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Biotech It's funny. Laugh. Science

You're Smarter When You're Horizontal 78

Posted by timothy from the obvious-truth dept.
Ant writes "According to this Discovery Channel article, people are smarter and more creative lying down than standing up. Darren Lipnicki, a researcher from the school of psychology at the Australian National University (ANU) believes this helps to explain Archimedes' eureka moment. He found that people solve anagrams more quickly when they are on their backs than on their feet. His finding relates to the difference in brain chemistry, specifically the release of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, when lying down or standing up. While noradrenaline is normally associated with cognitive ability and attention, it is also believed to impair creative thinking. And less is released while lying down. (Seen on Shacknews)."
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You're Smarter When You're Horizontal More

You're Smarter When You're Horizontal

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  • Alrighty then (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lord Bitman ( 95493 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:12AM (#12497896)
    If anyone needs me, I'll be under my desk.

  • Whores rejoice! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bootle ( 816136 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:12AM (#12497900)
    Hookers secretly run the world. I knew it all along.

    I, for one, welcome our new street-walking overlords.

  • My wife does not seem to think so. Wonder why?

  • thats great (Score:5, Funny)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (orstacledif)> on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:17AM (#12497933) Journal
    I do enjoy getting horizontal in creative new ways..Wink ,wink ,nudge, nudge ,man of the world ,man of the world
    • When this came up on fark (www.fark.com) a day or two ago, (new news, anyone?) the tagline included some sort of Paris Hilton remark. I don't know if they felt she proved or countered the assertion. I've recently stayed at the Hampton Inn while travelling, and have been tempted to ask if they could deduct her share from my room rate, because I'd rather not subsidize her lifestyle.
    • Say no more, say no more
  • but it easier to doze off while lying down to.

  • But... but... (Score:4, Funny)

    by 01000011011101000111 ( 868998 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:21AM (#12497971)
    I thought we were supposed to get perpendicular [hitachigst.com]? So I have to choose between being smart and being able to remember?
  • ...that archimedes did not have a modern laying down bathtub but instead the older variety where one sits down.

  • Hey, baby... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wolfger ( 96957 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:25AM (#12498006)
    Wanna get smarter?
  • So that's why Einstein slept 10 hours every day!

  • Best ideas come to me just before going to bed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MichaelMarch ( 686675 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @10:07AM (#12498356) Homepage
    When I have a challange that I've been working on for a while. And being the obsessive person I am. I will think about it until the moment I passout. With that said, I lost track of how many times I've come up with the solution to one an issue I've been working on.. just as I'm about to pass out. And my wife thought I was weird. Ha! In her face!!
  • I have noticed my increased ability to solve problems I had during the day that were postponed while lying in bed, but my primary theory had to do with warmth that speeds up chemical reactions ...

  • I've always felt this (Score:3, Interesting)

    by m50d ( 797211 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @10:23AM (#12498532) Homepage Journal
    Whenever I'm doing maths problems I like to lie down. I get some weird looks, but I do feel like it helps me solve them. Things make more sense, and I'm more comfortable.
  • "Trust me, honey, you'll actually be smarter when you're lying down."
  • Last year in halls I didn't have enough desk space with my computer and did all my work lying on my stomache on the floor. It was surprisingly comfortable and I've kept it up for the most part since, even though I now have desk space to work.

    Currently got a nice patch there to do my revision in.
  • So can I now have a viable excuse for sleeping on the job? ^_~

    Honestly though, I remember one night a couple years ago where I was trying to solve a circuit problem that was giving me a really hard time, so I gave up and slept on it. Somehow, I solved the problem in my dream and when I woke up, I knew the answer and I just had to write down the solution on paper. It was like one of the coolest moment in my life, which is also kind of pathetic if I think about it. >_>
    • staying horizontal and sleeping - are not the same thing.

      it often happens to me that i sleep in a position which is anything but horizontal...

      imho, we shouldn't mix sleep and 'horizontalness'.
    • It was like one of the coolest moment in my life, which is also kind of pathetic if I think about it.

      Nothing pathetic about it, you discovered something about the way your brain works and solved a problem too. Best things in life don't have to be "extraordinary". Quite on the contrary - the little things that happen all the time are the coolest things in life.

  • I always lie down when I'm thinking about a serious problem.
  • I wonder if this has anything to do with the way people tend to look upwards when visualizing something and trying to concentrate/remember.

    Feh, probably not. Oh well. :)
  • I'm a fscking genius when I'm in the shower, and comparitively dumb as a post when walking around doing my day-to-day activities. I can't figure out how to get in-the-shower smartness without the social stigma of wet & nakedness. Any ideas?

    • Re:Shower (Score:3, Funny)

      by pyrrhonist ( 701154 )
      I can't figure out how to get in-the-shower smartness without the social stigma of wet & nakedness.

      The wet and naked part I can deal with. It's the fact that you're rubbing yourself all over that creeps me out.

    • FedEx Kinko's is on to you! Just last night I saw this very odd commercial they're running where six guys in business attire step into a shower (water turned off) for a very important meeting.

    • I'd just recommend thinking about an answer when you're in the shower ;-P

    • Have you seen _The Karate Kid_?
    • I'm assuming you have a shower in the morning, as opposed to when you go to bed at night?

      In the shower, I am the same way - much more creative and focused. I believe that it is because I haven't been bombarded with stimulation just yet (hah, I know what your thinking). You see, throughout the day, you get ALL kinds of mental stimulation that runs through your mind whether you are aware of it or not. In the morning after a decent sleep, your mind is somewhat of a blank slate. Your conscious mind is aw
  • This is strange if you think about it from an evolutionary point of view.

