Creativity

"The Secret to Creativity" was in the subject line to a spam email that I just received. I was about to put the email into my spam folder for mass deletion, but the title caught my eye. So I read it. And then I deleted it. 

I thought it was interesting so I wanted to share. It had to do with dreams. And you know me and dreams. 

BTW, does anybody dream of elevators? I do. A lot. Nobody that I've asked does, but on a YouTube video that I recently watched an artist was sharing drawings from her sketchbook. She had a sketch describing one of her dreams, and lo and behold, it contained a drawing of an elevator!!!!!!

She said that she was trying to get onto the elevator but all these naked men were blocking her way. That is exactly like my elevator dreams! Well, I never dream of naked men, but the principle is the same . . . I want to get on the elevator, but am somehow prevented. 

I was so excited to get some validation that elevators represent a deeper meaning of transport to somebody else besides me! 

But I digressed. Here's what the email said:

“To sleep, perchance to dream” – Hamlet

We all want to be more creative.

Innovative.

Original.

To come up with something that no one has ever thought of before.

But how?

Scientists have actually been looking at creativity for awhile.

And while some of this research is just for eggheads.

Some findings can actually apply to you and me.

One of the most surprising ways of becoming more creative, and more productive, is through getting proper sleep.

The key to creativity is what happens when we dream.

According to Matthew Walker, Ph.D., founder and director of the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science and author of the book "Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, "Dreaming is essentially a time when we all become flagrantly psychotic.”

Why?

When we dream, we see things that aren’t really there. We’re basically hallucinating.

When we're dreaming, we believe things that cannot possibly be true. We’re basically delusional.

And when we wake up, we forget most of what we’ve dreamed. So, we’re basically suffering from amnesia

But why is this good for creativity?

According to Dr. Walker, it’s because dreaming serves as a kind of psychiatric treatment.

Going psychotic at night can help keep us sane.

Dreaming appears to heal us from the painful feelings of difficult and traumatic emotional episodes that we experienced during the day

It’s like a free session on Freud’s leather couch.

Sleep allows us to fuse memories in abstract and distinctive ways.

That’s how it helps us with creativity.

So, if you want to be more creative, and productive, get your ZZZZZs!!

Thanks again!!

Marc