Is there a connection between sleeping and creativity? What does the research say? Can sleep actually help you to be more creative? Do creative people sleep more or less?
In this blog, Dr Lindsay Browning explores the link between sleep, creativity chronotypes and optimal times to be creative. Take a read…
Can sleep help creativity? Are they connected?
Exploring the research
In a 2009 study, researchers found that REM (or dreaming) sleep enhanced creativity, compared with quiet rest or non-REM (non dreaming) sleep. This suggests that REM sleep is where we integrate information for creative problem-solving. It follows that if we don’t get enough sleep, then we may not have enough REM sleep to be as creative as we would otherwise be.
Examining more evidence, sleep has also been shown to enhance creativity in an experimental study. In a 2012 study, researchers gave participants a creativity task in the evening. They had ensured a covert or ‘secret’ scent filled the room, while participants looked at the task. Overnight, some participants had the same scent pumped into the room, while they were sleeping, whilst other participants did not have any odour in their room at night, and another group had a different scent pumped into the room.
Participants who slept with the same scent as they had been presented with during the evening task performed better on the creativity task the next day, compared to participants who slept without that same smell. This suggests that the participants who slept with the same scent in the room were able to practise their creative problem-solving during their sleep.
It’s so interesting to consider what we can trick our brain to do, subconsciously, using something as simple as a recognisable scent.
Is lack of sleep bad for creativity?
The answer may surprise you!
Whilst studies suggest that an overall lack of sleep and reduced amount of REM sleep impairs creative thinking (as discussed above). There is a chance that a disturbed night or fragmented sleep (as opposed to no sleep at all) may actually improve creativity.
When you sleep, your natural creativity preferences also have an effect.
A 2017 study found that more verbally creative people tended to go to bed later and get up later, and sleep for longer overall. The chronotype associated with going to sleep later and getting up later is the owl type.
Interestingly, the researchers found that more visually creative people experienced worse quality sleep – sleep with more awakenings and feeling tired during the day. This suggests that creativity is not a uniform concept. Visual and verbal creativity may use different parts of the brain and may be helped by different parts of the brain and types of sleep.
Is there a link between creativity and dreaming?
Although psychoanalysts like Sigmund Freud used to believe that what we dreamed about could give an insight into our unconsciousness, this is no longer considered reliable. Instead, scientists think that dreams are our brain’s way of processing information and dealing with emotional issues we face day to day. They are most useful for creativity and problem solving.
When is the best time to be creative, based on our chronotypes?
If you are an “owl” (someone who wants to go to bed late and wake up later) then your alertness and peak performance will be at a different time of day than a “lark” (someone who wants to go to bed early and wake up early).
Owls are likely to struggle with complex or creative tasks first thing in the morning and become better as the day goes on. Larks, on the other hand, are likely to perform best in the morning and their creative abilities decrease as the day turns into late afternoon and evening.
Therefore, the time of day when you want to be creative is enhanced by matching it to your chronotype, i.e. people are more creative when they are working to their chronotype’s peak alertness.
Get support with sleep to help your creativity
If you are not feeling as creative or as productive in life or at work, as you would like to, then book a consultation with Dr Lindsay Browning. Sleep therapy helps you to understand your chronotype and to plan your waking hours around times when you will be most creative and alert, as well as helping you to get a better night’s sleep.
Better sleep has so many benefits it is always worth exploring ways to optimise it. Trouble Sleeping offers a one-off optimisation session for just £299.