Better than never, scientists finally find out that sleep can be used to solve problems. According to a story on BBCNews. Scientists tested whether “incubating” a problem allowed a flash of insight, and found it did, especially when people entered a phase of sleep known as REM.

Volunteers who had entered REM or rapid eye movement sleep – when most dreams occur – were then better able to solve a new problem with lateral thinking.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published the US work. In the morning of the test day, 77 volunteers were given a series of creative problems to solve and were told to mull over the problem until the afternoon either by resting but staying awake or by taking a nap monitored by the scientists. Compared with quiet rest and non-REM sleep, REM sleep increased the chances of success on the problem-solving task.

The study at the University of California San Diego showed that the volunteers who entered REM during sleep improved their creative problem solving ability by almost 40%.

The findings suggest it is not merely sleep itself, or the passage of time, that is important for the problem solving, but the quality of sleep.

Lead researcher Professor Sara Mednick said: “We found that, for creative problems you’ve already been working on, the passage of time is enough to find solutions.

“However for new problems, only REM sleep enhances creativity.”

The researchers believe REM sleep allows the brain to form new nerve connections without the interference of other thought pathways that occur when we are awake or in non-dream-state sleep.

Continue to the full story on BBCNews

If you would like to solve your problems during your dreamtime, I suggest you to read the book “Seth: Dreams and Projections of Consciousness” by Janes Roberts, it is very practical book written in the 70’s.

Excerpt from the book:

As you create and experience your daily life through your personal feelings and
beliefs, so the same applies to dream reality.
There…your thoughts and feelings become “instantly” alive, springing up one upon
another, coming full blown as it were. The dream world exists in terms of energy
also… but simply at ranges that are not physically obvious. Much of your interior
creative work and planning is done at this level.
…take the normally conscious “I” into the dream state… means that you are far better
able to utilize unconscious knowledge, and also to acquaint the unconscious with
your present physical situation.
… can bring you in contact with wisdom you have been denying yourself … Even the
decision to try such a venture is beneficial…
[in dreams] Spread out before you in great profusion, you will find not only any
problems but their solutions.
In physical terms it may take some time before your conscious mind accepts or
recognizes a diagnosis given in a dream. It may come to you later in altered form as
a hunch or sudden intuition, or an urge for action. If you do not trust yourself you may
ignore such impetuses and not take advantage of the answers.
The enlightened conscious mind is always alert for such messages. … you can
request… certain dreams, certain solutions and therefore shortening the time, so to
speak, that may be involved otherwise.

A list of related entries:

Creative And Noncreative Problem Solvers Exhibit Different Patterns Of Brain Activity

Distractions helpful in coming up with creative solutions ??

Binaural Beats for sleep

Scientists concerned about BCI video games

The vibrational frequency of the earth is increasing ?

Neuromatrix: A video game that teach kids about the brain

Scientists study ‘out of body experiences’

Dreams and creativity