When Do You Feel Most Creative? Why Ideas Bloom at Bedtime

More times than I can count, I’ve slid under the bedsheets, turned off the light, and shut my eyes…only to have a great idea pop into my head. I’ll toss and turn for a while, hoping I’ll forget the thought. But if it’s a good one, I’ll turn on the light and, eyes bleary, scribble it down. When do you feel most creative? I’m surely not the only one with a bedtime burst of creativity. In a <a href="https://studyfinds.org/night-vision-our-best-ideas-come-in-bed-survey-finds/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">2019 UK survey</a>, more than 40 percent of people said being in bed spurs creativity, admitting they have their best ideas before sleep, in the middle of the night, and just after waking up. As great as it is to have good ideas, the lights-on, lights-off approach to bedtime and our brain activity is tedious. To have great ideas during the day, we must make time for productive zoning out. <h1>Why Creativity Comes at Bedtime</h1> Scientists believe we’re pinged with great thoughts in bed because our brain is in a relaxed state conducive to neuroplasticity, “the brain’s ability to modify, change, and adapt both structure and function throughout life and in response to experience,” according to the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01657/full" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Frontiers</a>. Neuroplasticity supports a cognitive process called <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/singular-perspective/202105/why-the-human-brain-is-so-good-detecting-patterns" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">pattern recognition</a>: People learn and make decisions by detecting patterns and making connections within the information they have. If every moment of your day is taken up with busywork for your brain — responding to emails, doing focused work, scrolling on your phone, socializing — then naturally, the only time your brain is free to do creative work is when you shut off the lights and your head hits the pillow. (Darkness and dim illumination also <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494413000261" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">promote creativity</a>!) <a href="https://medium.com/behavior-design/when-do-you-feel-most-creative-why-ideas-bloom-at-bedtime-d3a7f06be05c">Website</a>