I tried a Chief Medical Officer's hack to fall asleep fast after waking up at 3 a.m. and it worked — here's why

The image shows a dark haired woman in bed practising cognitive shuffling to fall back asleep quickly, while an inset image of a clock reads 3am.

It's impressive how quickly my brain can pick up a thread of anxious thoughts when I find myself awake at 3 a.m. Known as middle insomnia, these late night wake-ups are plagued by a busy mind, making it hard to fall back to sleep and leaving me exhausted the next day.

I needed a technique that could put the brakes on anxieties so I could actually fall back to sleep at 3 a.m. That's when I was introduced to cognitive shuffling by Dr. Carlos Nunez Chief Medical Officer at Resmed.