Rodents deprived of sleep would die within weeks as they slowly lost weight and developed skin ulcerations. In humans, several days of sleep deprivation results in psychosis and frequent sleep deprivation has hinted at loss of brain cells, not to mention other complications like increased mortality.
There are implications of sleep being beneficial for health but sleep also aids in cognition. For example, sleep helps establish memory. This is well recognized, and this concept has seeped into the general public – students are always told to sleep well before an exam. Sleep also helps with creative problem solving; this is not as well-known but often individually discovered, like how Hayao Miyazaki (Ghibli Studio co-founder and director) will try to manipulate his dreams for inspiration. But how people become inspired is a weird concept. Why do ideas need an incubation period, while others arise in an ‘aha’ moments? And then what does sleep have to do with any of this?
Creative problem requires reconstructing how a problem is approached. Cognitive theories posit that this reconstruction is unconscious and happens when you take a break from effortful thinking, explaining the ‘incubation’ and the ‘aha’ moments when dealing with a creative roadblock. Furthermore, sleep plays a powerful role in that it provides time for the subconscious to work for inspiration.
Sleep has several components that can be divided into NREM (non-rapid eye movement) and REM (rapid eye movement, the component with dreams). How exactly these different components aid in creative thinking is not well established, but there are some good ideas! One speculation is that both NREM and REM sleep replays neuronal representation of memory, allowing general understanding to be established in NREM while REM sleep promotes new associations.
Although all animals sleep, only mammals and birds were thought to incorporate both NREM and REM phases in their sleep. However, lizards have also been found to have REM-like sleep patterns, recorded with an EEG! . This is interesting because it raises the question, “why is REM sleep (or perhaps dreams) important?” If this form of sleep rose multiple times as animals evolved, surely it has some significance. Perhaps dreams are a byproduct of REM and REM-like sleep. Perhaps REM sleep is important for memory formation, as it seems to be present in more cognitively aware animals.
Originally posted on Instagram August 14 – 2, 2018 (3 posts)
No Responses