Have you ever found yourself feeling ‘stuck’ and unable to think of a topic to write about? Or have you ever caught yourself staring into the abyss while experiencing difficulty completing a piece? If so, you may be experiencing something that is known as writer’s block. It is defined as “a condition in which a skilled writer with the desire to write finds himself or herself unable to write”. University of Windsor students took a survey on Writer’s Block, and it was found that 60% of survey takers have felt writer’s block at some point within the past 4 months. Writer’s block tends to be more common than you would think!
When answering an open-ended question that asked, “When you have experienced writer’s block, what did you do?” all of the respondents identified helpful coping strategies. Accordingly, *Henry, a third year Business and Entrepreneurship major, responded that he likes to “step away from the topic entirely and stimulate the mind in a different field”. Another student that wanted to remain anonymous reported that they “listened to music”. Then I asked myself “what else can we do about it?” and I turned to science for the answer to that question. We can sleep! Sleep is for restoration, memory function, and learning; moreover, sleep can also help promote creativity! When we sleep, we enter phases of non-rem and REM sleep cycles. REM stands for rapid eye movement and this is the cycle in which we dream up creative and productive solutions! This may be due to waking up after REM sleep as REM stimulates the brain to make valuable connections between separate ideas. A study has found that people were able to solve complex problems after a period of sleeping compared to a period of wakefulness. Recorded opinions from the Writer’s Block survey showed similar results! In fact, 70% of test takers thought that dreams were useful tools while 30% did not. 60% of students reported that a dream helped them solve a problem and 55.6% of students reported they were able to come up with a topic while dreaming. Those that thought dreams were useful tools were more likely to solve problems and come up with ideas upon dreaming and waking.
Hopefully this article has given you a new perspective on what I like to call ‘productive sleeping’, and the all the good things that it can do for you! Sleeping is a good way to refresh your memory, restore energy, and stimulate creativity- though it is important not to sleep for too long! The next time you find yourself feeling stuck ‘sleep on it’, wake up, and brainstorm. Pay attention to what your dream may tell you! After all, it’s been said that albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity came to him in a dream while he was asleep on a train ride! In the end we must ask ourselves the same question Hamlet purposed; “to sleep or not to sleep, that is the question,” and if it were up to me, I would sleep.
*Name has been changed
Note: Survey has been administered through Survey Monkey