Qhat do inventor Thomas Edison, physicist Albert Einstein, painter Salvador Dali and computer scientist Larry Page have in common? A very particular form of siesta. A siesta that is neither comfortable nor really restful, but which has the power to give ideas. Long neglected by research on sleep, it has recently been implemented thanks to a French study and its existence is now scientifically proven: the creative nap, or “Eureka nap” exists.
It’s not really a nap, but a quickly interrupted state of semi-consciousness
In fact, it is not really a siesta, but a quickly interrupted state of semi-consciousness. The inventor of the phonograph and the incandescent bulb told, in an interview in 1889, of having the habit of taking a nap sitting in an armchair, metal orbs in his hands. When he fell asleep, they fell and woke him up by hitting the ground. Dali detailed in a text his method, very similar, where a heavy key replaced the spheres. Before sitting in an armchair “Spanish style”, he placed on the ground, directly above the key, an upside-down plate to amplify the sound of the fall. When they woke up, ideas sprang up, problems found their solutions.
Delphine Oudiette did not hold an object in her hand but remembers having felt, since childhood, an abundance of images and ideas during this short phase between awakening and sleep. “I also happened, in this way, to find catchy titles for scholarship applications”says this Inserm academic, research fellow at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Brain Institute in Paris.
The “Edison method”
Noting that there are many theories on a possible link between sleep and creativity, but no empirical proof, she decides to use the “Edison method” with 103 participants. It presents them with mathematical problems with a hidden rule that allows them to solve them faster. Then suggest to those who have not found this rule to rest, an object in hand.
The peak of creativity only occurs during this phase of drowsiness, from one to two minutes, but it falls into oblivion as soon as one falls asleep
The results, published in the journal Science Advances, in December 2021, exceeded its expectations: 83% of participants who went through this hypnagogic state (between wakefulness and sleep) of a few minutes (named N1) found the solution, compared to only 30% of people who remained awake. But beware, for those who prolonged sleep and went into phase N2, of real sleep, only 14% found the solution. In other words, the peak of creativity only occurs during this phase of drowsiness, which lasts only one to two minutes, but it falls into oblivion as soon as one falls asleep.
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