Week 2 - Creativity: The wondrous world of dreams

Sometimes I wonder why we bother going to the movies, when we have the worlds most innovative cinema right in our own head. Every night when it is time to go to sleep, our brain manages to take us away to a world of the utterly bizarre. Our dreams are a portal to our most primitive creativity, uninhibited by societal rules, logic or reason. When I was asked to reflect on my creative process this week for my master's I realised how important dreams are in my creativity. They are my main source of inspiration. Sometimes I even dream of my code and find a solution for a bug I have been struggling with (quite handy actually). But what is dreaming, and how does it relate to creativity?

Multiple researchers have shown how dreams can act as a source of inspiration for our waking-life. Dreams have been shown to increase creativity and boost our problem-solving capabilities (Barrett, 1993; Schredl and Erlacher, 2007; Klepel, Schredl and Göritz, 2019). This is not surprising when you look at what is happening when we dream. When we dream, we are entering an alternate state of mind. And I mean that literally. Our brains chemical composition changes and control of the brain is transferred away from the logic centers to the limbic system. Production of essential neurotransmitters, like serotonin and norepinephrine, are completely shut off. We are in a chemically altered state of consciousness – we have entered REM sleep (Hobson, Stickgold and Pace-Schott, 1998).

REM sleep is ruled by the limbic system — a deep-brain region governing our primitive emotions. These emotions orchestrate our dreams (Dang-Vu 2007). During REM sleep our brain allows us to experience our emotions in a visual way. Our emotions are turned into vivid pictures that we can get immersed in. It is our brains way of taking care of unfinished business. Our brain is trying to help us navigate our emotions, process them, and store them in memory correctly.

However, it is not just our emotional centers that are overactive during dreaming. A number of cognitive regions also are highly active during REM sleep, which corroborates the link between dreaming and problem solving / creativity (Bernstein, 1985; Barrett, 1993, 2007). Our dreams are the place where we try to make associations and connections in new and fresh ways. While dreaming we draw upon knowledge from the past, the present, and speculate about the future in order to find these connections. This allows us to arrive at new insights without being bound to logic or reason(Hartmann, 2011). Hartmann (1995) proposed that “broad, loose connections of dreaming can provide a different perspective and can help us make important decisions and discoveries.”. In other words, our dreams provide a safe space for experimentation and thinking outside of the box. Dreaming is almost like a subconscious brainstorming session.

When I look at my own dreams, they are indeed all over the place. Some days I can remember them very well, other days I cannot. Yet every day I notice that when I wake up, problems of the day before do not seem that big or complex anymore. Often I find myself thinking of a problem in a different light when I'm brushing my teeth. My sleepyness might impair the quickness of my thoughts but my thoughts always appear more clear after a good night of sleep. No wonder we have the saying "better to sleep on it", right?

It is fascinating how our brain manages to generate complete virtual reality experiences on its own, without any sensory input. It manages to convince us of an alternate reality, in which we can freely explore and learn. We might not remember everything the next day but it allows our brain to reset, which leads to a more fresh outlook that we can benefit from! Even though it is only morning at the time I’m writing this, I am already looking forward to the dreams of tonight.

List of References:

Barrett, D. (1993) “The committee of sleep: How artists, scientists, and athletes use dreams for creative problem-solving–and how you can too.,” DREAMING: The Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, 3.

Barrett, D. (2007) “An evolutionary theory of dreams and problem-solving.,” in The new science of dreaming: Volume 3. Cultural and theoretical perspectives. Westport, CT, US: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group (Praeger perspectives.), pp. 133–153.

Bernstein, I. (1985) “Children’s Dreams: Longitudinal Studies. By David Foulkes,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 33(1). doi: 10.1177/000306518503300115.

Dang-Vu et.al., (2007) “Neuroimaging of REM Sleep and Dreaming”, In D. Barret & P. McNamara (Eds.), The New Science of Dreaming: Vol. 1. Bilogical Aspects (pp. 77-82, 103). Westport Connecticut, Praeger

Hartmann, E. (1995) “Making connections in a safe place: Is dreaming psychotherapy?,” Dreaming, 5(4). doi: 10.1037/h0094437.

Hartmann, E. (2011) The Nature and Functions of Dreaming, The Nature and Functions of Dreaming. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751778.001.0001.

Hobson, J. A., Stickgold, R. and Pace-Schott, E. F. (1998) “The neuropsychology of REM sleep dreaming,” NeuroReport. doi: 10.1097/00001756-199802160-00033.

Klepel, F., Schredl, M. and Göritz, A. S. (2019) “Dreams stimulate waking-life creativity and problem solving: Effects of personality traits,” International Journal of Dream Research, 12(1), pp. 95–102. doi: 10.11588/ijodr.2019.1.58950.

Schredl, M. and Erlacher, D. (2007) “Self-reported effects of dreams on waking-life creativity: An empirical study,” Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 141(1), pp. 35–46. doi: 10.3200/JRLP.141.1.35-46.