Bright ideas shining in the dark

I don't have anything to write about because the bright idea I had in my mind last night turned out to be rubbish. I am sure many of you can relate to this, it must have happened to you too at some point. I wrote it all in my head as I was trying to get to sleep and it sounded pretty good – the right amount of wit, solid arguments, 100% morally justified. In the light of day, however, I realized I was on very shaking ground and just had to drop it.
I am a bit of an insomniac and I suspect big cups of coffee are not quite what I should be treating myself too. At last not, after 6 pm.

But, I am not here to complain about insomnia, as I tend to use that time wisely. Instead of tossing and turning or counting more sheep that I've ever seen in my life, I focus on important stuff, like solving world problems – politics, wars, famine, the secret to a happy life, the cure for baldness – nothing escapes my attention. It is only after I've successfully solved some major problem that I can get some well-earned peaceful sleep.

Bringing down mental barriers

The scientific explanation behind nocturnal creativity is that during daytime our brain is literally bombarded with tons of information, some of which we don't actively notice. But the brain, does. The noise of traffic in the street, the gentle breeze coming through your window, the fridge engine's soft rumbling – all this gets registered by your brain. Let's not even think about the incredible amounts of information your brain is forced to take in while browsing the Internet.
As you go to bed and turn off the lights, you greatly reduce incoming data and the brain is free to focus on ideas your frontal lobe might otherwise dismiss as unimportant. (The idea I had in my head last night was rubbish, but that's the exception to the rule!) Letting your creativity run wild at night is good not only if you're writing a blog. You can come up with all sorts of good ideas, because normal mental barriers are down in the middle of the night, allowing you to think a little outside the box and come up with novel solutions. That is why it's generally a good idea to keep a notepad beside your bed.

Another way of getting in that state of mental exhaustion that lets your creativity flow is drinking alcohol, as it inhibits the activity of the frontal lobe, that annoying censor that nixes many of your ideas. The trick is to get just the right amount of alcohol, as having too much of it lowers your critical thinking to a dangerous level and you wouldn't want to post on Steemit some rant you wrote while blind drunk.

As for myself, I'm looking forward to the coming night. Last night I went to the kitchen at about 3 am to have a cigarette in the dark and I came up with a great plan to change my whole life, sell everything, move to a different country. (That's what mental exhaustion and a beer do to you.) Anyway, it's a very complex issue guaranteed to keep my brain entertained for many more nights to come.

Thanks for reading

Images: Pixabay