About ten years ago, when I was first learning web development, I started to realize that I was figuring out problems I had at work during the day, through my dreams at night. This was great then, but as I've gotten older (30 years young now), it has become noticeably more difficult for me to remember these "visions" I was having so that I could put them to use during my waking hours. What I've realized over the past few years is that if I give myself a nice little nap and force myself to wakeup from it, then I usually have the solution to my problem ready for me as I wake up. I'm sharing this to show others how I have used it to my advantage and also share a possible way, that you might not even realize you have, to help you figure out your own solutions or ideas.

The Process

My process is very similar to one followed by Thomas Edison. I usually like to fall asleep on the couch if I'm at home or on the train when I am commuting to and from New York City. What I generally do is either take a metal pen or meditation balls, place them in my hand and let my hand hover away from my body so that when I start to fall asleep, my hand will naturally let go and the sound will wake me back up. It may sound crude but it is the best thing I have found to wake me back up before I go into deeper sleep and forget what I had accomplished. Its within these first few minutes of being asleep that I've found I can get the best ideas and solutions.

What You'll Need

Before you start to try this out, you'll need to get a few things together to make the most of it.

• A catalyst - This is the thing that you'll hold in your hand and that will make enough of a sound or a difference in your balance to wake you up. Good things to use are a metal pen, meditation balls, silverware (no knives!), or keys.


• A recorder - Something to take down the idea once you wake up. The last thing you want to do is be searching for something to write with. Good things to have are pen and paper, voice recorder, or laptop.


• A clear mind - If you're worrying about that meeting later in the day or the looming deadline you have tomorrow to show your design to the client then all you'll end up doing is stressing yourself out trying to get ideas this way. Forget about the other worries of the day and give yourself a "mental vacation" for just 30 minutes. Then when you're done you can go back to freaking out if you want.


• A quiet place - If there is already noise around you, the the catalyst is going to have a harder time at waking you up. Try to find a place that is quiet and calm. Ambient noise is OK, but blaring sirens or office phones ringing probably won't work out too well.

An Example

Probably the most pertinent example at the time of this post is a recent website design (seen below) I put together for a hospital here in the Hudson Valley. On a rainy Saturday in the middle of May, I sat in the front seat of my car while my son slept in the backseat and my wife went shopping for groceries. I placed a pen in my hand and let it rest over the cup holder while I laid back and started to doze off. Sure enough, I dropped the pen, woke up, and had an exact image of the layout for the website in my head. Immediately after waking I drew the design down on one of my note cards and then the final result ended up being very close to the original idea.

Things to Note

From what I can remember, I had to build up my tolerance to be able to get my visions within a limited amount of time. When I was first starting out I didn't use this method of waking myself up so I would get through the night and write down what I could remember from my visions, but it almost always wasn't the complete vision, only parts. This would mean I'd have to try to work out the parts I had and fill in the gaps which wasn't any fun. Try not to get discouraged if it doesn't work for you. Not everyone is capable of polyphasic sleep, but I would recommend to at least try this a few times to see if it can work for you.

Disclaimer

Please use some common sense if you decide to try this out. Obviously don't dose off at your desk, get caugh by your boss, and blame it on me when you get fired. Be rational about it! Take the time to do this in a safe and familiar place (you don't want someone ripping off your laptop or startling yourself enough to get up and hit someone). Also, I've told this to some friends and realized that it works for some but not for all. So if it doesn't work out for you, then move on and look at other ways you can help yourself generate ideas. This is really only meant to be another tool in your idea belt.