Sleep and Creativity Are Linked

by Social Media Max

Did you know that sleep and creativity are linked? It’s true and if you don’t get enough sleep your creativity IQ will go down. This does not mean you can’t think creatively, it’s that you won’t be able to think as well, or solve problems in an innovative way, or use your full intuitional powers. What does it take to get a full good night sleep? Well when we are speaking about creativity you need REM sleep, and you cannot get that unless you are asleep for 90 minutes or more.

One rule of thumb that I have is that I will not get out of bed until I have had at least three complex dreams that I can remember during my sleep. And it is true that sometimes you cannot remember that you even had a dream. But if you wake up in the middle of the night after a dream you should have a pen paper by your bed and write down what your dream was about, or just make a check mark. If you have two or more checkmarks you’ve had enough sleep to enjoy the full faculties of creativity during the day.

Even if you are tired and haven’t slept enough, if you’ve gotten the REM sleep your creativity component will be there when you need it. It is possible to sleep for five or six hours and have three very definite REM periods and that would suffice. Also, for those people that take a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the middle of the day, it will boost their creativity immensely. Providing of course they did get the REM sleep.

Neurologists believe this is because during REM your mind is busy trading information between hemispheres which means it is opening channels, strengthening your connections, clearing pathways for information transfer to all parts of the brain. I don’t know about you, but that sure makes a lot of sense to me. Please consider all this.