Spark Creativity with Thomas Edison’s Napping Technique

Inventor Thomas Edison considered sleep a waste of his time.

The light bulb creator claimed in an 1889 interview that he only slept about four hours a night. But Edison relied upon one particular sleep period to spark his creative thoughts – the time just before he fell asleep, during which thoughts that occur to most people are lost. He reportedly took naps holding balls in both hands. He assumed that as he drifted into sleep, the balls would fall and wake him up. This allowed him to grasp and remember what was occurring to him in the moments before he fell asleep.

A recent study published in Science Advances suggests Edison’s sleep theory could be correct.

The study indicates that some people experience notable creativity in the brief, semi-lucid mental state which occurs as they fall asleep, called “N1 or nonrapid-eye-movement sleep stage 1.” The study assumed that harnessing this “hypnagogic state” might help people remember important ideas.

Delphine Oudiette and her colleagues at the Paris...