Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse: June 29, 2025
Issue 164
Hello, Creative Writers!
When inventor Thomas Edison hit a creative block, he turned to an interesting method: he would sit in a chair holding steel balls in his hands and let himself drift to sleep. Just as he began to nod off, the balls would fall into metal pans, jolting him awake. He claimed that these micro-naps gave him new ideas. Surrealist Salvador Dalí used a similar trick—clutching a heavy brass key and letting it drop onto a plate, he would awaken with new images for his paintings. Both of them were experiencing a fleeting, liminal brain state scientists now call N1 sleep, or hypnagogia—the brief period (typically 1–7 minutes) between wakefulness and deeper sleep. It’s a strange space, where the mind comes up with vivid imagery, sounds, and ideas that aid creativity—fragments from waking life mingled with the unconscious.
In a recent article for The Washington Post, science writer Meeri Kim explores the research going on to better understand N1 sleep. Brain imaging studies sh…