Creativity in everyday life — Sleep
Sleep -The single best creativity booster.
Sleep is the fuel for your creative process. Nothing else beats boosts creativity better. According to Sherry Baker in ‘The power of sleep’ (The secrets of creativity, New York: Centennial Media,2019), scientific studies show that keeping regular sleeping hours is the best. Skimping on sleep and pulling all-nighters will harm your brain and creativity even if you sleep extra hours later.
Problem solving is better if you get at least eight hours of sleep a night. Art is all about problem solving. Remember when you decided to finish your painting by working into the wee hours only to discover the next day that you had wrecked it? Most artists have done this. The reason is because your brain needed the sleep to solve the issues. Your brain needed time to rest and think.
According to this article, if you have a problem what you need to do is to wonder about the solutions to your problem before going to sleep. Your brain will work out ideas while you sleep. In the morning, you may have a solution. With the extra sleep you got, you will at least be able to come up with solutions rather than stand there and go ‘duh’ because you are too sleep deprived to come up with any ideas at all.
Most artists have extensive amounts of small tasks that they need to do for their art business. According to Baker, don’t keep all those details in your head. Write them down. Just the act of making a list will help you sleep better and make better decisions in the morning. Keep paper and pencil on your night table.
Too many ideas lead to artists waking up in the night. What this author also suggests is that you write down any ideas that come to you during the night. Quickly jot them down or record them with your phone then go back to sleep. In the morning, you can analyze those ideas to see if they apply to your current challenging work issue.
There is a whole section in this article on writing down your dreams. The author says that it takes time to develop this habit. First thing in the morning, jot down your dreams. At first, there may be only a few words or ideas that you will remember. Eventually your mind will retain more of the dreams you have had. Dreams can then be analyzed to see if they are trying to tell you how to solve your problem.
I have to admit that I have not been able to remember dreams. However, sleeping eight hours a night as much as possible had helped me a lot. The more rested I am, the better my ideas are, the easier I can solve problems and the more patient I am with ‘challenging’ people. Sleeping well and more has done more for me than anything else. I found that the regular my sleeping hours were, the better I performed in my art making. So, if I was to give any advice, it would be: Get some sleep now!
I hope this helps you.
Doris’ website: www.dorischarest.ca
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