Sleeping is strange. We spend on average a third of our life asleep. That’s time we’re not spending working, socializing, or reproducing. Yet, sleep is necessary to our survival. While it can be tempting to spend as much time awake as possible so we can be productive, not getting enough sleep is actually detrimental to both our mental and our physical health.
For knowledge workers, sleep is particularly crucial. It’s during these hours of rest that our brains process information, make new connections, and prepare for creative problem-solving.
Many successful creative minds know the importance of sleep in their routines. For instance, novelist Stephen King insists on getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep and advises aspiring writers to do the same. Even Thomas Edison, often misquoted as sleeping very little, actually took frequent naps throughout the day to recharge his creative batteries.
The Role of Sleep in Creative Thinking
Sleep plays a vital role in memory consolidation, a process essential for learning and innovation. During sleep, particularly during slow-wave sleep, the brain transfers information from short-term to long-term memory.
This process not only helps in retaining new information but also in making connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, which is crucial for creative thinking. This in turn impacts cognitive flexibility. These skills are essential for knowledge workers who often need to adapt to new information and make complex decisions.
Research has shown that sleep-deprived individuals tend to make riskier decisions and have difficulty adjusting their thinking in the face of new information. Adequate sleep, on the other hand, enhances our ability to think flexibly.
A study published in the journal Sleep suggests that even moderate sleep deprivation (6 hours per night for 2 weeks) led to cognitive performance deficits equivalent to two full nights of total sleep deprivation. And a meta-analysis found that sleep deprivation significantly impairs attention, working memory, and cognitive processing speed.
These findings show the critical importance of adequate sleep for cognitive function and creative thinking. Given the significant impact of sleep on your mental capabilities, it’s crucial to maintain a healthy sleep-creativity cycle based on habits, routines, and rituals that promote better sleep.
7 Ways to Enhance Your Sleep-Creativity Cycle
As we’ve just seen, sleeping under 6 hours a day—which is fairly common for adult professionals—results in a decline in cognitive skills in otherwise healthy people. Obviously, this comes at a huge cost to productivity and creativity. So how can you make sure to get enough sleep and sleep better?
1. Get more light during the day. Our body has an internal time-keeping clock called the circadian rhythm. It basically tells your body when it’s time to go to sleep. Light is an important factor to keep your circadian rhythm ticking properly. That’s partly why we struggle so much when traveling to a country in a different timezone. Our circadian rhythm is all over the place. But if you’re not traveling and are still struggling to fall asleep, it may be that you’re not getting enough daylight. In a study with people suffering from insomnia, daytime light exposure reduced the time it took them to fall asleep by more than 80%. So try and spend more time outside.
2. Reduce screen time at night. While exposure to light during the day is good for you, research shows that night time light exposure has the opposite effect. Light from electronic devices is particularly bad, as it tricks your brain into thinking it’s still daytime. To fix this, turn off all your screens one to two hours before bedtime. Read a book instead. This also means no TV in the bedroom.
3. Avoid caffeine late in the day. Consuming caffeine up to six hours before bed significantly worsens your sleep quality. While there are many health benefits to moderate amounts of caffeine, drinking coffee too late in the day will keep on stimulating your nervous system and prevent your body from relaxing at night. Instead, you can have decaffeinated coffee, or better yet, non-caffeinated infusions.
4. Go to bed at the right time. We tend to go to bed at different times every day. This is pretty bad for our circadian rhythm—the natural time-keeping clock I mentioned earlier. Being consistent with our sleep and waking times has been found to help us sleep better. So try to get in the habit of waking up and going to bed at similar times. Please note that your brain doesn’t know what a weekend is. I know it can be challenging, but try to keep that same routine going all week long.
5. Relax yourself. Research suggests that using relaxation techniques before going to bed can improve sleep quality, and they are often used as a way to treat insomnia. You can use many different techniques, such as meditation, listening to relaxing music, reading a book, or taking a hot bath.
6. Create a comfortable environment. Have you ever wondered why you slept better in nice hotels? Research indicates that the quality of your bedding impacts the quality of your sleep. If you have the budget, consider investing in a decent mattress as well as good pillows and duvet. And beyond physical comfort, consider other aspects of your room: is it noisy or not dark enough? A few simple changes can make all the difference between a bad or a good night of sleep.
7. Turn down the heating. Surprisingly, bedroom temperature may affect sleep quality more than external noise. There’s lots of research showing that higher temperatures mean a worse quality of sleep, but scientists haven’t figured out the exact most comfortable temperature. It seems like around 20°C (70°F) is great for most people.
In the pursuit of creativity, a good night’s sleep might just be your most powerful tool. By prioritizing sleep, you’re not just resting your body, but actively supporting your creative cognition, which in turn will lead to better sleep… The foundation of a sustainable sleep-creativity cycle.
So tonight, as you prepare for bed, remember that you’re setting the stage for tomorrow’s creative breakthroughs.