If you are stuck on an issue that requires "unconventional" solutions, indulge in the luxury of a few nights of rest. That sleep is fundamental to strengthen learning and creativity is a known fact, but the role played by its various phases is still discussed. Now a new research hypothesis, which will be declined in the next five years, proposes that REM sleep (phase that repeats several times during the night and is characterized by rapid eye movements) and non-REM (composed of alternating light sleep phases) to periods of deep sleep) work together, and in a complementary way, to facilitate creative thinking.
HOW WE ARE THE CANVAS. The theory of Penny Lewis, a neuroscientist at the School of Psychology of the University of Cardiff (Scotland), is illustrated in the magazine Trends in Cognitive Sciences. "Imagine that you already have all the memories you need, but have to restructure them - create connections between thoughts that you did not connect, integrate elements that you did not have integrated," says Lewis.
Various studies indicate that these unexpected relationships between known elements can more easily emerge after a night's sleep: Lewis has analyzed the scientific literature on the subject to elaborate a model on how the different stages of sleep contribute to the "miracle".
