Pick Cognition

Written by Jonathan
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Falling asleep quickly and simply is a big part of a good night’s sleep. In ‘bad’ sleepers, it’s often precisely this stage of sleep onset that cause the problem. An overly stimulating sleep environment, a brain that can’t stop ruminating. The time between getting into bed and sleep starts to get longer and longer… this is what’s known as initial insomnia.


To reduce this sleep onset time, we’ve used years of research to create dedicated audio programs. They’ll help you relax and fall asleep quicker. Dreem offers you distraction from the stress of the day  in the form of random words.

Rumination is one of the major causes of difficulty in falling asleep

Whether you’re focusing on the fact that you’re unable to fall asleep, replaying a tense discussion with a co-worker or adding things to  your to-do list, your brain is too busy to let you sleep.

What’s more, cognitive hyper-excitation due to stress, whether acute or chronic, increases the time spent trying to find sleep and so actively trying to fall asleep becomes counterproductive.

These thoughts, consistent and often stressful interfere with the process of falling asleep. If your train of thought can be distracted from these negative thoughts with a demanding cognitive task, falling asleep can then occur more quickly (Beaudoin, 2014). With this in mind Dreem developed a ’super- somnolent mentation’ feature, which will both prevent you from returning to your ruminations and be with you through the process of sleep onset.

The principle of the Cognition technique is to stay focused on a sequence of words played through your Dreel Band.

What does the Cognition technique consist of?

You’ll be invited to focus on, imagine and visualize the words that are proposed to you every few seconds. As the process progresses, the words explore other lexical fields at random.

Concentrated on their mental representation, you have no room for rumination. Your train of thought gradually loses coherence and your stress level diminishes until disappearing completely.

This signals to your brain that you’re starting to fall asleep and the biological processes that lead to falling asleep are triggered.

When a user’s brain activity shows that they are starting to fall asleep and their attention is diminishing, the words become more spaced out. The sound volume decreases until stopping completely once the user is asleep.

How to: Activate Cognition in the app

1. Select the mode you want from Relaxation, Sleep and Nap.

2. Once you’ve selected your mode, select Cognition among the relaxation exercises available.


3. Finally, pick the ambiance you would like to add.