Sleep benefits us in a number of ways. From our bodily functions to our cognitive abilities, good sleep has a positive effect on it all. You are also capable of more creative solutions to problems when your mind is well-rested. But do you become more creative when you sleep well? Are sleep and creativity connected? And if so, can we then come up with napping tips that can help you make the most of this positive correlation between creativity and sleep? This post attempts to answer these questions and more.
Sleep and creativity: The connection
Dream
When we dream, our brain tries to make sense of our experiences by connecting various memories and thoughts. No wonder many artists claim that a particular idea for a story or a poem, or even an entire artwork came to them in the form of a dream.
Hypnopompic state
The state we are in when coming out of sleep is called hypnopompic state. In this state, we carry with us the imageries we experience during REM sleep. The artists who have reaped the greatest benefits from this state of sleep are the surrealists.
Sleep as a creative aphrodisiac
In “On Writing”, Stephen King talks at length about the art of creative sleep. He writes,
“In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives. And as your mind and body grow accustomed to a certain amount of sleep each night — six hours, seven, maybe the recommended eight — so can you train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined waking dreams which are successful works of fiction.”
Therefore, King suggests that for both writing and sleeping well, you have to establish some rules. For example, you should have a fixed time when you indulge in these two activities. You should have a place designated for them, and in these spaces, you should not do anything else. Your bed should only be used for sleeping and your creating space only for creating, in order to activate those particular states in your brain.
How to get better sleep to be more creative?
For better sleep, one of the crucial factors which are often neglected and wrongly so is a good mattress. The key features of this mattress are firmness, comfort, and durability. The mattress should last longer, but at the same time, it should not sag. A sagging mattress will create pressure points in your neck, shoulders, and hips, and as a result, you are likely to wake up with a sore feeling in these points. A good mattress, on the contrary, will prevent these aches, and will also ensure no restlessness or blood clots are created in your body. Every sleeping position is the best sleeping position for this mattress as it accommodates all kinds of sleepers.
If you are planning to try your luck at online mattress shopping, then you might want to have a look at our Ortho mattress. The CoolFit foam layer has an open cell structure that absorbs heat and circulates it instead of trapping it. Therefore, you sleep cool throughout the night. Also, the zonal transition layer and the memory foam layer together make sure your spine is not bent in an unnatural way during sleep. This, in turn, ensures your back pain doesn’t worsen and that no postural defects are caused in you.
To buy our Orthopaedic Memory Foam Mattress, please visit us here.
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