How Memory Replay in Sleep Boosts Creative Problem-Solving

A new theory explains how the two phases of sleep work together to help you find out-of-the-box solutions to vexing problems.

Scientists suspect that connections between neurons are remodeled during sleep, and studies on animals have shown that animals and humans deprived of sleep do not perform well on memory tasks. There is still a lot we don’t know about the role of sleep and what exactly goes inside the brain during slumber. A new study, however, is helping fill in the gaps, suggesting that the interleave of REM and non-REM sleep might facilitate creative problem-solving.

- German chemist Friedrich August Kekulé stated that the idea for the ring structure of benzene came to him in a day-dream, in which he saw snakes biting their own tails.

- Robert Louis Stevenson came up with the plot of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde during a dream.

- Paul McCartney discovered the tune for the song "Yesterday" in a dream and was inspired to write "Yellow Submarine" during hypnagogia.

- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was inspired by a dream at Lord Byron's villa.

- Ramanujan who made almost 4,000 proofs, identities, conjectures and equations in pure mathematics. said that the Hindu goddess Namagiri would appear in his dreams, showing him mathematical proofs, which he would write down when he awoke.

How Memory Replay in Sleep Boosts Creative Problem-Solving

Creative problem-solving is critical for all spheres of innovation and pioneering thought. As such, it forms the foundation of a technology-based economy.

"Many experiments have shown that sleep promotes creative problem-solving. Now, Penny Lewis from Cardiff University and two of her colleagues have collated and combined those discoveries into a new theory that explains why sleep and creativity are linked. Specifically, their idea explains how the two main phases of sleep—REM and non-REM—work together to help us find unrecognized links between what we already know, and discover out-of-the-box solutions to vexing problems."
Cecile G. Tamura