Research found: Salvador Dali's bizarre sleep technique increases creativity
Research has examined whether Salvador Dali's unconventional sleep technique actually increases creativity and inspiration - and found that it may well work for you as well.
However, not sure you can handle it
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18/12/2021
Saturday, 18 December 2021, 23:59
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Renowned surrealist Salvador Dali has had an extraordinary method of getting inspired.
When he decided to take a nap on his chair after a long day of wondering about liquid watches and swans reflected in elephants - he would take a bundle of keys or a spoon with him, hold the metal object in his hand, place it on the edge of his chair and fall asleep.
There was a metal plate on the floor and when he fell asleep, the object would fall out of his hand, hit the plate with a great noise and wake him up.
Like American inventor Thomas Edison, who used the same technique, Dali believed that this kind of sleep gives him a creative boost.
As soon as the object hit the plaque and woke it up, he would return to work.
Dali was undoubtedly a talented artist, but researchers have recently tested whether this technique will work even on people who are not gifted with his talent.
Surprisingly, they found it works.
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In a study published in Science Advances, the team said that they distributed to the participants of the experiment mathematical problems, each of which had a hidden rule that if they found it, they could solve the problem "almost immediately". After failing to solve the problem, participants were divided into 3 groups before approaching the problem solution again: people who remained awake, people who were allowed to sink into a shallow sleep phase of rapid eye movements (known as N1) for more than 30 seconds, and those who did They are allowed to drift deeper into a fast-moving eye movement sleep for at least 30 seconds.
The experimenters were then again given mathematical problems to see if they could identify the hidden rule. The researchers found that participants who spent at least 15 seconds in N1 tripled their chances of finding the hidden rule, implying increased creative thinking, than those who remained awake during the break. 83 percent of people who entered the N1 year were able to identify the rule compared to only 30 percent of the comment group.
"Here, we show that joint brain activity in the twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness (not fast sleep in phase 1 or N1 eye movement) ignites creative sparks," the authors write, adding that "we believe N1 provides an ideal cocktail for creativity."
However, if they reached deeper levels of sleep, known as N2 - experimentally monitored by electroencephalogram (EEG) - the effect passed.
"These results demonstrate that an incubation period, which is a short period of N1, has a significant effect on insight, but this beneficial effect disappears if participants reach a deeper sleep state."
Want such talent?
Try Salvador Dali's sleeping method (Photo: ShutterStock)
The researchers claim that Dali and Edison's technique can be easily applied, "because it requires no materials other than an everyday object." They added: "Edison and Dali's technique can be applied by anyone who wants to summon his creative muse, at home or in the workplace."
As to why this effect is occurring, further research is needed, although the team has some line of thought. "N1 is accompanied by involuntary, spontaneous, dreamlike perceptual perceptual experiences that creatively combine last awake experiences by loosely linking them with loosely related memories," they write. And in a similar way, cultivate the creation of new ideas. "
So, if you feel you are capable of dealing with the frustration of an annoying sudden end to your brief nap, this may be a way to give a boost to your creativity.
Just do not tell the boss that you are going to take a nap, because he will like the idea less.
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