A recent study just published in Nature has demonstrated that Sleep Inspires Insight, i.e., that our sleeping brains continue working on problems troubling us, and that insights may more easily after a good night's sleep. The researchers found that volunteers who had a full night's sleep were three times more likely to solve a mathematical problem than sleep-deprived participants.

As Webmaster for the ever growing network of BeMoreCreative websites, I am always looking for ways to increase my creativity, and my personal experience concurs with the results of the above study. I find that it is during my awakening moments that I often have my best ideas.

However, in addition to getting a good night's sleep (and taking power naps), there are other important ways to increase your creativity. Here are a few suggestions:

1.  Identify the times and places where you do our best creative thinking, and concentrate your creative thinking around those results. Click here for the Top Ten Creative Times.

2.  Learn more about the creative process. Check out FRANK's Approach to Creativity and this list of these favorite books on the subject of creativity.

3. Strive to "connect the seemingly unconnected." Some of the greatest inventions resulted from combining unconnected ideas, e.g., "Making Books + Grape Press = Gutenberg's Printing Press. Try FRANK's Very Versatile Verbalizer to stimulate your creative "connectionability".

4. Browse and ponder the quotations in this website. This special collection includes quotations about sleep, dreams, inspiration, and creativity. Check out Creative Quotations for more great quotations.

5. Identify one or more famous people with whom you share a birthday. Read a biography about them and their words of wisdom. Born-On-This-Day.com lets you search a database of 80,000 birthdates.

6.  Browse for sleep-related products at the following websites to get that good night's rest and increase your creative output:

Creative Vitamins  -  Creative Sleep  -  Country Creativity