What is the solution when you can’t fall asleep and counting sheep doesn’t work?
Don’t resist the gift that was given to you…
Lately I have been getting incredible creative inspiration right before falling asleep. The visualizations, words, and ideas are so powerful that I am forced to turn on the light and write them down in the notebook near my bed. While some people would be perturbed by the inability to fall asleep because of all these thoughts, I try to catch the creative inspiration while I can. Even though I am a professional creative, it is extremely difficult to “turn on” creativity. Inspiration seems to come in spurts and waves. I have learned that I must record these thoughts during those times otherwise I forget and loose the inspiration.
In pondering and researching this phenomenon of increased creativity right before sleep, I have found that we actually experience REM like sleep states right before real sleep. Essentially I am experiencing a form of lucid dreaming. I have also learned there is extrinsic and intrinsic thought. Extrinsic thought is reason and logic where neurons fire with nearby neurons. However intrinsic thought is feelings and intuition where neurons fire with distant neurons in the nether regions of the brain. Intrinsic thought is achieved during sleep and the twilight zone between awakeness and sleep. The twilight zone called hypnagogia is a blend of theta and alpha brain waves.
So next time you can’t sleep at night, use it to your creative advantage.