The slumbering mind might not seem like an apt tool for any critical thinking, but humans can actually solve problems while asleep, researchers say. Not only that, but one purpose for dreaming itself may be to help us find solutions to puzzles that plague us during waking hours.
Dreams are highly visual and often illogical in nature, which makes them ripe for the type of “out-of-the-box” thinking that some problem-solving requires, said Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard University.
Barrett’s theory on dreaming, which she discussed at the Association for Psychological Science meeting here last month, boils down to this: Dreaming is really just thinking, but in a slightly different state from when our eyes are open.
Full Article at Live Science
I’ve always had this notion myself. I remember while in college I was trying to learn to juggle, but I couldn’t quite get the knack of it. One night I had a quite lucid and detailed dream about it, and the next day I was able to. I always got a kick out of that.
Derren is in my dreams often…. you give wayyy to much puzzles to us during ur shows!!!!! lol
Did they look into how lucid dreaming might impact on “out-of-the-box” thinking in dreams?
I imagine part of the benefit of dreaming is also that most of the time we’re not aware of our recent memories or they are jumbled up which allows us to apply a different perspective to a problem, however if you’re aware you’re dreaming do you not bring all that with you?
thats actually really interesting. I have a girl I am working with at the moment that I think this really relates too..
good read thanks for posting!
…aye, hence the expression ‘sleep on it’, when referring to problem solving. And it works….!
My dreams about hunting Aliens, hiding in a giant old hotel and sliding down huge ski slopes are problem solving? Awesome!
Mike you learn the most in your sleep it’s the same with guitar. the rest period really does you good. It may not have much to do with your dreams though.
when one dreams the pineal gland in the brain releases a chemical called DMT. DMT is the active ingredient in ayuawaska, the drink Amazonian shamans use to enter the spirit world (more likely simply another dimension a la string theory) . Dr Rick Strassman did a clinical study on DMT by giving subjects iv DMT. The results were astonishing with the majority of subjects having out of body experiences and encountering ‘beings’. Strassman published the findings in; DMT – The spirit molecule.
Not only does the pineal gland release DMT for the purpose of dreaming, it floods the brain with DMT on death. Obviously to release the consciousness from the body.
Well that would make sense because the man that discovered the oreder of the periodic table of elements (can’t remember his name) had been trying to find the order for ages but couldn’t and then he fell asleep and dreamed about the order of it and it turned out to be right!
I was dreaming of Derren Brown last night actually. He was living in this weird housing block that was really ramshackled and we got in this lift that took forever to reach the top. Then his floor at the top was full of everything like ephemera and taxidermy. He was cooking something. Lord knows.
I remember the story how Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, got the crucial idea – the eye at the *top* of the needle – which finally made it possible.
After countless futile attempts trying to build a sewing machine with conventional needles, he went to sleep, quite frustrated. He dreamed that he was captured by savages, who made a war dance. He looked to their spears, and saw that these spears all had a hole in the spearhead.
He awoke immediately with an “Eureka!” moment. Thats it! The eye has to be at the top of the needle! And it worked.
Some of my dreams feel VERY real…..which is sometimes not very nice, lol. And obviously, Derren, you have appeared in mine plenty of times too….. those are always nice, HAHA!!
Sometimes they are totally bizaare and don’t make sense. I dream about the past alot, like my old houses and …. SCHOOL and UNI….AAAAAAAAAARGH! Oh the fun :S xxx
Not exactly new. I did a quick google, and got a list of famous examples of this phenomenon from http://www.brilliantdreams.com/product/famous-dreams.htm – probably best to ignore the productsell as detracts somewhat. The benzene one is the one that stuck in my mind from years ago as he fortunately didn’t go for Freud’s dodgy interpretation of snakes in dreams.
I often dream thay ex is coming after me and wants to hurt me! even though i am happily married,if i have a fight with my now husband i,ll dream my ex is coming for me! very scary. I wonder why?
I think the selves are not operating the same way as during the day and therefor will work it a little different in dreams. But we can trigger the same state during the day, also that way of using your brain. Although people will find you a bit off’ish … surreal …
Lots of my dreams are also about keeping another part of me alive … one part of me tortures the other self in those dreams. I have been waking up while hearing the other me telling me stuff … showing me stuff … it’s as if one says the words and the other creates the pictures to go with that .. Not always, but at times.
Dreams constantly change .. and trigger constantly different systems. We are simply not dead in our sleep .. there is no real reason for our dreams in my opinion .. we are simply alive, we go on.
When I suggested this ages ago, people appeared to ignore it. Now I suspect they believe they dreamed it up. If you have a problem, identify its components in your mind before you go to sleep. Then completely forget it. With no distractions to divert computational power, the mind will automatically attempt to fit the pieces together in every way possible. Even those a conscious mind might dismiss, or suppress, as preposterous. It’s the difference between devising a formula to resolve a sum, or having a computer run through every possible calculation. If your mind finds a possible solution, it will alert you when you wake. I call it Night Serve.
That’s not exactly news. Gustav Jung already stated this several times, but with different words and approach.
Check out “What Are Dreams?: Nova”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/dreams/
Its available on netflix streaming.