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The latest post from Chris Bolton has made me finish a piece that has in been draft for at least a year. Sometimes you just need a spark of inspiration to finish something.
“Why don’t you sleep on it… and the answer will be there in the morning. It’s one of those annoyingly wholesome bits of advice my wife frequently gives me. And I accept. Maybe not always as graciously as I should… But the advice works, and generally I end up with my thoughts in a better place. So what is going on?”
Chris suggests that sleeping on it is unlikely to work in an organisational context and suggests some other approaches. But, if sleeping on problems does work. why don’t organisations do it?
The main reason I think is that saying you don’t have an answer right now is seen as a leadership weakness. Admitting you don’t know, or haven’t given something enough thought is seen as ‘soft’ in the dynamic world of leaderism. Leaders have all the answers don’t they?
And yet we know that sleep allows your brain to process information and consolidate memories. This can lead to new insights or perspectives on a problem when you wake up.
Sleep helps regulate emotions and reduce stress levels. A calmer mind might be better equipped to tackle challenges.
Additionally whilst you sleep, your brain continues to work on unresolved issues, potentially leading to subconscious breakthroughs.
Dmitri Mendeleev, the creator of the periodic table of elements, reportedly saw the structure of the table in a dream. While awake, he had been struggling to organize the elements, but in his sleep, he saw them arranged in a pattern that he then woke up and wrote down.
Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, is said to have dreamed of being attacked by natives with spears that had holes near the tip. This dream supposedly sparked the idea of placing the eye of the sewing needle near the point, a key element of his design.
A 24 year old Paul McCartney reportedly composed the melody for “Yesterday” in a dream. He woke up and played the tune on the piano, initially thinking it was a song he had heard before, but then realised it was an original composition.
Special Agent Dale Cooper of the FBI used his dreams as a crucial tool in investigating the murder of a school girl. His dreams often provided cryptic clues and symbols that guided his investigation. (OK, this one is fictional but ‘Twin Peaks’ is one of my favourite ever TV shows, and I’m rewatching it at the moment.)
Of course, all of these are unverifiable, but research has shown that taking breaks, sleeping, and engaging in activities that allow your mind to wander can all facilitate subconscious problem-solving.
Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) proposed by Ap Dijksterhuis and colleagues, suggests that unconscious thought processes can sometimes lead to better decisions than conscious deliberation, particularly when dealing with complex choices. Conscious thought – the kind you’ll have sitting in a meeting – is deliberate and rule-based, while unconscious thought is automatic and intuitive, capable of processing more information in parallel. Research suggests that taking breaks or engaging in distracting activities can allow our unconscious mind to work on problems, leading to better outcomes.
What if you could train yourself to solve problems in your sleep?
Targeted dream incubation (TDI) is a fascinating technique that explores the connection between dreams and creativity. It involves intentionally influencing dream content to stimulate creative thinking upon waking. Recent research suggests that TDI, particularly during the early sleep stage can significantly enhance post-sleep creative performance.
Before sleep, individuals focus on a specific problem or creative challenge they want to explore, then they engage in relaxation techniques and visualise the chosen topic before falling asleep.
The chosen topic can often appears in dreams, sometimes offering novel solutions or perspectives.
Upon waking, individuals recall and analyse their dreams, looking for insights or ideas related to the original problem.
I’ve been playing around with this for the past month or so, and I do feel more creative and less stuck in a problem, albeit I’ve had some very weird dreams.
I guess most HR teams would take issue with organisations deliberately inducing employees to dream about work, so how can our organisations bring unconscious thought into solving workplace problems?
You could just encourage breaks and mind-wandering , banning back to back meetings that just serve as mind-numbing rather than mind-expanding. If you have a meeting with a problem to solve you could hold the meeting outdoors, or while walking – just being around nature can stimulate creativity and allow for mind-wandering. Technology has given us the luxury that means people no longer need to be in the same place to do this.
You could schedule dedicated periods for employees to step away from a problem and engage in activities that promote relaxation and mind-wandering, such as listening to music, or simply daydreaming.
Or you could just learn to live with the problem, as we are attempting to do at Bromford, and move away from rushing to silver bullet solutions.
Got a lot of problems?
Get more sleep.
Dream more.
Related: Combatting The Cobra Effect With Bottom-Up Planning