Dec

18

Edison believed that the human mind solves problems best just after a person wakes up from sleep. When he was working on a difficult problem, he would nap in his office armchair and hold a steel ball in his hand. When he would start to fall asleep, his arm muscles would relax and the ball would drop from his hands and land on the floor. This would wake him up and he would find that he had the solution to his problem.

Salvador Dalí, the painter, also believed that interrupting the onset of sleep could make him more creative, and he held a heavy key rather than a metal ball.

Now, more than 100 years later, a scientific study has shown that people can solve problems better just after they awake from a nap as long as they wake before they fall into deep sleep (Science Advances, Dec 8, 2021;7(50)).

Edison was right: Waking up right after drifting off to sleep can boost creativity

Zubin Al Genubi suggests:

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, Matthew Walker. Great book. Lack of good sleep is really bad.

Hernan Avella warns:

Matthew Walker book is ok in spirit, we all know sleep is good. I'm an athlete and try to get 9-10hrs, but on closer inspection, the book is full of omissions, misinterpretations and overstatements. See: Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep" Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors.

Nils Poertner writes:

when waking up during the nite more than once, it may be my position that I kept overnite. and during Asian times, mkts turned and I got wrong footed and next day will be brutal too. could be something else of course too but I give it some reflection when it happens. like Elias Canetti says: "All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams."

Easan Katir adds:

Not that I've solved any problem as great as Edison providing electric light for the world, yet I've found that pre dawn time between first waking and getting up best for solving business and life issues. I write down the solution so I don't forget amidst the daily cacophony of market news.


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