Sleep and Creativity

Home
>
Creativity
>
Sleep and Creativity

Sleep and Creativity

In my life, sleep is the number one way that I can either enhance my self-care and nourish myself or defeat my self-care and deplete my energy, peace of mind & productivity all in one shot.

When I'm rested I'm more resilient to stress. My body is more flexible and willing to work, my head is more clear and focused, I feel happier and more at peace and I'm nicer to myself AND to everyone else.

When I'm overtired, on the other hand ? my body and my emotions feel more brittle. Unexpected turns can send me into a hurricane of a tizzy, my mind is foggy and I'm much less likely to be kind to you OR me.

I know this. I've known this for some time now. So, you'd think I consistently get enough sleep to make sure that first scenario happens all the time, right? After all, I AM the "Self-Care Coach", my self-care must be perfect, right?

Well??.not so much.

As well as writing about sleep, I must mention another self-care concept here ? in order to explain why I'm a bit bleary-eyed today. The concept is SELF-SABOTAGE.

The dictionary definition of sabotage is "an act or process tending to hamper or hurt" or "deliberate subversion". Why on earth would we sabotage ourselves? That's a complicated answer. And a simple one. We choose to.

Sometimes it's so frightening to imagine changing, growing or making conscious choices that we deliberately hamper our own efforts. We make choices every minute of every day. Our life is up to us. These are intimidating thoughts. And doing things the way we've always done them feels safe and comforting.

I know I'll feel so much better if I get a good night's sleep. And sometimes, for whatever reasons, I don't choose to "feel good".

And when self-love and common sense win out and I AM able to do what I need to do in order to get a good night's sleep, I am rewarded.

Aside from benefits I've already mentioned, a good night's sleep can also have specific rewards for us creatively. A few months ago I came across an article titled "Does a good sleep make you smarter?" (www.msnbc.com, in the "Health" section). The article described a research project going on at the University of Luebeck in Germany, which has determined that a good sleep not only makes us smarter and better at problem-solving, but more creative as well!

The article points out that "history is dotted with incidents where artists and scientists have awakened to make their most notable contributions after long periods of frustration."

In other words, when we're struggling with a problem in the hours before sleep, our brains actually keep working on the problem while we're sleeping, and the answer might just "pop out" in the morning!

So, the longer and more restful sleep that we have, the more time there is for our "sleeping brain" to work on the problem that our "awake brain" has been struggling with.

This relates to the common spiritual practice of praying, before bed, for the solution to a problem, or to the self-help practice of writing a question on a piece of paper and slipping that under your pillow before bed.

So what stops you from getting a good night's sleep? How do you sabotage your efforts? Over-work? Television? Internet surfing or gaming? Food, drink or other substances that make it difficult to sleep? Irregular sleep habits?

Here are the five things that work best for ME for getting a good night's sleep.

1. Turning off the computer and television one hour before I'd like to be asleep. This gives me time to wind down, quiet my thoughts and prepare myself for sleep.

2. Getting out of bed early on the weekends. This means I don't stay up too late or sleep in too long on the weekends. I try and keep my bedtime and wake-up times within about an hour of what I do during the week. Otherwise I spend half the week getting re-adjusted and life's too short!!

3. Giving up caffeine. Even before I gave it up completely, I really had to limit my caffeine and "just say no" anytime after about 5:00 p.m. or else the caffeine affected my sleep that night.

4. Breathing techniques and other relaxation exercises. Just a few minutes of deep breathing can calm me and send me right off to sleep.

The simplest tips are to focus on breathing from the belly (diaphragmatic breathing) and to focus on long exhalations (exhalation is associated with the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for relaxation).

5. Setting the scene with music. I use music both as I'm winding down and getting ready for bed, and as I'm going to sleep. I've experimented to find the music that best does the job for me; this is obviously a very individual choice.

I recommend either instrumental music or vocal music that is either without words or sung in a language you don't understand (so you're not mentally caught up in the words as you're trying to fall asleep). Wind instruments (I like the shakuhachi flute) are nice since the natural breaths and pauses that the musician takes can mirror your own deep, slow breathing.

