Dreams beget ideas

‘The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is the faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift’. ~ Albert Einstein.

Dreams have often served as significant promoters of inspiration for some of the world’s greatest ideas and innovations throughout history. Many scientists, musicians, film-makers, poets, novelists, mathematicians, painters and sportsmen got creative ideas from their sleep. Dreams are indeed more than just mere fantasies or weird nightmares. Researchers believe that they serve several purposes such as strengthening memory and processing emotions. Dreams can also help in creativity and problem-solving. It is suspected that parts of the brains that deal with imagery become active when dreaming. This results in vivid visualization that may offer clarity for a problem or spark creative ideas. However, in this write-up, I shall delve into some famous literary works and amazing discoveries that originated in dreams. The story of the six-time Masters’ golf champion, Jack Nicklaus, deserves special mention. The American professional golfer admitted he dreamt that he was gripping the golf club differently than in real life.

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He remarked: “I tried it the way I did in my dream and it worked. I feel kind of foolish admitting it; I guess it was a fever dream.” Robert Louise Stevenson, the Scottish novelist of The Trea – sure Island fame, was inspired by a frightening dream to write about the dual life of a man. His wife, Fancy, woke him up from the dream which involved a scene where a man transformed into another being after taking a potion and was then pursued by others. This dream-generated idea prompted Stevenson to write his famous novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, about a man with a dual personality (psychologically called bipolar disorder). Incessant urge of creating literary works felt by Rabindranath Tagore involved deep introspection and a connection with his inner world. He firmly held that the subconscious mind is a prerequisite for valuable insights and artistic inspiration.

Mary Shelly, the author of the novel Frankenstein was inspired by a vivid dream. Now, let us focus on dreaming science. In our nervous system, nerve fibers, composed of conducting nerve cells called neurons, have been likened to a telegraph system in that the function of both is to convey messages over long distances at great speed. Neurons carry commands from our brain to different parts of the body and also carry back any external stimuli to the brain as well. These neurons get transmitted chemically. In 1903, Otto Loewi, a German born pharmacologist and psychobiologist, theorized that nerves in the human body transmit signals using chemicals intrusions.

But he could not prove it. Seventeen years later, in 1920, one night he had a dream about the problem. He woke up at midnight and scribbled down on a piece of paper and went back to sleep. In the morning, he could not decipher it nor could he remember it. The following night, he dreamed again about this problem. This was about an experiment to prove his idea. Fortunately, he remembered it. He published it in 1921, proving signally across the synapses that the site where an impulse is transmitted between neurons are chemicals (called neuro-transmitters). This revelation opened up a new field of study ~ Neuroscience.

Otto Loelwi was rewarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or Medicine in 1936 for his groundbreaking discovery of the chemical transmission of nerve impulses. One of the inventors of the sewing machine, Elius Howe (1819-1867) struggled for many years to build a machine with an appropriate needle that would work properly. After many years of trial and error, he apparently had a dream at a night where he saw American Indians attacking a rival camp with arrows, some of which pierced the wigwams that were made of cloth. He also noticed that arrowheads snagged the thread of the cloth and pulled it away from the fabric to form a small loop.

He noted that the spears used by warriors were pierced near the head. Without waiting, he rushed to the workshop to redesign the needle to make the modern sewing machine. In 1913, Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist, grappled day and night with the idea to reconcile classical physics with the emerging field of quantum mechanics. Once he fell asleep and dreamt of electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom like plan ets orbiting the sun. When he tested the dream-inspired hypothesis, he found it to be true. Thus the dream led Bohr to develop his revolutionary atomic model, which laid the groundwork for quantum theory. Niels Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1922 for the discovery of the structure of the atom and also for facilitating our understanding of the microscopic world. August Kekule was trying hard to figure out how six atoms of carbon and six atoms of hydrogen are structured in benzene.

The ratio of carbon and hydrogen in benzene was unlike that seen in other hydrocarbon compounds. On a cold night in 1865, he was working laboriously on the problem but soon dozed off near the fireplace. He dreamt that atoms were dancing and gradually arranged in the shape of a snake. Then the snake turned around and bit its own tail. He woke up and realized that the benzene molecule is made of a hexagonal structure of six carbon atoms and each carbon atom is also bonded to a hydrogen atom. Kekule’s theory, based on his dream of a snake biting its own tail, led to a clear understanding of aromatic compounds and their unique properties.

Dmitri Mendeleev, a chemistry professor and an avid player of Solitaire, had been attempting clearly to organize the elements, which at the time were either by atomic weight or by common properties. In Solitaire, however, cards are arranged both by suit, horizontally, and by number, vertically. He kept trying for months by first trying to find a pattern of atomic weights, properties, etc, but failed. Tired of the puzzle, he ultimately fell asleep at the desk. In a dream, his subconscious mind provided a solution. In his words: “In a dream, I saw where all the elements fell into place as required, accordingly, I immediately wrote it down on a sheet of paper.”

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), a mathematics genius, often dreamt of solutions to complex problems. He often said Goddess Namagiri Thayar used to provide mathematical proofs in his dreams. After waking up, he used to write down the proof. He once remarked: “I had an unusual experience. There was a red screen formed by flowing blood, as it were, I was observing it. Suddenly a hand began to write a number of elliptical integrals. They stuck to my mind. As soon as I woke up I committed them to write.” When Albert Einstein was an adolescent, he had a vivid dream that would influence the course of his life. Einstein described his dream: “I was sleeping with my friends at night.

I started to slide down the hill but my sled started going faster and faster. I was going so fast that I realized I was approaching the speed of light. I looked up at that point and saw the stars. They were being refracted into colours I had never seen before. I was filled with a sense of awe. I understood in some way that I was looking at the most important changing in my life”. This dream was an inspiration for what was to become the Theory of Relativity. Einstein used to say that his entire scientific career was a meditation on his dream. Indeed, when scientists, researchers or innovators try to solve their problem(s), relevant data and observations are gathered within their conscious minds while awake.

During sleep, their unconscious minds synthesize, organize and associate recent observations and stored information. Sleep and dreams are crucial for thinking; they allow minds to reconfigure data into meaningful patterns. This can help conceptualize a problem in a more holistic and integrated way. It can help harmonise data to form a unified picture, and it can provide a solution to the problem. We must appreciate how dreams can influence and spur creativity and innovation. The conventional wisdom is that when unable to find a solution to a problem, it is better to dismiss it from the mind and sleep over it. The idea is undoubtedly fantastic.

(The writer is a retired IAS officer)