The word for the day is hypnagogia, the topic is creativity, and the pop culture reference of the day (apart from Luke Skywalker) is the flux capacitor in Doc Emmett Brown’s time machine in Back To The Future.
How do we tie all those things together? Well the creativity tool of the day is that period of transition between being awake and being asleep. That is a process called hypnagogia, which I’m going to call “The Flux” because it’s easier to remember and easier to spell. There is another reason for calling it flux, specifically, and also a reason for likening it to the force.
First, let’s cover Star Wars. I’m prepared to be yelled at by Star Wars fans because I could get this wrong (I have never actually watched any of the Star Wars movies). But from what I have gleaned from both memes and whatever it is we did before social media, The Force is some mystical power that can be harnessed to give Luke an advantage. And, if I have assumed correctly, that’s exactly what The Flux does.
I don’t remember a lot from my occasional visits to Collarenebri School, but I do recall learning how to solder sheet metal in Workshop Class. And I remember using a substance called “flux”, which was meant to reduce oxidation of the two surfaces to be joined and allow better “flow” of the soldering material (the word “flux” comes from the Latin for “flow”). Which brings us to the second pop culture reference – the Flux Capacitor that allowed a smooth transition from one time to another in Back To The Future, an ability greatly enhanced by the stainless steel body of the De Lorean.
What has all this got to do with creativity and how will it make us money? Well, a single good idea can change the world and create a fortune in the process. As a consequence, a great deal of study has centred around creativity and how to boost it. One of the greatest creative thinkers of all time is Edward de Bono, who coined the term Lateral Thinking. One of the key themes in de Bono’s books is getting away from traditional logical thought processes and learning to put two unrelated concepts together.
Kicking Spock to the kerb and going all illogical (that’s a bonus pop culture reference) is hard to do because it is generally frowned upon by society – especially when we get older. Kids are better at it because they haven’t yet had the creativity slapped out of them. But the sub-conscious is where some seriously weird stuff can happen without the shackles of conscious thought. The trick is to take just enough control of the sub-conscious to make it work for us. That’s where the flux comes in.
When you lay down to go to sleep, we often think about a problem that we need to solve. And studies have shown that what is on our conscious mind can influence what our sub-conscious mind gets up to while we sleep. That flux period of half sleep/half wake is a transition period where we can tell our sub-conscious what to work on. But harnessing that transition is not as easy as it sounds so a few simple techniques can help.
Firstly, you need to think about the problem that needs solving and if you’re like a friend of mine, who visited a sleep clinic and only took half a minute to fall asleep, that doesn’t leave much time. So you need to get started right away to get the problem rolling around in your head.
One of the issues with solving the problem during the flux period is you have (hopefully) a whole night of dreaming where all sorts of exciting (hopefully) things happen and you are in danger of forgetting the solution by the time you wake up. Getting into the habit of searching, the instant you wake up, for any solutions left on your mental doorstep overnight will help. Some people who say they never remember dreams can recall them by spending the first few minutes of being awake trying to recall what they were doing in their dream a moment before. But everyone is different and this technique might not work for some.
I was once working up the gulf country when I was in my 20s and kept waking up with brilliant ideas but forgetting them by the time I could get to work. I decided to keep a notepad and pen beside the bed so I could write stuff down in the middle of the night. One morning I went to work with a notepad that read “dogs and public toilets”. To this day I still don’t know what it meant but I did have a few drinks the night before. Like I said, I was in my 20s.
A more reliable technique is to use the flux at the end of your sleep. Technically, the transition from sleep to wake is called by another name again, but we will stick with the word flux. The problem with coming from sleep to wake is you don’t have the conscious thought going in to provide the clear instructions. Unless … you drift in and out a few times. That gives you several opportunities – Flux In, Flux out (I can feel another pop culture reference coming on) and they are close together with lots of conscious direction. How many great ideas have come to those who daydream or lie in bed in the morning, drifting in and out of sleep?
For those who have trouble holding that half sleep/half wake pattern, you can do what I do to force the issue: Set a series of alarms, from 4am to 5am, forcing yourself back to wakefulness to note any progress and provide instructions (again). That works just fine if you have no trouble going back to sleep. But, if you are like my sister, who suffers chronic insomnia, you might want to look at other creative techniques. Maybe The Force can help! I wouldn’t know – didn’t watch the movies.