Quieting the Racing Mind, One Letter at a Time

Like many creative insomniacs with squirrel brains, I collect sleep techniques the way some people collect candles. Dr. Suzanne Manser, whom I follow on TikTok, handed me a new one: the Alphabet Game.

Choose a category, and then go through the alphabet, naming something in that category for each letter. In this way, we allow our minds to wander, which helps induce sleeping, and yet it diverts our attention from daily worries or woes. Nothing creates a better foundation for a simple list than the standard alphabet.

For example, pick vegetables and you’d mentally recite asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, dill, eggplant, fennel, etc., on through the alphabet. It’s a relatively easy, mindless exercise that keeps racing thoughts at bay.

Typically, most people fall asleep between letters J and P. Sometimes I get stuck on the more uncommon letters—Q, X, Z—which instantly wakes me up like a pop quiz I didn’t study for. If that happens, I understand it’s better start over rather than stress out over not finding anything. If you’re still awake by zucchini, congratulations, you’ve earned the insomniac overachiever badge.

Then you can start again but switch to an easier category or try a harder one. Or you can use the same category every time if you like. Here’s a few easy categories:

• flowers
• movie titles
• desserts
• animals
• fruits and vegetables
• books
• places
• meals
• candies
• boy’s names, girl’s names

I tried medical conditions once. Don’t do that.

One restless night I tried using a Christmas as a category since it’s December. Advent, blizzard, caroling, drummer boy, evergreen, fa-la-la-la, Grinch, Home Alone, icicle, jolly, kings. When I reached Noel I dozed off, victorious… or so I thought. Ten minutes later I was awake again, staring at the ceiling like it had answers. I must have been thrashing around because Don mumbled, “Are you all right?”

“Just alphabetizing Christmas,” I whispered. I didn’t tell him I was worrying about my entire life, the myriads of ways I might die, and whether or not the US was going to war with Venezuela. So, we went through a new list together until we got to “O.”

I sang, “Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree, how beautiful…” He started laughing and told me you can’t use an entire phrase or song lyric.

But you can! It’s your mind game, after all.

You might even want to try a fun alphabet list gone wrong such as O: Oh, be quiet. P: Peeing might help. Q: Quit trying to sleep. R: Really? S: Stop it. T: Try harder…

Other Sleep Tricks from Dr. Manser That Might Help

Sometimes my brain treats the alphabet trick like a challenge rather than a lullaby. In that case, Dr. Manser has a few other tricks she shares on TikTok.

The Closure Question is a good meditation for the end of the day, whether or not you can’t sleep. It’s also a Finnish tradition, and I’m up for anything Finnish. In this technique, you ask yourself What was the last good thing that happened today? This helps your cortisol levels drop as the hippocampus encloses this as a safe thought. Your nervous system relaxes and helps ready your brain for sleep.

Full body rocking can help some people. This reduces adrenaline. I actually enjoy this one. My husband does not appreciate when I do it, however.

If you can’t rock your entire body, rolling your ankles has the same effect.

Bilateral eye movement can be beneficial because it mimics REM sleep patterns. You simply move your eyes from left to right, or you can trace a visual infinity sign. I told my husband about this and he said, “Sure. That’s counting sheep as you watch them jump over the fence!” I laughed because I never realized it’s exactly what that visual involves! So next time you count sheep, remember to watch them jump that fence!

Tonight, I think I’ll try alphabetizing animals. If I get all the way to zebra, I’m filing a complaint with the universe. If you try the alphabet game, let me know how far you get before dreamland claims you.

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Suzanne Manser, PhD is a practicing psychologist and the author of I Hate You (A Love Letter to My Mother): Healing Paper Cuts, Mother Wounds, and Intergenerational Pain

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Thank you for visiting! Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a wrangler of words and big messy feelings in fiction and poetry.

Her second novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, is coming October 27, 2026, from Regal House Publishing: When love letters from a despondent stranger land in her lap, an anxious overthinker becomes convinced she’s the cure, and sets off to save him, and herself, blissfully armed with nothing but magical thinking.
Connect with Linda on social media via LinkTree. Check out Linda’s Books.

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