A study shows that awakening yourself from a drowsy state before going to bed may help you solve challenging problems

As we all know, Thomas Edison opposed sleeping. In an interview published in Scientific American in 1889, the always energetic inventor of the light bulb claimed that he never slept more than four hours a night. He thought, sleeping is a waste of time.

However, Edison may rely on sleep to stimulate his creativity. It is said that the inventor is taking a nap with a ball in each hand, assuming that when he falls asleep, the ball will fall to the floor and wake him up. In this way, he can remember all kinds of thoughts that appear when we doze off, and these thoughts are usually not remembered by us.

Sleep researchers now believe that Edison may have made a difference. A new research report recently published in "Science Advances" states that we have a short period of creativity and insight in the semi-awake state, which occurs when we start to sleep, called the sleep stage N1 , Or non-rapid eye movement sleep stage 1. The results of the study indicate that if we can manage the blurring of the line between sleep and wakefulness-known as a hypnotic state-we may be more likely to recall our smart ideas.

Inspired by Edison, Delphine Oudiette of the Paris Brain Institute and her colleagues showed 103 participants mathematical problems that have a hidden rule that allows them to solve them faster. The 16 people who immediately deciphered the clues were subsequently excluded from the study. The rest had a 20-minute break and were asked to relax in a reclining position while holding an object in their right hand. If the object falls, they will be asked to report what they thought before putting it down.

Throughout the rest period, the subjects underwent polysomnography, a technique that monitors brain, eye, and muscle activity to assess a person's waking state. This helps to determine which subjects are awake based on their brainwave activity, rather than in N1 or N2 (the next deeper stage of our sleep).

After the break, the research subjects faced mathematical problems again. Those who dozed off and entered N1 were almost three times more likely to break the unspoken rules than others who stayed awake throughout the experiment, and almost six times more likely than those who entered N2. As the author said, this "Eureka moment" did not happen immediately. Instead, it happened after multiple attempts to solve mathematical problems, which is consistent with previous research on insight and sleep.

As for whether Edison’s catching technique can withstand any weight, the new study found that its efficacy is not convincing—instead, the participants were asked to hold a small water glass. Of the 63 subjects who dropped objects while falling asleep, 26 did so after going through N1 sleep. Nonetheless, the research results show that we do have a creative window before going to bed.

Oudiette said that, like Edison, her sleep experience inspired this research. "I always have a lot of hypnotic experiences, and dreamlike experiences have fascinated me for a long time," she said. "I am surprised that in the past two decades, almost no scientists have studied this period."

A study published in 2018 found that short periods of "awake stillness" or quiet rest periods increase the chances of discovering the same mathematical rules used in Oudiette's experiments. According to Penny Lewis, a psychologist at Cardiff University in Wales, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep-the stage where our eyes bounce back and forth and most dreams occur-and non-rapid eye movement sleep together promote problem-solving.

However, in most cases, Oudiette is not aware of any other studies that specifically study the effects of sleep onset on creativity. However, she did point out a large number of historical examples of this phenomenon.

"Alexander the Great and [Albert] Einstein may have used Edison's technology, or it is the legend," she said. "And some dreams that inspire great discoveries may be hypnotic experiences, rather than night dreams. A famous example is the chemist August Kekulé who saw a snake at work late at night. Biting his own tail during the'half-sleep' period, he discovered the ring structure of benzene." The surrealist painter Salvador Dali also used a variation of the Edison method: he put the key in the bed while sleeping. On the metal plate, when he dropped the key, the metal plate clinked to wake him up, which is said to have inspired his artistic image.

"This research allows us to understand consciousness and creativity at the same time," said Adam Haar Horowitz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. He designed the technology to interact with hypnosis but did not work with Oudiette's team. "The important thing is," he added, "this is a kind of learning you can try at home. Grab a metal object, lie down, focus on a creative problem, and see what kind of Yuri you will encounter. Card moment."

For Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara who was also not involved in the project, this study does not necessarily prove that anyone can tap their creativity in the early stages of sleepiness . As he pointed out, "Living in the'sweet zone' may also just refresh the research participants and make it easier for them to solve problems in the future." But Skuller acknowledged that there may be some very reliable things in the research results. "The new results show that there is a creative sweet spot for sleep, during which people sleep enough to have access to other inaccessible elements, but it hasn't disappeared to the point where the material is lost," he said.

Although it is called the "off period" of the brain, from a neurological point of view, sleep is a very active process. Billions of brain cells are activated, helping to reactivate and store memories, and seem to allow us to evoke our spiritual creation.

Oudiette not only hopes to confirm her findings in future research, but also hopes to use the creative potential of the critical period between sleep and wakefulness to determine whether focusing on our hypnotic state helps solve real-world tasks and problems. In addition, she and her team are considering the potential of brain-computer interfaces to accurately identify brain wave patterns associated with the onset of sleep, so that they can accurately identify when people should wake up at the presumed insightful moment.

"We can even teach people how to achieve this creative state at will," Oudiette envisions. "Imagine playing a sound when people reach the right state, and playing other sounds when they sleep too long. This method can teach them how to recognize a creative state and how to achieve this state."

Bret Stetka is a writer in New York City and the editorial director of Medscape Neurology (a subsidiary of WebMD). His work has appeared on Wired, NPR and The Atlantic. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 2005. Follow Bret Stetka on Twitter Credit: Nick Higgins

Ken A. Paller and Delphine Oudiette

Robert Stickgold and Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen

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© 2021 Scientific American, a division of Springer Nature America, Inc.

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