The Best Ideas Are Alive at 2 a.m.

At two a.m. Pacific Standard Time, people from Hawaii to New York are sleeping.

Ideas are dancing in the universe waiting to be plucked like so many children waiting for adoption.

When we fall asleep our left brain goes into suspension and our right brain becomes dominant as we pass through the Theta waves into the Delta waves of sleep.

We enter the sleep and dream stages where the right brain has free access to the left brain unfettered by thoughts of scheduling, multi tasking, appointments, text messages, or emails. All our creative powers or abilities to create alternatives or reflect on hard data can access universal energies of the subconscious and the new ideas dancing in space.

As we awake in the night or just before we awake in the morning we pass through the Theta waves again leaving the .5 hertz Delta waves and passing through the 4 hertz Theta waves where we connect to our subconscious thoughts. Once we are fully awake we move into the right brain Alpha and left brain Beta waves at much higher hertz from 12 to 30 and beyond.

I pay full attention to my theta wave thoughts before I open my eyes in the morning. I am often not sure whether I have awoken at 2 or whether it is already time for me to get up at my normal 4:30 or 5 a.m. If ideas are flowing, I will lie in that state for as long as necessary to get the full benefit of the inspirations.

New ideas and breakthroughs often come when the left brain is in suspension. The right brain and pre frontal lobes of the neo cortex where left brain data and logic combine with limbic brain emotion and right brain creativity can all combine in a large play yard of interweaving thought and emotions.

Creativity requires a combination of left brain work suspended to give the right brain a chance to see the relationships between the defined problem and the researched data.

Full brain synchronicity allows the pre frontal lobes to captain the ship and combine the best of our thoughts, emotions, logic and passion like so many fruits in a blender.  You can support this activity by creating the optimum circumstances for these occurrences.

Give the brain a rest. Or suspend the left brain with monotonous activity like running, long walks, biking, hobbies, gardening, car washing, house cleaning, shooting baskets, pleasure reading, dancing, meditating  or any activity where you don’t need to compete or keep score.

Optimal brain function is served with healthy eating and regular exercise. Alcohol and drugs can destroy the creative process even though like TV they suspend left brain activity. The brain “working memory” is in the pre frontal lobes where data is collected and remembered while working on a task. At a certain point it may get fully taxed and need a break.

During this time if you let the right brain dominate by going on a walk, to the gym, for a run, take a nap, or meditate, your system has a chance to create useful ideas from the data that can be applied to solve your problem.

Taking a break to read emails, send texts, create schedules, or write memos might be part of your days “to do list” but it further crowds the brains memory capacity and rules out the entry of creative thinking.

You won’t create many times in the day like awaking from a restful night of sleep, but the more dream like breaks you give the brain, the more creative your day will be.