Sleep as a source of inspiration, illumination and intuition tips

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Sleep is not only a healthy rest for the body, but also an opportunity to find the right solution, to find a fresh idea or an answer to a question that has been tormenting you for a long time. There are plenty of cases when great personalities created works of genius, made discoveries that were significant for all mankind, and invented something new and very useful thanks to sleep. The first thing that comes to mind is Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev and the insight that came to him in a dream in the form of the periodic table of chemical elements. However, this case is far from an isolated one.

So, for example, to the French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Henri Poincaré, many formulas and innovative ideas came precisely in a dream, he himself repeatedly spoke about it. And the German chemist Friedrich Kekule once woke up, clearly understanding what the structure of benzene molecules should look like (this made a serious revolution in organic chemistry). Another case confirming that sometimes ideas come in a dream happened to the Soviet aircraft designer Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov. An insightful dream revealed to him a drawn image of an aircraft tail of an unusual shape, which formed the basis of the tail unit of the Antey heavy turboprop transport aircraft.

Brilliant ideas came during sleep not only to inventors and scientists, but also to cultural and art workers. For example, the plot of "Woe from Wit" was dreamed of by the famous Russian playwright Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, and the lines of his best poems came to the French writer and poet Victor Hugo in a dream.

There are many similar cases in history, and the purpose of my article today is not to compile a complete list of them. I just want to figure out and understand how creative ideas come to people in a dream and whether something can be done so that dreams-insights visit us as often as possible. The variety of examples presented above (and below), when a dream turned out to be prophetic, let it serve as proof that dream-insights come much more often than one can imagine and at the same time can happen to everyone.

How illumination dreams arise

Someone thinks about why they are visited by prophetic dreams, others simply get benefit and pleasure, and some are sure that the interference in their dreams comes from the supply of higher powers. So, for example, the founder of Armenian literature and writing, Mesrop Mashtots, claimed that an angel showed him the alphabet in a dream, and the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan said that each of his discoveries was sent to him in a dream by the goddess Namagiri. However, like the great composer from Italy, Giuseppe Tartini, his most famous sonata, "The Devil's Sonata" dreamed in a dream, and it was as if it was being played by either the devil or the devil himself.

Not believing in the mystical nature of dreams-insights, scientists from two German universities, the University of Cologne and the University of Lübeck, set out to find out the reasons for these unusual phenomena. Researchers carried out many experiments and various experiments (the most modern equipment was used: positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography …) and found that sleep promotes the emergence of creative thinking and a sudden understanding of the situation because while a person is asleep, his brain continues to work, and his activity is similar to thatwhich was recorded during pre-sleep training sessions. Scientists suggest that a sleeping person in the brain is not so much an exacerbation of memory and improvement of thought processes, as their reorganization. That is, the search for the right decisions continues and a certain reproduction of the experience acquired before sleep takes place, but with some changes.

How not to forget an idea that came in a dream

So that the generous gifts that dreams give us do not go unnoticed and are not simply forgotten, appropriate measures must be taken.

For those who often have nightly insights, there is always a notebook (notebook or ordinary piece of paper) and a pen next to the bed. Do not think that when you wake up, you will remember all the ideas and interesting thoughts that visited you in a dream. No matter how simple a promising idea may seem to you, you probably will not be able to remember it, since in the process of falling asleep, consciousness is defocused. Therefore, if in the middle of the night you woke up illuminated by a brilliant thought, do not be too lazy to write it down on paper. And so that in the morning you could make out what you wrote at night, it would be nice to have a light source at hand in addition to a pen with a notebook.

It is known that sometimes one idea follows another, so if a good thought came in the middle of the night, and you woke up in an inspiration, you should not get carried away with it and start thinking about it, entrust it to paper. Otherwise, you can frighten off those who follow her and simply deprive yourself of sleep.

How to induce an illumination dream

Of course, sleep is a source of new ideas and often contains ready-made solutions to all kinds of problems, so it’s foolish not to use it. In order to load your subconscious with the work of finding fresh thoughts and solving urgent problems, you must immediately before going to bed, accurately formulate the problem for yourself (you can orally aloud or mentally, or in writing, as it is more convenient to anyone) and convince yourself of the need to solve it.

An interesting technique for getting out of the creative stupor used by the famous Spanish sculptor and artist, one of the greatest originals of the 20th century, Salvador Dali. Its meaning lies in catching images and thoughts swarming in the mind just before falling asleep. Feeling the approaching sleep, Dali sat on a chair and put a metal plate in front of him. Holding a spoon in his hand, he began to fall asleep. At the first sign of a nap, the spoon fell out. Waking up, the artist wrote down the images that visited him.

Some people who resort to the insights that come in a dream when solving questions do not at all try to carry out any preparatory work in the evening, thinking about the problem and convincing themselves of the need to get an answer to the question that worries them. They believe that the mind is already well aware of what you are thinking and what tasks you face. Just waking up, they necessarily write down their dreams in detail and then try to analyze and interpret them.

Dream diary

It happens that dreams tell us how to get out of a difficult situation and describe ideas in a language we do not understand, and we cannot always decipher the message of the subconscious. I have already spoken about Friedrich Kekul and the benzene formula he invented thanks to his dreams. So the chemist was able to understand the structure of the benzene ring only after he had a dream in which a snake grabbed its tail and interpreted it correctly.

Often the awareness of a particular dream comes to us after some time, and this is only if we remember it well enough. Therefore, in order to be able to decipher the mental flows of the subconscious and prevent our brain from working in vain during sleep, one should be more careful with dreams. A dream diary will help you save them and subsequently interpret them.

By writing down his dreams, a person learns to memorize them and, as a result, gains the ability to interpret what he saw in a dream a few days (weeks, months) ago. Many great personalities have kept dream diaries. The French philosopher, physicist and mathematician Rene Descartes found some solutions, which he could not find while awake, in such a diary, which he kept regularly.

As you start writing down dreams in a diary, over time you will notice that you start remembering more dreams and notice more details, and images that are incomprehensible at first glance will become clear and understandable.

Dreams are best recorded in the first five minutes after waking up. When you wake up, do not try to get up right away, it is better with your eyes closed, try to remember in great detail and return all the events of the night (so you may not miss the small details that may be important), and after you have fixed it in your mind, the dream can be transferred to paper. It will not be easy to remember everything you dreamed without training, but the longer you practice, the better your memory will obey your will.

When recording a dream, do not try to analyze it at the same time, you can analyze it later, when you have free time.

When you wake up, you should not immediately open your eyes, immediately start thinking about the upcoming business. The first few seconds you need to abandon everyday life, immerse yourself in yourself, force the memory to return the events of the night, and a series of dreams will begin to pass in front of you, which, perhaps, will prompt a solution to the problem over which you fought during the day.

To help yourself interpret the dream, try answering the following questions:

• What places, things, events and what people have I seen?

• Who are the protagonists?

• What are the most vivid characters and images of the dream?

• How did I feel while sleeping? How do I feel when I think about him?

• What associations are born in my head?

• Does the dream you see change the very formulation of the question?

• What does intuition suggest?

Yes, and don't expect good thoughts and ideas to come in any special way. They will not necessarily be broadcasted in plain text, and for sure they will not be dictated to you by some old man in a hoodie and with a staff in his hand. It is even possible that at first you will not find a connection at all between the problem you are working on and your dreams. However, understanding will surely arise as soon as you try at the same time to keep the dream and this very task in your consciousness.