Image: Photoillustration by Aaron Goodman
In Brief
- The act of dreaming is simply thinking about our usual concerns in a different state of consciousness.
- Dreams can be especially helpful for problems that require creativity or visualization to solve.
- By thinking about specific dilemmas before bed, we can increase our chances that we will dream a solution.
As a young mathematician in the 1950s, Don Newman taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology alongside rising star and Nobel-laureate-to-be John Nash. Newman had been struggling to solve a particular math problem: “I was ... trying to get somewhere with it, and I couldn’t and I couldn’t and I couldn’t,” he recalled.
One night Newman dreamed that he was reflecting on the problem when Nash appeared. The sleeping Newman related the details of the conundrum to Nash and asked if he knew the solution. Nash explained how to solve it. Newman awoke realizing he had the answer! He spent the next several weeks turning the insight into a formal paper, which was then published in a mathematics journal.
This article was originally published with the title Answers in Your Dreams.
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19 Comments
Add CommentEminent chess grandmaster Eduard Gufeld once found the correct move to a chess position he was analyzing through a dream.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKnow first hand that dreams help with solving problems.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's known that Kekule had the image of the chemical formula for Phenol he had been searching for many time while dreaming, but I gues this is rather an exception than a rule. Dreams are too much influenced and biased by the dreamer's desires that they can hardly be considered nothing but emotionally-ruled pictures.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo body knows what dreams emerge from. Don't convince your selves in illusion of answers that have no value rather than simple observation of an effect of occurrence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReal trouble with our dreams very few we remember when we awake.Psychologists unable find out any technique how to remember our dream or interpenetrate our dream .Even technique of Freud also insufficient or say out of date.We are till ignorant of our dream.How to remember and interpenetrate them.I note down many my dream but unable to interpenetrate them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI Thought the main advantage of thinking through a specific problem just before trying to sleep is that it prevents sleep and allows one to agonise for longer. Very occasionally we think we get great insights from dreams, what about the countless trillions of times when nothing useful is obtained? Dream analysis is as proven a technique as tea-leaf analysis- dont forget to use only English breakfast.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder whether dreams are hallucinatory parallel worlds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHummm, in dealing with empirical data and factual account, I would agree with what you have written. When dealing with the powerful imagination of a human mind and it's equally powerful process of creativity, I would advise against dismissing these as fountains for many of our worlds greatest inventions. JUST because you cannot put something in a test tube - imagination, intuition, pattern-detection, etc, does NOT mean it does nothing or does not produce useful results. "In dreams begin responsibilities."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is not 'just' the dream we covet, but the relaxed state that allows random thoughts and emotions to talk shape. In a hypnotic state, the relaxed mind is paramount. Our subconscious mind is ALWAYS awake! It analyzes and correlates everything we do. It invades hidden corners of our forgotten past or projected future - wherever the mind has gone - and pulls together random patterns. Some of these patterns are solutions to problems that the conscious mind resists or is too 'busy' to devote sufficient resources to take action or recall. The subconscious component of the human mind is, IS real and we use it 24/7 and some use it better than others. For some eating certain foods, we believe certain proteins, can actually steer subconscious thoughts. For others, a long run and glass of milk and they can solve problems they had not thought of in decades. Before we can dismiss breams and the nebulous subconscious realm, we must first discover/find the human Mind! We still do not know where, or what it is, or when we gain it, nor, how we know that we know anything. No, do not dismiss the unknown as if it does not count just because we do not know everything about it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIndeed: This IS a problem. I have gotten into the habit of keeping a pencil and pad next to the bed..or my little micro-tape recorder, or iPod. I have noticed that my best 'notes' are those that have a verbal recording and 'doodles' I write on the paper along with the recordings. The next day, I retrieve these things and it is as if, another person, not me, but someone else, wrote what I see and recorded. Often it looks as if I had been writing and recording for hours, but it felt like minutes. Other times, just the opposite.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo one knows where, or what -materially, empirically - the human is or where it is...so...stop using it? That IS the logic of your written statement, do not use it if you cannot prove it has existence or merit or value. " No value." you wrote. Who says these things have no value? You, you, cannot prove the exact location and composition of the human mind only the things we believe/perceive it to produce. I fearlessly submit, " There are more things of Heaven and Earth than dreamt of in YOUR philosophy." And I can prove this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've seen lots of people who have real difficulty dealing with the real world so it's understandable that most people have trouble dealing with what goes on in our heads while we're sleeping. It's the same old story: people will disbelieve in anything they have trouble understanding. (Exception: except for religious "teachings" - they'll believe anything some stranger tells them so long as that stranger claims legitimacy through: the Bible, Koran or other mystical puffery.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe exceptions are those who have curiosity and want answers to unanswered questions. Who believes they can use their dreams to find answers to real life questions? Not many - or it may be that those who DO use dreams to find such answers are keeping quiet to avoid criticism and damage to their reputation. Who believes in predictive dreams? Same answer: apparently not many but, in this case, I know for a fact that most people who benefit from predictive dreams keep quiet about it.
It's been known for centuries that dreams can guide sentient experience and life's works. I have carefully studied many transcripts and narratives from various historical and more-current influential people, noting that the dream experience figures largely in many of their contributions to humankind. Indeed, the interweaving of dreams and the nature of consciousness itself has fascinated me for some time; there is something truly profound about the role of dreams within sentient life. My research has culminated in a trilogy of books and documented experiences. Anyway, I just wanted to say I really liked the article and those stellar examples.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMing Singer
www.consciousnessminddreams.com
Explaining your problem to someone usually results in your realizing the solution
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWayne Jones
Ottawa
Canada
This article is why I bought a copy of the magazine (for the first time) over the weekend. Thanks! I appreciate the concept of comparing our waking thought to dreaming thought - is one necessairly more important than the other? Why would we dismiss the contents of our dreams? Do we not also have magical, zany, or horrifying thoughts awake? Perhaps it was a coincidence, but I had my second-ever lucid dream last night (I'm 40) searched around for a book to read from in the dream to prove that it wasn't real, which in fact it wasn't (it had been an all-too realistic dream). Thanks for the fascinating and accessible content!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisP.S.: Is there any evidence to suggest that dream during which we become lucid are more "significant' (message full) than any other dream?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe, fall in sleep in a difficult test that you don't know how find out the answer can be a good idea.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you for this interesting and well-written article about problem solving and dreams. As a person with narcolepsy and cataplexy - REM sleep is especially fascinating to me, as aspects of REM sleep are triggered at inappropriate times for me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn my efforts to raise awareness about narcolepsy, I've found that few people know basics about the sleep cycle and dream sleep. It's a joy to read a feature article on this topic! Thanks again. (remrunner.blogspot.com)
Wonderful article! Another proof that one can solve problems in dreams. I read an interesting article about that at http://www.howtocontroldreams.com.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI do that regularly - early morning, just before I actually wake up (I think it's called REM phase). It proved effective for me especially when I had to solve a "visual" type of problem (I was designing a website in my dream). Woke up with a ready concept, opened my laptop and made it live :-)