A dreamy path to creativity

Because he thought sleep a waste of time, Thomas Edison would supposedly sit in a chair holding balls in his hands as he contemplated inventing things like the phonograph, which captured classics such as Mary Had a Little Lamb. If he fell asleep, the balls would drop and he would awaken with more time to, for example, construct the cement factory that in turn would be used to build Yankee Stadium, or to propose to his wife using Morse Code. (What a romantic! And no, not morose code).

I have fewer patents than Edison (the score so far is zero to 1,093, if you have to know) but I claim to have a better idea: Coffee. When my noon nappy time approaches, I put on my Sponge Bob PJs — kidding, honest, because they are for special occasions —?and drink some coffee, homemade cold brew these days. Then I close my eyes on the couch and in 20 minutes, with caffeine scalding my synapses, bidda-bing, I'm a new boy.

The point, and there is one, is that Edison was right and I may be too: Research shows that while eight or more hours of sleep is ideal for most of us, the small space between starting to fall asleep and deep slumber may be a key to creativity. In other words, if you wake then, you're more likely to write Really Good Stuff.

Since I'm a slave to coffee, my take is that the best possible scenario is to have caffeine slap me upside the head just as I enter drool-worthy deep sleep.

Science agrees. In studies during the 1990s, people who combined coffee and a 15-20 minute nap showed improved alertness and reasoning.

It certainly worked for Friedrich August Kekulé, who, in 1865, woke from a nap while dreaming about a snake biting its own tail, which helped him envision the structure of benzene.

So if you're an organic chemist or an inventor or even a writer ... add caffeine and sleep on it.

Thoughts?