Deeper Sleep Stages Boost Problem-Solving Insights, Study Finds

A new study challenges previous research about which sleep stages help people achieve breakthrough moments in problem-solving. Researchers found that N2 sleep, a deeper stage of non-REM sleep, significantly increased participants' likelihood of experiencing sudden insights during a perceptual task. The preregistered study involved 90 participants who performed a visual pattern recognition task before and after a 20-minute daytime nap while researchers monitored their brain activity with EEG.

Participants who reached N2 sleep showed an 85.7% rate of achieving insights about a hidden strategy in the task, compared to 63.6% for those who only reached N1 sleep (the first stage of non-rapid eye movement sleep) and 55.5% for participants who remained awake. The findings contradict earlier work by Lacaux and colleagues, which suggested that lighter N1 sleep promoted insight while deeper sleep hindered it.

News coverage: Stuck on a problem? Take a nap!

Many Times

[0xG]

When faced with a difficult, complex problem, I wake up in the middle of the night with the answer in an 'aha' solution. It's very satisfying.

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[drreid]

I used to get them in the shower.

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[avandesande]

When you get older and wiser you see the benefit of putting a unsolvable problem away for a while. I've also worked out things while hiking, exercise seems to help.

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[tlhIngan]

You also often do it as you're older and wiser and know that sometimes, the problem will solve itself as well.

A tough problem at work? Putting it aside and suddenly the next day it's no longer a problem because it's been made moot.

It helps avoid a lot of wasted effort. Experience will help tell you which problems you need to tackle immediately, which ones you need to put aside for the "aha" moment, and which ones you need to put aside because it'll disappear in a week's time.

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[kackle]

This reminds of a lazy IT staff at one small company: I'd ask them to do X, and a month would pass where it hadn't been done yet. Then I'd do it myself. This happened multiple times. So, for them, yes, waiting made their problem disappear!

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[BranMan]

And then I must write it down, or it will be lost forever. Apparently my mind is keen on discovering that a solution exists. Not so keen on implementing it. So I have had some great ideas and solutions, then my mind goes "OK, solved that one! Whew!" and as soon as possible throws it away. Invariably long before morning.

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[Unnamed Chickenheart]

Me too, sometimes, but they're usually dream-created non-sense! :(

So ...

[PPH]

... longer staff meetings. And more of them.

I'm going to be an allstar at work!

[hyades1]

So next time the boss catches me having a quick nap, I can just tell him I'm seeking unique and creative insights in order to solve whatever problem is bothering us at the moment. Me likey!

As a technical person

[hdyoung]

I could have told you this 25 years ago. Nice to see that its getting quantified though. Bad sleep is brutal on intelligence.