3 Things You Are Most Likely to be When You’re Creative

1. You’re more likely to remember your dreams

The dreams in REM are the most coherent of all the dreams our brains has in every sleep cycle. These are the dreams most people remember. And in a letter in Nature in 2010, scientists reported that subjects can solve 30% more anagram word puzzles when they are given the rest after waking up from REM sleep than they could after non-REM sleep.

REM has also been proven to make you creative. At the University of California at Davis, research used a protocol called a Remote Associates Test to quantify the increases in creativity. They divided test subjects into three groups. One rested, but did not sleep, one slept in NREM, and one slept on REM right before taking the test. Those in the waking/rest and NREM groups showed no increase in creativity as measured by the RAT, whereas those recently woken from REM sleep showed an increase in capacity.

Connecting it to what makes it important to remember your dreams, the APA’s Monitor on Psychology Magazine featured an article that said people prone to openness and fantasy are more likely to remember dreams and that people with those personality traits are more likely to be creative. Since it was proven that REM improves creativity, and the traits of a creative person mentioned above supplements each other creates a dynamic individual.  Salvador Dali famously connected surreal paintings to his dreams!