Dreamstorm

Creative Thinking in your Sleep: Learn the science, generate ideas & try these techniques tonight.

Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious

– Thomas Edison, inventor

What is Dreamstorming?

We’ve all probably had the experience of waking up with a new insight or a good idea, or been told to ‘sleep on it, you will know the answer in the morning’. Sleep seems to stimulate the mind to make non-obvious connections, and there’s more to it than simply waking up with refreshed neurons. It turns out that resting is a very active state of mind: while we are sleeping, and especially in REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep), our brains are hard at work.

Most people know that sleep and dreams are essential for memory consolidation, processing the day, and sorting through information. But a lesser known fact is that a resting brain actually starts working with this information, connecting the dots in a free-association way. Without a need to focus outward, we have time to explore new connections and actually make new neural pathways. A resting brain gets very creative.

When we’re stuck with a nagging problem, when we need a different perspective on an issue, that’s when sleeping can give novel solutions. Without distractions from the outside world, our mind has time to focus and get a lot of work done. Dreamstorming is a research-based way to use this process to our advantage.

The Science Behind It

Let me first say: sleep and dreams are researched at universities worldwide. I am obsessed with the amazing studies that I read, and want to share some of my favorites with you. The cognitive processing that us humans do, the thinking we do in our sleep, seems to me a hidden superpower.

While we are resting, our mind remains active, bringing together concepts, connecting back to our feeling and intuition, and exploring options. In our sleep, while mindwandering, taking a nap, or in that hypnagogia state of dozing off, we are extremely flexible thinkers. As far as the scientific consensus is at this point in time, this sleeping superbrainstorm is facilitated by three aspects.

1. Thinking without logic

When we are resting our exectutive networks, that facilitate logic an planning when we are awake, simmer down. On top of that, neurotransmitters shift away from thinking in a focused way. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking, just not in the way we are used to while awake. In fact, in REM sleep the brain seems to be firing just as hard as we would while awake, just with a different focus. It looks like the only thing that really simmers down is our logical reasoning. Specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC or DL-PFC), that facilitates things like planning, inhibition, and abstract reasoning, is getting some well deserverd down time.

This is probably what makes dreams so weird: unhindered by logic, we can wildly connect dots. Free of restraints like ‘humans can’t fly’ or ‘we don’t have budget for that’, we can come up with things we wouldn’t think of in the day. We automatically become divergent and outside-the-box thinkers: anything can happen in a dream.

2. Connecting dots to the extreme

And then there’s another shift: our brain goes from a focus on execution to a focus thinking towards connection making. In short, we start to work with all that information that we collected during the day. While resting, taking a nap, in REM sleep or even when we are just taking a shower, what’s called the “the default mode network” (also known as the ‘Imagination Network’) has a chance to do its thing: make new, unexpected connections. This creative network seem especially active during REM sleep, the stage of sleep when our most vivid dreams occur. Things we saw from the corner of our eyes, we felt intuitively or haven’t even noticed we have heard, can get integrated and connected back to existing information. We connect back to our memory, our feelings, our emotions, our experience. While we are resting, we are mental explorers.

One telling research is done in Germany in 2004 by Ullrich Wagner and his team. They subjected test subjects to a series of complex math tests. After performing all of the tasks, the test group slept for 8 hours, while a control group got to spend 8 hours doing other things. Then they took the tests again, to see if they had improved.However, the researchers had hidden a shortcut in the tests that would let a person jump straight to the answers. They wanted to know what group would be better at finding that shortcut: those who slept, or those who got to think about the test while doing something else? A respectable 23% of the control group figured it out, but an astounding 60% of the group who slept on the problem managed to find the shortcut.

Even rats dream up solutions to problems, found researcher Matthew A. Wilson, PhD, in his laboratory at MIT. He let his rats walk through mazes during the day, with their brains wired to scanners. When they fell asleep, he saw them dream of mazes, and come up with new routes to find an exit.  

Resting Facilitates Ideas

Sleep provides an opportunity to think of a problem in a variety of different angles, unfettered by the restrictions we have to put on our waking mind. In our sleep we are extremely flexible thinkers, connecting information, exploring options. We automatically become divergent thinkers: anything can happen in a dream. This state of mind gives a level of creative thinking that we can’t achieve while awake. Wether we remember a dream or not, we all seem to be doing this work, every night, for free.

Deirdre Barrett, PhD, professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, devoted her life to researching dreams and creativity. She defines dreaming as the mind “thinking in a different biochemical mode.” Thinking, because a dreaming brain and a waking brain are remarkably similar. But they are different in the way that in REM sleep, our brain is making new neural pathways, not hindered by an internal censor.

In dreams, the same stresses and concerns show up as we have in waking life, such as stress of a pandemic, tend to show up in dreams, though not always literally. But the power of sleep is that we have a chance to approach them from a different angle.

When our neurotransmitters shift to make new and unexpected connections, while logic takes a backseat, we can be unconsciously smart. For example, Dr Barrett asked her students to intentionally sleep on a problem for a week and try to dream up a solution. Even with untrained students it worked: half of them got a relevant dream, and a third actually found a solution.

Now am I saying that’s all we do in sleep and dreams? Of course not. The human mind is complex and layered, and we probably do many more things while wel are asleep. People dream of loved ones, practice skills, have fun, explore new worlds or just process yesterday’s movie. We are still the same person when we fall asleep, with our empathy, concerns, intuition, and randomness.

