The role of sleep in creative task performance

Anecdotal evidence suggests that sleep can aid in creative performance, but few studies have systematically investigated this association. Prior research suggests that creative thinking, particularly divergent cognition, is similar to mental states found in sleep and dreaming, especially during REM sleep. Studies have found that sleep benefits general learning and problem-solving, and facilitates insight that promotes enhanced performance on cognitive tasks. This study investigated the effects of sleep on performance with verbal and visual tasks that explicitly require creative ability. I hypothesised that participants with a period of sleep between task preparation and execution would perform better than participants with an equal period of REM-deprived sleep, daytime wakefulness, or no interval between preparation and execution, but there would be no difference in performance between the participants in terms of convergent cognition. The study was a 4-level, single-factor design, with state of consciousness as the manipulated variable. Participants (n = 87) were recruited from the university undergraduate population. Participants memorised a wordlist for task preparation and then, after an interval of either normal sleep, REM-deprived sleep, waking activity, or no interval, used the same wordlist to write a creative short story for task execution. The stories were assessed for creativity-related constructs by the researcher and independent raters. Participants also completed a visual design fluency task at both stages of the study, following a 4-level, single-factor, repeated-measures design. Participants' scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) Verbal Edition and the Shipley Institute of Living Scale (SILS) were used to control for general creative ability and IQ respectively. ANCOVA, repeated measures ANOVA, and Fisher's r to z transformation statistics were used to analyse the data. Although generally the hypotheses were not directly supported by the data obtained, trends suggest that there was a connection between sleep and creativity, especially an apparent interaction between baseline creativity and the type of interval. Based on the indirect evidence obtained, directions for future research for investigating sleep and creativity are discussed.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Hodge, Anthony

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas, Kevin

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8265

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8265