don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

While wellness issues usually draw attention to the entire body (the effects of exercise and nutrition and the physical sensations associated with stress, for examples), our personalities and essence, and all that we do, are determined and controlled by the wondrous complexities of our brains. While we can't normally look at a living brain without special equipment and observe its functioning (the skull and lots of hair, in most cases, get in the way), physicians and other scientists with new technologies can do so as never before. Research along these lines has occurred at an accelerated rate in recent years, thanks to these amazing devices. One consequence of the studies of the brain is insights about the relationship between sleep, dreams and creativity.

The key that enables this new research is computerized imaging technology. Scans allow brain experts to observe, record, analyze, and graphically display revealing patterns in specific brain regions. This technology is, of course, useful in brain-related diseases and malfunctions. However, the unexpected and probably more exciting discoveries from a wellness perspective relate to prospects for health enhancement. One application is the connection between dreams and creativity--and on this subject a team of researchers at the University of Luebeck in Germany has just announced important findings (published in the January issue of the journal Nature). They claim that the sleeping brain remains on duty so to speak, engaged in all manner of processing including problem solving. Most important, the Germans found that solutions, or at least acceptable resolutions of issues, occur to the conscious brain most often AFTER its owner has had a good night's rest of eight hours.

Rest, of course, is not quite the same as sleep, so don't despair if the idea of surrendering consciousness for a third of your life seems too high a price to pay for problem solving and creativity. Subjects (106 people 18 to 32 years of age) were placed in five groups, roughly equal between men and women. While one group slept, another remained awake all night (I don't know how the investigators in Germany persuaded people to do this but they did), and a third stayed awake all day for eight-hour periods. Then all were tested. (Two other groups were tested in a supplemental experiment.) Can you imagine staying up all night? If they did not point guns at their heads, they must have paid the subjects a small fortune.

Sleep, like exercise, is not a big priority for Americans. A pity no research shows that sleeping eight hours leads to dramatic weight losses--everyone would be less stressed, better rested and more creative. At least that's what the German study would suggest. Other research indicates that 70 million Americans are sleep-deprived. In addition to being less creative, the sleep deprived among us are involved in more accidents, need more medical care and score worse on tests than their rested counterparts. They probably get fewer DBRU equivalents, as well, but nobody has proven this with double blind, crossover trials of a horizontal, vertical and/or dignified nature, at least not so far.

Study leaders claim the results should interest educators, government officials and corporate managers, for test scores in the German study were three times better for the rested subjects. Sleep, it seems, "makes a huge difference in mental performance and give us good reason to fully respect our periods of sleep--especially given the current trend to recklessly curtail them." (Quoted in an article on sleep and creativity in PalmBeachCoast.com by William McCall, 1/21/04.) In addition, there is no shortage of urban legends about people who woke from a deep sleep and immediately did something remarkable on the creativity scale. For example, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev is said to have penned the periodic table of elements upon waking from an erotic dream and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem "Kubla Khan" flowed effortlessly moments after rising from a deep sleep. In hopes of being mentioned with these giants in future stories along these lines, let me add that these essays at SeekWellness.com are usually composed moments after my daily eight hours of deep slumber dreaming of ...well never mind what I dream of, the point is they are begun and finished within twenty minutes of waking from eight hours of blissful slumber. By the time I have finished a cup of coffee, the "Don's Report" of the day is complete and has undergone proof reading. OK, so maybe most don't rank with the periodic table of elements or Kubla Khan but the truth is if YOU want to express lots of opinions, get your eight hours every night, preferably without drugs. Personally, I credit hard exercise, no guilt, clean living and a simple mind as keys to falling asleep quickly and enjoying good dreams marked by deep brain wave problem solving/ creativity.

Using computerized imaging technology on the test subjects, researchers at the University of Luebeck were able to show that "memories are restructured before they are stored," and that creativity seems enhanced by the processes that occur during sleep. Other miscellaneous observations of some interest coming from the German sleep study:

• The first four hours of deep sleep seem to be the most significant for creativity purposes.
• Memory problems associated with aging might partially be due to sleep disturbances (older people typically endure sleep depravation, particularly of the crucial kind that occur in the first hours involving deep sleep patterns).
• Long held beliefs among physicians about the role of sleep insufficiency in memory loss seem confirmed by this research, particularly regarding a link between long, deep dreams and incisive thinking and other insight functions.

Well, this should be enough to justify sleeping in more often, or at least going to bed earlier. Don't forget the other elements that might contribute to sound, deep sleep and pleasant, problem-solving dreams leading to increased creativity--hard exercise, no guilt, clean living and a simple mind. On second thought, forget the simple mind part--I just made that up.

Be well--look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of stress management. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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