Do you dream about your passion?
Not that kind of passion, I mean the passion you have for creative work. A study conducted at Harvard Medical School reveals that people who dreamed about a task performed it better than those who didn't dream about it.
Of course there's no way to guarantee you'll dream about something, but thinking about it as you start to fall asleep may help.
This finding also helps make the case for short naps. Ben Franklin, among many other inventors and great thinkers, swore by naps and reported having insights either in dreams or immediately upon waking.
ABC Australia News reports that Professor Colin Sullivan, a sleep specialist at the University of Sydney, says there is now a large body of evidence showing sleep has an important role not just in learning, but in creativity and mood as well.
He says most people get less than the idea seven to eight hours a night, and going to bed an hour earlier may be the key to boosting the creativity and productivity of the nation. (My version of this is getting up an hour later, but that's one of perks of free-lancing!).
(There are many practical methods for being more creative in my newest book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)