Eureka moments between wakefulness and sleep

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-12-10 11:41

Australia; International; VIC

Salvador Dalí - Bed and Two Bedside Tables Violently Attacking a Cello [1983]

Interrupting the earliest stage of sleep might unlock a “creative sweet spot” according to French and Australian researchers. The study was inspired by a technique used by inventor Thomas Edison and surrealist painter Salvador Dali - who would lie down while holding an object, which would fall and awaken them if they began to sleep. In the study, 103 participants were tasked with solving a mathematical equation, and if they failed to solve it, they would use the napping technique and try again. Participants who entered this early phase of sleep were three times as likely to find the hidden key to solving the equation than those who remained awake - however this effect disappeared if the participants entered too deep a sleep.

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conference: Science Advances

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Organisation/s: Monash University, Sorbonne Université, France

Funder: This work was supported by Doctoral School ED3C (to C.L.), a research grant from Société Française de Recherche et Médecine du Sommeil (C.L.), and INSERM research endowment (to D.O.).

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