Why Sleep is the Best Problem Solver

Research by  leading sleep expert Dr. S. Mednickat the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enhances creative problem solving more than any other sleep or waking state.

Dr. Mednickat found that for creative problems you’ve already been working on, the passage of time is often enough to find solutions. But for new problems, only REM sleep seems to enhance your creativity. Mednick feels REM sleep does this by stimulating the creation of the associative networks that allow your brain to make new and useful associations between unrelated ideas.

The study participants were shown several groups of three words (for example: cookie, heart, sixteen) and asked to find a fourth word that could be associated to all three words (sweet, in this instance). 

Participants were tested in the morning, and again in the afternoon after either a nap with REM sleep, one without REM sleep, or a quiet rest period. The importance of REM sleep to creative problem solving was obvious: Unlike the non-REM and quiet rest groups, the REM sleep group improved by almost 40 percent over their morning performances.

And REM sleep is apparently also connected to memory. Dr. Dennis McGinty of the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Administration Healthcare System has conducted research that has clearly established that REM sleep deprivation reduces cell proliferation in the part of the forebrain that contributes to long-term memory.

According to avid dream researcher Bradley Thompson, perhaps the most remarkable problem solving comes from what is called lucid dreaming – actually seeming to wake up during your REM sleep. During a lucid dream you can actually direct your dream experience, and recall it all when you awaken. The creative problem-solving results can be remarkable.

States of Consciousness

Brainwaves & States of Consciousness

Each and every thought or memory you have has a corresponding brainwave – an electrical signal that passes through your brain and triggers an appropriate memory, thought, response or action.

The goal of the QUANTUM MIND training program is to support you in learning to recognize exactly what mental state and combination of brainwaves YOU are currently experiencing. From this you will develop the ability to create any combination of brainwaves at will — including higher states of consciousness, and any combination appropriate for your current goal (instant deep meditation, creative awareness, etc).

Human Consciousness

There are six easily recognized states of human consciousness:

Deep Sleep
Dreaming Sleep
Conscious Wakefulness
Instantaneous Insight
Transcendental Consciousness
Enlightenment

Each of these six states of consciousness represents an increased direct personal experience of the nature of reality, and is said to move us closer to the ideal state of enlightenment.

Deep sleep is the first level of consciousness, and occurs when your brain is producing very slow Delta brainwaves. During deep sleep there is some awareness, and we can still respond to such external stimuli as sound, bright light, or touch. However for the most part, during deep sleep our sensory perception is primarily turned down, and we experience very little cognition or thinking.

The second state of consciousness is dreaming. During dreaming we produce REM (rapid eye movements) and spikes into the faster brainwave frequencies. We are a bit more conscious and alert than during deep sleep. Dreams are definite experiences – we see images and patterns, perceive sounds, and can even think and analyze during dreams. Dream reality poses something of a mystery. The Buddha is quoted as having said: “Am I a man dreaming I am a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming I am a man.”

The experience of conscious wakefulness is the mental state we tend to spend most of our waking time in. Measurable brain activity during the waking state of consciousness is quite different when compared with brain activity during both sleep and dreaming. Common wakefulness brainwave activity is dominated by Beta and Gamma brainwaves, perhaps with some Alpha spikes.

The fourth state of awareness is instantaneous insight. This is the state of consciousness we experience when we have an instant insight, often accompanied by a sensation of a light flashing in the brain, or a vibration or pressure across the top of the head. This state of mind is entered through a state of relaxed awareness dominated by Alpha and some Theta brainwaves. The sensation of light flashing in the brain is an explosion of energy created by a massive neural connection. The feeling of pressure across the top of the head is sensed as the entire cortex vibrates in a single coherent frequency – like the shaking of a bowl of jello.

The fifth state is content-free restful alertness, often referred to as transcendental consciousness. This state usually occurs during deep meditation when we become, even for a moment, absolutely still and focused in the quiet gap between our thoughts. This state occurs as the mind momentarily aligns with the Unified Field of Consciousness — the one source of infinite intelligence and creativity. In this state the the self is only aware of itself, and is devoid of all thoughts, feelings and perceptions. Your self-awareness is intact, yet there is no sense of time, space, or your body.

This mental state has a corresponding brainwave corresponds to an integrated brain state in which the left and right hemispheres are totally balanced and the Schumann gate is open. Conscious Delta brainwaves are present, and levels of Theta and Alpha are elevated and integrated through activity in the Schumann frequency (7.87 cps).

The sixth state of consciousness is enlightenment, a meta-level of awareness characterized by the persistent presence of Transcendental Consciousness throughout all of one’s activity – waking, sleeping, and dreaming. To my knowledge, no brainwave studies have been performed of this state of consciousness. I personally know only one person whom I can attest lives in this state of enlightenment and constant bliss – Sri Anandi Ma – but I have heard of others.

 

The Quantum Mind Program™

The Quantum Mind Program™ is a unique multi-media program designed to assist you in training your brain to enter any desired mental state at will. To learn more=> Click here.

 

posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Success

Grow a Better Brain

Need proof your brain can physically grow?

Here it is:

Sixteen London taxi drivers were given brain scans by scientists at the University College London. Each driver had spent about two years memorizing the vast number of streets and routes in London to receive their licenses.

The researchers scanned the part of the driver’s brains associated with navigation in birds and animals a portion of the hippocampus. They also scanned the brains of 50 control subjects who did not drive cabs.

The findings go against the old theory that mature brains do not grow. One particular region of the hippocampus was bigger in the taxi drivers, explains the research team leader, Dr Eleanor Maguire.

There seems to be a definite relationship between the navigating they do as taxi drivers, and their brain changes, Dr Maguire explains. The hippocampus actually changed its structure to accommodate their huge amount of navigating experience.

Considering we’ve always been told our brains go downhill after age 30 another result of the research is especially interesting! The scientists also found that the hippocampus grows even larger as drivers spend more years on the job. The hippocampus of seasoned cabbies that had driven 40 years or more was more developed.

This is very interesting, concludes Dr Maguire, because we now see there can be structural changes in healthy human brains after age 30).

The Quantum Mind Power Gym provides the stimulation needed to increase your IQ, meditate like a monk, learn faster, instantly bust your stress, increase feelings of well being and happiness … OR even tame ADD/ADHD or chronic pain. Check it out.

By Julie Rosset

 

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