Sleep deprivation increases creativity?

[theyearthreethousand]

to put things in perspective, I am a student studying in the arts field - so large portion of my day is spent thinking about interesting ideas regarding all types of things. it has come to my attention that my greatest ideas come to me when I am sleep deprived, and I would say that productivity wise I have around a 60% increase in ideas (but not actual execution, as my body is tired). now, it is probably easy to dismiss this as a silly coincidence; but it happens far too often (mostly unintentionally). my question is: does anybody know any scientific - or otherwise - evidence of creativity increasing before going to sleep or when sleep deprived? my mind seems to work at a far quicker speed. logically it doesn't make much sense to me. cheers.

[Frishert]

True. I'm a composer myself, and 2 o' clock in the night is the time when I'm most creative. I heard it's because your brainwaves drop (because normally they're asleep then) and you get into a more creative set of waves. Or something like that .

[theyearthreethousand]

At least I know that it's not just me then, stenny. Thanks for you response. I definitely need more info on this so that I can use it to my advantage.

[rpgedgar]

I've actually felt more creative when awake, and more specifically in a happy mood. I feel like when my brain is functioning at full speed there's a little 'voice' in the back of my head that is always seeing things from a different perspective and can put ideas together out of thin air. Almost as if my creative side is on the back burner while I'm focusing on other takes I'm currently doing.

[theyearthreethousand]

just out of interest what creative field do you work in rpgedgar?

[AlexLou]

I find this to be true. But when I'm sleep deprived I'm thinking differently than I normally would because my brain is in a different physical state than usual. So I suspect that if I were perpetually sleep deprived, then I would think of new things on the rare occasions when I was fully rested.

[Digital.Totem]

I find sleep deprivation does increase my creativity. I've done some of my best writing after being awake for 24+ hours. I'm also unproductive just after waking up, but more and more productive as I progress later in the day, or in my case the hours of the early morning. I can only sleep between 8 am and 9 pm I don't know why other than my insomnia.

[Arthurium]

to put things in perspective, I am a student studying in the arts field - so large portion of my day is spent thinking about interesting ideas regarding all types of things. it has come to my attention that my greatest ideas come to me when I am sleep deprived, and I would say that productivity wise I have around a 60% increase in ideas (but not actual execution, as my body is tired). now, it is probably easy to dismiss this as a silly coincidence; but it happens far too often (mostly unintentionally). my question is: does anybody know any scientific - or otherwise - evidence of creativity increasing before going to sleep or when sleep deprived? my mind seems to work at a far quicker speed. logically it doesn't make much sense to me. cheers. When you are deprived of sleep your brain starts firing differently making new connections that are usually avoided. Chemically your brain is a little bit off also. I could definitely see what you are experiencing.

[rpgedgar]

just out of interest what creative field do you work in rpgedgar? Well, I'm not in any sort of field, but I do enjoy writing and I'm trying to develop about 5-7 minutes of stand up comedy material right now.

[Crackz]

HI. I noticed that when im creating music when i want to sleep my creativity boots up, but it depend if I was happy that day, if im happy this thing works, but if im sad, or mad it does not work, or if my body tierd it does not qork either. Only time this works for me when im happy.... Sorry im not sure how exactly this works in scientific way, but im just wanted to share....

[Marm]

Idk much about that but if you want creativity then inside lucid dreams are where you'll find plenty of that. Dreams are basically ultra-vivid imagination so as long as you can control your dreams and remember them they'll probably be your greatest source of creativity.

[tommo]

and you won't destroy your brain and body in the process lol

[nina]

You ever get great ideas when driving in the car? Taking a shower? It's normal for creativity to increase during times when the brain is sort of on auto pilot because you typically will have more theta waves, which correspond to greater creativity. It's merely speculation, but I would guess that the sleep deprived brain would be more likely to drop into theta waves more often. Probably also why car accidents are so extremely common with sleep deprivation. So please be careful, and don't operate heavy machinery when sleep deprived. Also, please don't start using sleep deprivation as a means to enhance your creativity, well, unless, as tommo mentioned, you're willing to sacrifice your overall health. I also agree that dreams are an amazing resource for the artist to extract new ideas from. You could experiment with theta brainsync audio, binaural beats.

[Crackz]

Idk much about that but if you want creativity then inside lucid dreams are where you'll find plenty of that. Dreams are basically ultra-vivid imagination so as long as you can control your dreams and remember them they'll probably be your greatest source of creativity. to be honest when im having this lucid dreams i just enjoy them do craziest stuff XDD i dont do much of creativity in there XD