A third of our lives are spent sleeping and during that time a good amount of it is spent dreaming. Some people find that spending so much time in a non-waking state is a waste of time however, it is the greatest source of creativity if you tap into it with diligence. It’s during dreams that we can come up with ideas for new fashion design, write new music, design a sculpture, get the inspiration for a drawing or painting, find instruction for an architectural blueprint, write a story, or write poetry, to name but a few.
Taylor Coleridge composed three hundred lines of the poem “Kubla Khan” in a dream. He slept peacefully for over an hour, and then began composing in his sleep shortly after that. After he woke he grabbed a pen, ink and paper and began composing from memory all the lines that he dreamt. In his autobiography, Across the Plains, Robert Louis Stevenson describes some of his dream life and credits his dreams for many of his stories including the most famous Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde. The Devil’s Trill Sonata came to Taratini in a dream when Taratini saw and heard the devil playing the music on a violin to which he wrote down upon wakening.
Some people have recurring dreams (dreams that return regularly from childhood, middle age or old age) that have something important to say about how we are conducting our waking lives. The way to discover the meaning of these dreams is to keep a dream journal by our bed and as soon as we wake up, write down the dream. Most people don’t want to get up in the middle of the night and write at great length. List the significant places, objects, colors and events in the dream so that when you are fully refreshed in the morning your notes can jog your memory for a longer summary. Another technique that is helpful is to sketch little mini drawings of the images you saw in your dream. Those sketches can later be transferred over into larger drawings or paintings.
Lucid dreams occur with a minority of people in which the dreamer is actually aware that they are dreaming and have some control over their dream. For example, they might try to jump or fly in their dream or travel great distances. These dreams are most vivid to the creative process because the dreamer is most aware of what’s going on consciously. It’s still important to record what is dreamt right away after the experience.
Unfortunately everyone has nightmares where something is causing us great distress and fear. For example you might have a nightmare that you’re in a burning building with all the doors boarded up or being crushed by a falling object. However, you can see how nightmares can also be the makings for great horror stories, such as Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, 2006. Many gruesome artworks have stemmed from nightmares. Pieter Brueghel The Elder (c1525-1569) The Triumph of Death below demonstrates a less than pleasant vision…
Worse than a nightmare is when a person is stuck in what is called sleep paralysis, which is one of the most frightening nightmares because the sleeper is unable to move while being attacked. They are in the REM sleep and immobilized. Here is a drawing a sleeper did of a visitation during a sleep paralysis…
No matter what your creative output is, your sleep state is an ocean of creative information just waiting for you to ride the wave each night. Remember to keep a sleep journal or sketchpad nearby to record all inspiration. Then take that inspiration to its highest level of creation during your waking hours.
Source: Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep, William C. Dement, San Francisco, 1976