Have you ever woken up in the morning (or in the middle of the night!) with the solution to a problem, a new idea for a song, or another creative spark? That sounds like the work of a good night's sleep!

This article was originally published on the Muses Muse Songwriter's Resource website (January 2005) http://www.musesmuse.com.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. To receive her free monthly newsletter, "Everyday Artist", subscribe at http://www.genuinecoaching.com/artist-n ewsletter.html

In The News:

Creativity in the garden: Found objects, artworks can add whimsy, fun, beauty
Washington Post
SEATTLE — I feel like Alice in Wonderland. Sprinting past an alligator drinking a soda pop and a T-Rex playing guitar, I lean toward a family of colorful metal toadstools that come to my knee. “Aren't those great?” asks Jim Honold as he ushers me ...

and more »

Sydney Morning Herald (blog)
Can creative entrepreneurs really make money?
Sydney Morning Herald (blog)
Can creative entrepreneurs really make money? I'm talking about people like artists, sculptors, writers and others who are pursuing their creative passions. There's a widely held belief that it's very hard to make money as an artist.

and more »

Factory Design Labs Names Andrew Price to Top Creative Role
MarketWatch (press release)
DENVER, CO, May 23, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Factory Design Labs, a full-service agency delivering innovative advertising campaigns for premium lifestyle brands, today announced it has named Andrew Price Vice President, Executive Creative ...

and more »

Baltimore Sun
Creativity runs wild during Destination Imagination
WVLT
(WVLT)-- Teams from all over the world are in Knoxville for the Global Finals for Destination Imagination; a program that lets kids use their creativity to solve problems. Chuck Cadle the CEO of Destination Imagination said "It's an educational program ...
Number Of Teams Earning Spot At Global Finals Up 10% From Last Year! Data Says ...MarketWatch (press release)
Kids will get creative in Destination Imagination finalsLexington Clipper Herald
15000 Students Descend on UT KnoxvilleWMOT

all 23 news articles »

Just Jared
Kelly Clarkson: Having a boyfriend 'is ruining my creativity' for writing songs
New York Daily News
The “American Idol” winner, known for girl power anthems like “Since U Been Gone” and “Stronger,” tells People magazine that having a boyfriend is “ruining” her creativity. “It is killing me,” she told the magazine of penning songs about breakups and ...
Kelly Clarkson: My Boyfriend is Ruining My CreativityPeople Magazine
Kelly Clarkson's boyfriend Brandon Blackstock is 'killing her creativity'Daily Mail
Kelly Clarkson: Relationship Is 'Ruining My Creativity'Just Jared
TheCelebrityCafe.com -Digital Spy -earsucker
all 145 news articles »

Richard Florida Is Wrong About Creative Cities
Forbes
Moretti also points to Berlin, which he calls “one of the world's coolest cities”, and “a magnet for creative people from all over Europe”. He paints a picture of Berlin that is decidedly Floridian: “Berlin's well-established progressive attitudes, ...

Creative Commons Qatar celebrates first anniversary
Gulf Times
By Peter Townson/Staff Reporter Creative Commons Qatar has celebrated its one year anniversary, with officials outlining the successful work carried out by the community organisation and its hopes for the future. Initiative leader Brian Wesolowski ...

NigerianMuse
Singapore wants creativity not cramming
NigerianMuse
By Rebecca LimBBC News, Singapore But now they want to move beyond this – towards something that cultivates creativity and what they term as ”holistic education”. Minister for Education, Heng Swee Keat, said this is ”less about content knowledge” but ...

and more »

Maximizing certainty, minimizing creativity
Santa Ynez Valley News
I can't tell you the number of times I've read an article and come across a statement by someone working in some aspect of the music industry talking about how much they value creativity in its myriad forms, and I find myself saying it's just lip ...

OregonLive.com
My Workout: Creative movement in Nia rounds out exercise routine
OregonLive.com
"Nia has brought creativity and openness to my life. You go at your own pace. I bend in ways I never have before. I don't even get sore gardening." Nutrition: Johnson enjoys being the cook at his house and he treads the straight and narrow, food-wise.

Google News