This post is about a chapter by Robert Stickgold from the book Secrets of Creativity: What Neuroscience, the Arts, and Our Minds Reveal, edited by Suzanne Nalbantian and Paul M. Matthews.
The content of this chapter overlaps somewhat with a book I discussed in On “Incubation in Problem Solving and Creativity”.
Notes
This chapter echoes findings presented in the Incubation in Problem Solving and Creativity book: REM sleep is beneficial for creative insight.
Weak associations
An important concept in this chapter is that ideas, words, names, memories and so on are connected to each other in our minds. Some of these connections are strong and others are more distant.
Becoming aware of these weaker connections is part of the process of having creative insights, because finding connections between seemingly unrelated ideas can help solve difficult problems or spark novel creative works.
REM sleep and creative insight
Various studies suggest that REM sleep increases the chance of having creative insights, for problems that someone has been thinking about before sleeping. The insights aren’t necessarily reached during sleep itself, but the state of REM sleep encourages weak associations to be made, and these can led to insight later on.
The author hypothesises that one of the functions of sleep is to create a state of mind (with changes in brain chemistry) that boosts creativity.
Other states of mind
Mind wandering is a conscious way to find creative insights by connecting distant ideas.
The chapter also mentions hypnogogic states (at the border between wakefulness and sleep) as a source of creativity, but the evidence presented here is largely anecdotal.
Reflections
I wonder if taking steps to improve REM sleep and also practicing conscious exercises for making connections between distant ideas would reinforce our ability to reach creative insights.
Related posts
In Mindwandering, Moshe Bar discusses ways to deliberately encourage a broad form of mind wandering: On “Mindwandering”
There are studies showing that the duration of REM sleep may be influenced by our exposure to evening light – see my notes here: https://www.coincidingnarratives.net/possible-ways-to-increase-slow-wave-and-rem-sleep/