A Sleeping Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

In an earlier post I reported on research that demonstrated dreaming can improve your ability to solve a maze navigation task by a factor of 10.  Since then I’ve been on the look out for science-based advice on how you can tune your approach to sleeping to solve problems, accelerate learning and improve creativity.

The Scientific American just published a story,  How Can You Control Your Dreams? that provides very specific advice.  Here is a summary of how to problem solve in a dream:

1. You must actually dream about it not just sleep on it
2. Problems with a visual representation or solution and those that really require thinking outside the box (defy convention wisdom) yield best to dreaming.
3. Prime yourself by thinking about the problem before you sleep. If possible hold an image of it in your head.
4. If possible, include a diagram, instrument, sheet of music or whatever other artifacts are associated with your work with the problem near your bedside. Nothing mystical here is just deepens the priming effect.
5. Wake up slowly, lying in bed and replay or savor your dream.  You may only have fragments but focus on emotions you feel and the rest should follow. This is critical. The solution or partial solution may become evident just as you are waking.

If this method is going to work for you it should do so quickly. Try it for a couple of weeks.

The article goes on to discuss techniques for how to dream about specific people, escape nightmares and engage in lucid dreaming or being aware you are dreaming while you are dreaming.

Very interested to hear from readers that use the dreaming mind to improve brain function and enhance cognitive performance.