But for me, my fascination is about the sleeping intelligence that we all seem to have. In a world where ‘being busy’ can become a way of life, I want to offer a radically different addition to our intellectual work: rest. Instead of pulling an all-nighter, make sleeping in your new flex. Not just because you will be more productive during the day, but also because you have processed all the facts, connected the dots. When you are sleeping, you might be getting your best work done.

Benefits of Dreamstorming

When you start looking, examples of innovators and creators who have used their dreams to further their projects are everywhere.

• Stephany Meyer wrote the Twilight series based on a dream.
  As she explains in her blog, the dream got her over a writer’s block.
• Tarana Burke found the words #metoo in her sleep
  “I literally woke up and wrote those words in a notebook”
  (SXSW Sessions podcast 29 jan 2024)
• James Cameron’s creative process often starts with dreams, like with Terminator and Avatar.
• Floyd Ragsdale, a Dupont engineer found out how to amp up Kevlar production because of a dream (The Committee of Sleep, page 119)
• The structure of the Benzene atom famously has been claimend to come from a (day)dream, though this has been under debate ever since the claim was made by the inventor.
• We’ve all probably used a chipcard in some form. But did you know that Roland Moreno, the inventor of the smart card, says he got the idea in a dream?
• Keith Richards got the inspiration for Satisfaction from a dream.
• Stephen King uses his dreams and nightmares as inspiration for his novels.
• When 108 attendees at the Sundance Institute for Filmmaking were asked whether they used their dreams in their work, a majority of writers, directors and actors said that they did – many quite often. (J.F. Pagel et al, 1999)
• Drew Daniel of electronic music duo Matmos dreamt of a fictional music genre he encountered in a dream called “hit em“. Recounted to him by a nondescript woman in the dream, the genre is a type of electronic music “with super crunched out sounds” in a 5/4 time signature with a tempo of 212 beats per minute. Mr Daniel tweeted about the dream, and went back to sleep. When he woke up he saw artist from all over the world had started making tracks based on his dream.

The great news is: this power can be harnessed, and that’s exactly what I am here to share with you. Because the results are transformational. While sleeping on a problem, I have seen my clients figure out:

• where they are stuck, and what to do about it
• a new angle for strategic decisions
• feedback from their unconscious intelligence

How to Dreamstorm

Most people believe that to solve a problem we have to think harder, focus more. But that’s not always the case: sometimes, it’s about letting go. Have you ever tried to think of a name really hard, only to have it pop into your mind in the shower? Sometimes the best ideas come when you’re not even trying.

Want to bypass your standard train of thought and get un-stuck? Sleep on it. Using sleep with intention we can solve problems, achieve clarity, and increase insight. Let’s make sleeping in the new productivity hack. Here are three research based steps to proactively sleep on a problem.

Step One – Prompt your brain

First things first: for a succesful dreamstorm you need information. You can’t connect dots you don’t have, so this works best for issues that you already worked on in the day. When you feel tired or stuck, it might be time for a Dreamstorm.
To prompt your brain, you do what’s called a Dream Incubation: Before going to bed, think about the challenge you’re having. Hold it in your mind or write it down as an open question that deserves a surprising answer. This way you set yourself up to dream about your desired topic. While you’re asleep, your mind is likely work on the topic that you chose.

Step Two – Ditch the alarm

Our sleeping brain is hardwired to explore options and come up with original solutions – but it needs time to do the work.Instead of jumping out of bed, take a minute or two to remember your dreams. No dreams? No worries! Your brain works for you regardless. Check how you feel: are there any thoughts floating around? Catch your subconscious intelligence and write down whatever comes up.

Step Three – Explore and apply

Explore whatever you wrote down in the morning. What does it make you think of? Any ideas in there that are worth trying out during the day? Once you set up a regular dreamstorm practice you can even revisit what you wrote earlier in the week. You might find even more ways to expand the ideas.

Pro Tips:

1. It helps to care. One key to success is to care about the problem you’re trying to solve. A dreaming brain is emotionally driven, so it’s easier to dream about your love life, than about math problems. However, scent association can nudge the mind into a desired direction, as Dutch research shows.
2. A good prompt is half the work. It helps to make it an open question, but specific. So instead of asking: will I meet the love of my life?, try to ask: What can I do this month to get myself ready for love?
3. Let yourself be surprised. You might not get the result that you expected, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get the result that you need. Explore your morning thoughts or dreams with open curiosity and see what ideas they spark.

Embrace flexible thinking

Develop habits and tools that help you find sweet spots in solution space.

I am a big fan of letting go, sleeping in, being bored.  It gives our brain space to do its work. To me, this is a habit that I gently built into my life. Some proven practices that have worked for me, and my clients:

• Prioritize rest. Take a nap, a walk, or a moment of quiet reflection in the shower to spark insight.
• Stay open to the unexpected – you might, for example, not get the dream that you thought you would – but that’s exactly the point. 
• Explore during the day. Use your thoughts, ideas, and dream metaphors as a starting point for further exploration.
• Practice makes perfect. This might not work on day one, or two. It’s like a muscle that needs training.
• Put your spin on it. People I work with experiment and add their own twist on the process, based on what works for them.
• Create space. Instead of grabbing your phone first thing in the morning, create some space for the unexpected to present itself. And then write it down, to ponder on later. 

More resources

I collect relevant research and books about the dreaming brain here https://thinkinginyoursleep.com/resources/

And I wrote a blog on the dreamstorm process, including an example from my 2011 book https://thinkinginyoursleep.com/blog/