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- author, Steve Taylor
- To roll, The conversation*
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Reading time: 5 minutes
The song Yesterdayby the Beatles, was written in what psychologists call a “hypnagogic state.” This is a gray area between sleep and wakefulness, when we become half-drowsy in a semi-conscious state, experiencing vivid mental images and sounds.
Waking up one morning in early 1965, Paul McCartney noticed a long, complex melody playing in his head. He jumped out of bed, sat down at the piano and started playing it.
He quickly found the chords that accompanied the melody and wrote down a few accompanying phrases (as composers call them, before writing the lyrics) that fit the music.
Hard to believe that such a beautiful sound could emerge spontaneously, McCartney suspected that he was unconsciously plagiarizing another composition.
“For about a month, I looked up people in the music business and asked them if they had heard it yet…I thought if no one asked for it after a few weeks, I could keep it,” he recalls. But it was really original.
Many great discoveries and inventions emerged during the hypnagogic state.
Physicist Niels Bohr won the Nobel Prize because, while semi-conscious, he dreamed that he saw the nucleus of the atom, with electrons spinning around it, just like the solar system with the Sun and planets, and thus “discovered” the atomic structure.
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The big point
Research has shown that the hypnagogic state is a “sweet spot” for creativity. For example, in a 2021 study, participants in a 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 suggest that creativity arises from coordination between the brain’s cognitive control network (responsible for planning and problem solving) and the default mode network (associated with daydreaming and mind wandering).
However, in my opinion, one of the most important theories about creativity is also one of the oldest, proposed by British psychologist Frederic Myers in 1881. According to Myers, ideas and perceptions arise as a sudden “wave” from the subliminal mind.
For Myers, our conscious mind is only a small segment of our mind as a whole, comprising not only what Sigmund Freud called the unconscious, but also broader, higher levels of consciousness. Ideas can arise unconsciously for a long time before emerging into consciousness.
This is why we often feel like ideas come from outside the mind, as if they are given to us. They can come from beyond our conscious mind.
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The importance of relaxation
The hypnagogic state is so creative because, while we oscillate between sleep and wakefulness, the conscious mind is simply active.
For a brief period, our mental boundaries become more permeable and creative insights and ideas can arise from the subconscious.
More generally, this is why creativity is often associated with relaxation and leisure. When we relax, our conscious mind tends to become less active. Often, when we are busy, our minds are filled with incessant thoughts, leaving no room for creative ideas.
This is also why meditation is strongly linked to creativity.
Research shows that meditation promotes general creative qualities, such as openness to experience and cognitive flexibility.
But perhaps more importantly, meditation calms and softens the conscious mind, making us more susceptible to receiving external inspiration.
As I point out in my book The jump (The jumpin free translation), this is why there is a strong link between spiritual awakening and creativity.
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Nourish the hypnagogic state
Research indicates that around 80% of people have experienced the hypnagogic state and that around a quarter of the population suffers from it regularly. It is a little more common in women than in men.
This state tends to occur at the onset of sleep, but it can also appear upon waking or throughout the day when we feel sleepy and consciousness begins to fade.
Can we use the hypnagogic state to enhance our creativity? It is certainly possible to stay there, as many know, especially on Sunday evenings.
However, one of the challenges is capturing the ideas that emerge. In this state of mind, the impulse to record them may be lacking. It’s tempting to think, before going back to sleep, “This idea is so good that I’ll definitely remember it.” » But when he woke up some time later, this idea disappeared.
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However, with mental training, there is no reason why we cannot get into the habit of recording our hypnagogic ideas.
The ideal is to have a pen and paper on your bedside table. Or, in a more modern take, leave your cell phone next to the bed with the recording app open.
In fact, it’s a practice that Paul McCartney has always adopted. He even practiced writing in the dark for this purpose.
You can also use the “mindful napping” technique to generate ideas. Whenever the great inventor Thomas Edison found himself stuck on a solution or new idea, he would enter a semi-conscious state while holding a metal ball.
When he fell asleep, the ball would fall to the ground and wake him up, and he would often find that a new perspective had emerged.
More generally, we must use relaxation as an ally of creativity.
Don’t think that taking a nap or relaxing is a waste of time. Far from being unproductive, it can lead to the most inspiring ideas and thoughts.
This article was published in English on The Conversation website. You can read it here.
Steve Taylor is Professor of Psychology at Leeds Beckett University (UK) and author of works on psychology and spirituality.
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