is to stop your thought rollercoaster. And it works! I relax and let words come into my head by free association: relax, rest, …..and… I'm sleep.
Finding the right word to get under way can be tricky. Here are my tips to get you started:
Avoid conjugating complex, multi-syllabic words. We all know you're smart, but this isn't the best time to show off your vocabulary. For instance, O can get complicated: obvious, obsession, obstruct, obviate, obfuscate, obliterate, opinion, osmosis. These are brainy, word-nerd playgrounds, but at 3 in the morning, you don't need to be doing mental gymnastics. The goal is sleep, remember? Stick with: open, over, owl, ohm...
Also bad choices are clunkers with K and Q: kite, kazoo, kayak, quack, quake. These shake your brain (and rattle your nerves. See what I did there?)
I haven't found much joy in Z either. Which is ironic, given that the universal cartoon symbol for sleep is, "ZZZZZZZZZZ." But, really, who actually knows more than a handful of words that start with Z? Zero, zebra, zoo, zylophone… no, wait, that start's with an X. Forget Z and X. Y isn't much better — except for yawn, which is, of course, suggestive and useful.
A riff on any letter could dredge up distressing words. Beware danger zones. For example, here's D: dread, dumb, dumber, dull, dismay, defective, distraught, dastardly, despicable. See? Bad words happen! Before you know it you're all stressed out and depressed. Try to grab more affirmative words and let them float into your head, like: drowsy, dozy, dream, drift, dove, dolphin, daffodil….
In fact, it's best to stay away from hot button words altogether. You could be going alone peacefully with P: posies, poppies, puffy, pet, puddle, purple, perfume, pillow… and suddenly POLITICS pops into your noggin. That's gonna keep you up all night!
I find that it's better to feed your brain simple, affirmative words with friendly letters in them.
Try something like CALM. C is for comfy, cozy, cupcake, cuddle……A is for amiable, amble, angel, art, awesome…. L is for love, lamb, loaf, lull, lullaby… Asleep yet? Aren't going to make it to M, are we?
Some of my favorite sleepy words contain B. Bed, blankets, biscuit, baby, banana, bounce, boat, bobbin, bird, bee, butterfly….ahhh, yes, beautiful butterflies.…floating…flitting....drifting….getting…sooooo….sleepy.
Night night!
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