    You would think that, if anything, the brain would be designed for optimum efficiency/intelligence when standing up, since that's when it's needed the most. Cavemen didn't need to do heavy thinking while lying on their backs, about to fall asleep: they needed to be sharpest while upright, hunting animals, looking for food, and so forth.

    • Re:Odd... (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Except perhaps it's better to be focused rather than creative during a hunt. Standing upright leads to the release of noradrenaline which leads to less creativity and more focus.

      Here is a simple solution to ADD and boredom: stand up.

    • Re:Odd... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Aeternal ( 876521 )
      I suspect that 'thinking' in the way implied here (problem solving, planning) was not required for day to day cave person type activities; throwing a straight spear, remembering where that nice plant grows, where that tasty female/male cave person hangs out.

      Cave person may well have spent lying down time chilling and pondering life, the universe and everything.

      • That's kinda how I interpreted it. The headline (as usual) is misleading. When vertical, we are better at paying attention. when horizontal, our brains are more relaxed and wander around the whole problem, even slightly off topic. That's when we are most creative, when we hold several unrelated topics in our heads and then notice that there is a relationship after all.

        He was thinking about his bath, not overflowing the tub, etc, while simultaneously holding the crown problem in his head. Suddenly the
        • For me, focusing creates a barrier for creativity. When I am sitting upright or standing I am in "active" mode and must be doing something. Also, sitting is a habit of schooling. When you are in school you sit in these rigid desks and are expected to pay full attention to the teacher. There is pressure to produce or perform when sitting at a desk. Desk/sitting = work and tasks.

          When I lay down, it gives my brain permission to wander and not focus and I will sit and draw for hours not even knowing what

  • I almost always get my best ideas when I go on walks. I've heard this was true of Einstein and other famous thinkers.

    -paul
  • anybody who's read the Kama Sutra already knows that.

  • Once again someone has "discovered" the obvious and reported it as news. Well, I suppose it never hurts to have this sort of thing put into writing so managers will believe it. Perhaps we'll get lucky and someone will "discover" that cots in the break room will help those who need a quick nap but don't have time to drive all the way home and back.
    • has "discovered" the obvious and reported it as news.

      Well, no. Someone has actually taken the care to devise a scientific experiment to verify an anecdotal legend. Anecdotal evidence has no scientific value beside hinting that such an experiment would be interesting.

      There is a HUGE difference between "everybody 'just knows' it is true", and "an experiment showed that there is a statistically significant difference in the resolving of anagrams depending on posture." The first is just a believe, the second
  • ...I'll sleep better. My brain's always hard at work trying to solve problems I really don't want to be working on at 3am.
  • I guess Homer was on to something when he was working for Globex and wanted to get some hammocks for his team.

    Hank: Uh, hi, Homer. What can I do for you?
    Homer: Sir, I need to know where I can get some business hammocks.
    Hank: Hammocks? My goodness, what an idea. Why didn't I think of that? Hammocks! Homer, there's four places. There's the Hammock Hut, that's on third.
    Homer: Uh-huh.
    Hank: There's Hammocks-R-Us, that's on third too. You got Put-Your-Butt-There?
    Homer: Mm-Hmm.
    Hank: That's on third. Swing Lo

  • Hmm... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by vitaly.friedman ( 874102 )
    I am not an arrogant person. And I do respect the opinions of other people. But I never manage to concentrate and make reasonable decisions, being in a horizontal position. And by the way, I always read such articles with doubts and skepticism: all people are different and I hate it when some scientists try to find a common principle which is typical for the whole human kind.

    Vitaly Friedman,
    Saarbruecken, Germany,
    vitaly.friedman [alvit.de]
  • This is pretty damn cool if you ask me. All this time I thought we came up with solutions to complex problems (or even the band who does a particular song) while in bed was because we were more relaxed as we were getting ready to pass out and fall asleep. However, that could still be the case. Maybe there mere act of lying down puts the body in a more relaxed state and thus we get our solutions. More studies please!
  • This is all wrong. Don't you know you can store more data if you Get Perpendicular [hitachigst.com]?
  • doesn't it follow that it's easier to pump fresh blood to the brain when lying down - thus, more nourished neurons? give me a Phd!

  • Take that lying down (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @10:58PM (#12505945) Homepage Journal
    What's the mystery of Archimedes' "eureka" moment? He was asked to tell whether a king's crown was really gold, or fake. All anyone else could do was weigh it, and it weighed the right amount. When Archimedes sat in a tub, it overflowed, and he realized he could measure the complex volume, and therefore the density, of the crown. Excited, he ran naked through the streets, shouting "eureka" (I've got it!) through the town.

    It seems unlikely that he was any more supine in the tub than he'd been while sleeping that morning. The key to his insight was in the overflowing, not in any postural biochemical enhancement.
  • I'll sing to him, each spring to him,
    And worship the trousers that cling to him.
    Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered am I

    When he talks, he is seeking words to get off his chest
    Horizontally speaking, he's at his very best.

    Lorenz Hart

    To hear this song rendered by perhaps the greatest jazz/show tune voice of the 20th Century, check out Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook.
  • It's pretty much common knowledge people think better while on the throne, so to speak. Using the lav, for those of us on the other side of the pond.

    Has anyone looked into another similar explanation for eureka moments while in the littlest room?

  • I'd like to suggest more comfortable, reclining chairs at locations like Universities for example :) .. and would this be why we always see the traditional image of someone visiting a psychologist ... lying down on the couch?
  • This probably has something to do with the fact that most of us humans sleep lying down. When you lay down, your body/mind naturally starts to relax. After a few moments your "monkey-mind" can settle and leave room for more creative expression/problem solving. As long as you aren't tired when you do this sort of test (so you don't risk drifting off to sleep), you should have a much more clear/focused mind in less than 5 minutes. I know that I cherish the 20-30 minutes that I am in bed before I go to s

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