How the hypnagogic state can boost creativity

The Beatles’ song Yesterday was composed in what psychologists call the “hypnagogic state”: the borderland between being asleep and awake. In this drowsy, partly conscious condition, people may encounter striking inner sounds and images.

One morning in early 1965, Paul McCartney woke with a lengthy, intricate tune playing in his mind. He immediately got out of bed, went to his piano and worked out the melody on the keyboard.

He soon identified chords that matched the tune, then devised temporary phrases - the sort of placeholders songwriters use before writing the actual lyrics - to suit its rhythm.

McCartney found it hard to accept that such a beautiful melody could have appeared spontaneously. He therefore worried that he might unconsciously have copied an existing piece of music.

In his words: “For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before … I thought if no one claimed it after a few weeks, then I could have it.” It ultimately proved to be an original composition.

The hypnagogic state has also given rise to many major discoveries and inventions. Physicist Niels Bohr, in effect, gained the insight behind his Nobel prize while in a semi-conscious condition.

As he was falling asleep, Bohr dreamed of an atomic nucleus surrounded by electrons revolving around it, resembling the Solar System’s Sun and planets. Through this vision, he “discovered” the structure of the atom.

The hypnagogic state as a creative sweet spot

Studies suggest that the hypnagogic state is a creative “sweet spot.” In one 2021 study, for instance, participants who entered this state were three times more likely to identify the “hidden rule” needed to solve a mathematical problem.

Psychologists link creativity with traits including openness to experience and cognitive flexibility. Other researchers propose that it stems from collaboration between the brain’s cognitive control network, responsible for planning and problem-solving, and the default mode network, which is linked to daydreaming and mind-wandering.

In my opinion, though, one of the most significant explanations of creativity is also among the earliest. It was proposed in 1881 by Frederic Myers, an early British psychologist. Myers argued that insights and ideas arrive in a sudden “uprush” from the subliminal mind.

For Myers, the conscious mind represented only a small portion of the whole mind. That whole includes not only the unconscious described by Sigmund Freud, but also broader and higher states of consciousness. Ideas can develop unconsciously over long periods before entering conscious awareness.

This helps explain why ideas can seem to originate beyond the mind, as though they have been bestowed upon us. In fact, they may arise beyond our conscious mind.

Why relaxation matters for creativity

The hypnagogic state is highly creative because the conscious mind is only minimally active while we move between wakefulness and sleep. For this short interval, our usual mental boundaries become more open, allowing creative thoughts and insights to pass through from the subliminal mind.

More broadly, this is why relaxation and inactivity are so frequently connected with creativity. Our conscious minds tend to be less active when we are relaxed. By contrast, when we are busy, mental chatter can fill the mind and leave little room for creative insights to emerge.

Meditation is strongly connected with creativity for the same reason. Research indicates that it encourages broad creative traits, including openness to experience and cognitive flexibility.

Perhaps more significantly, meditation calms and softens the conscious mind, making us more likely to receive inspiration from beyond it. As I explain in my book The Leap, this accounts for the close relationship between spiritual awakening and creativity.

Cultivating the hypnagogic state

Research suggests that roughly 80% of people have encountered the hypnagogic state, with about a quarter experiencing it regularly. It occurs slightly more often among women than men.

It is most common when sleep is beginning, although it may also happen as we wake or during the day when drowsiness causes us to slip out of ordinary consciousness.

So, can the hypnagogic state be used to boost creativity? It is certainly possible to remain in it for a while, as anyone familiar with a Sunday morning lie-in will probably recognise.

The challenge, however, is preserving the ideas that appear. In a drowsy state, we may not feel driven to note them down. Before drifting back to sleep, it is easy to assure ourselves, “This is such a good idea that it will definitely stick in my mind.” Yet, by the time we wake later, that idea may have disappeared permanently.

With mental training, though, there is no reason we cannot establish the habit of recording hypnagogic ideas. Ideally, keep a pen and paper on the bedside table. A more modern alternative is to leave your phone beside the bed with its recording app already open.

Paul McCartney has, in fact, always used this approach. For this very reason, he even taught himself to write in the dark.

Another way to produce ideas is through “conscious napping”.

Whenever the celebrated inventor Thomas Edison needed a solution or a fresh idea, he would let himself drift towards unconsciousness while holding a metal ball. When he fell asleep, the ball would fall noisily to the floor and wake him; at that point, he would often discover that a new insight had arisen.

More generally, we ought to treat idleness as a means of fostering creativity. Napping and relaxation should not be regarded as wasted time. Rather than being unproductive, they may produce the most inspired insights and ideas of our lives.

Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.