image source, Getty Images
-
- Author, Steve Taylor
- Author title, The conversation*
The Beatles song “Yesterday” was written in what psychologists call a “hypnagogic state.” It is the gray area between sleep and wakefulness, when we drift into a semi-conscious state and experience vivid mental images and sounds.
When Paul McCartney woke up one morning in early 1965, he heard a long, complex melody playing in his head. He jumped out of bed, sat down at the piano and started playing the melody.
He quickly found the chords that accompanied the melody and created some accompanying phrases (as composers call them before writing the actual lyrics) that fit the music.
Since McCartney could hardly believe that such a beautiful sound could arise spontaneously, he suspected that he was unknowingly plagiarizing another composition.
“For about a month I went to people in the music world and asked them if they had heard it before… I figured if no one claimed it after a few weeks, I could keep it,” he recalled. But it turned out to be original.
Many great discoveries and inventions have occurred during the hypnagogic state.
The physicist Niels Bohr received the Nobel Prize because he dreamed, semi-conscious, of seeing the nucleus of an atom with the electrons rotating around it, just like the solar system with the sun and the planets, and thus “discovered” the structure of the atom.
image source, Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images
The sweet spot
Research has shown that the hypnagogic state is an ideal place for creativity. For example, in a 2021 study, participants in the hypnagogic state were three times more likely to discover the “hidden rule” that could solve a math problem.
Psychologists associate creativity with qualities such as openness to experience and cognitive flexibility.
Others have suggested that creativity arises from coordination between the brain’s cognitive control network (which is responsible for planning and problem solving) and the standard neural network (which is associated with daydreaming and mind wandering).
However, in my opinion, one of the most important theories of creativity is one of the oldest, proposed by the British psychologist Frederic Myers in 1881. According to Myers, ideas and perceptions arise as a sudden “wave” from a subliminal mind.
For Myers, our consciousness is just a small part of our mind, encompassing not only what Sigmund Freud called the unconscious, but also broader, higher levels of consciousness. Ideas can brew subconsciously for a long time before reaching consciousness.
This is why we often feel that ideas come from outside the mind, as if they were given to us. They can come from outside our consciousness.
image source, Getty Images
The importance of relaxation
The hypnagogic state is so creative because consciousness is barely active as we fluctuate between sleep and wakefulness.
For a short period of time, our mental boundaries are permeable and there is a possibility for creative insights and ideas to flow from the subliminal mind.
More generally, creativity is therefore often associated with relaxation and idleness. When we relax, our consciousness is usually less active. When we are busy, our minds are often filled with chattering thoughts that prevent creative ideas from flowing.
For this reason, meditation is also strongly associated with creativity.
Research shows that meditation promotes general creative qualities such as openness to experience and cognitive flexibility.
But perhaps more importantly, meditation calms and tempers consciousness so that we are more responsible for receiving inspiration from outside.
For this reason, as I explain in my book The Leap, there is a close connection between spiritual awakening and creativity.
image source, Getty Images
Nurture the hypnagogic state
Research shows that about 80% of people have experienced the hypnagogic state and that about a quarter of the population experiences it regularly. It is slightly more common in women than in men.
It is most likely to occur at the beginning of sleep, but can also occur upon waking or during the day when we become sleepy and lose normal consciousness.
Can we use the hypnagogic state to increase our creativity? It’s entirely possible to stay in it, as you probably know from Sunday nights.
One of the difficulties, however, is capturing the ideas that emerge. In a state of sleepiness, we may not feel the urge to remember them. It’s tempting to say to ourselves before we fall asleep, “This idea is so good, I’ll remember it.” But when we wake up a while later, the thought is gone.
image source, Getty Images
However, through mental training, there is no reason why we shouldn’t get into the habit of recording our hypnagogic ideas.
It’s best to keep a pen and paper on the bedside table. Or, for a more modern twist, keep your phone next to your bed with the recording app open.
In fact, this is a practice that Paul McCartney has always followed. To this end, he even trained to write in the dark.
We can also use the “mindful nap” technique to generate ideas. Whenever the great inventor Thomas Edison got stuck on a solution or new idea, he would pass out while holding a metal ball in his hand.
As he fell asleep, the ball fell on the floor and woke him up. At this point he often found that a new perspective had emerged.
In general, we should use inactivity as a means to promote creativity.
Don’t think that taking a nap or relaxing is a waste of time. Far from being unproductive, they can lead to the most inspiring ideas and insights.
*The original text was published in English in The Conversation. You can read it Here.
**Steve Taylor is Professor of Psychology at Leeds Beckett University (UK) and author of several books on psychology and spirituality.
Subscribe here Subscribe to our new newsletter to receive a selection of our best content of the week every Friday.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download and activate the latest version.
About The Author
