Inventor Thomas Edison often took a quick nap because he said it boosted his creativity… A E Housman discovered lines of poetry flowed into his mind during afternoon walks; Mozart composed his best music while riding or walking; and Charles Darwin came upwith the theory of evolution when he was taking a carriage ride;

French mathematician Henri Poincaré spent years trying to solve Fuchsian functions (a type of equation) and got nowhere, but finally found the solution when he was walking by the sea while on holiday… and we all know that the solution to many of our own problems often come after we’ve slept on it!

Researchers at the Paris Brain Institute found that taking a short nap can tap into a ‘creative sweet spot’ in the brain because a person only drifts into the first stage of sleep, known as a hypnagogic state or N1. Only around 5% of of sleep time is spent in N1, amounting to less than 10 to 15 minutes. Your muscles relax and you begin to have visions of recent events, which help you push through mental blocks and find solutions to problems.

The study found those who spent at least 15 seconds or more in N1 had an 83% chance of solving math puzzles, while those who remained awake had only a 30% chance.

Edison held a ball in his hands while he had a nap. When his muscles relaxed, his hands let go of the ball, which hit the floor and woke him from the snooze just in time to capture sleep-inspired ideas.

You might even want to try this yourself and see if it increases your own creativity orproblem solving!