Your brain can put things together and integrate the parts to solve the whole problem – after you sleep on the ideas. Why so? We’ve known how the overwhelmed brain plays havoc with short term memory. We’ve also seen national disasters caused by sleep deprivation.
New research however, shows how sleep forges connections in the bac
kground. A good rest helps people to piece together key connections and integrate new facts in ways that beam new lights onto the bigger picture.
In other words – that one good night’s sleep can help you to get those tougher answers you are looking for – and can hand you facts that appear buried when you first learn them or slip into tiredness.
Dr. Jeffrey Ellenbogen, a sleep researcher at Harvard observed 48 healthy adults, who showed no sleep problems. Check out details that point to how participants showed better memories – with less distraction or interference after sleep. Not surprisingly, they scored 58%higher than those who hadn’t slept before the test.
The process of weaving different parts and ideas together is actually a brain based process – that does better with down time for the human brain. The study builds a good case for sleep before making big decisions – or before trying to come up with facts that make a case for much of anything.
What’s been your experience?
This resonates quite well with creativity research. Graham Wallas identified a four phase cycle of creativity as: Preparation; Incubation; Inspiration; and, Verification. It's the Incubation stage that you're talking about here. Kekule's discovery of the benzene ring based on a dream about a snake eating its own tail is a commonly-used example.
Posted by: Wally Bock | August 5, 2007 3:14 PM | Permalink to Comment