cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
Sleep to solve a problem - Harvard
Sleep on it. Things will look better in the morning."
This advice, often given by a parent, is said with love and good intentions, but it still makes us roll our eyes, because we just want to go to sleep — not think, not assess options. We certainly don’t want to wait until tomorrow.
But …?
"We all do that," says Dr. Robert Stickgold, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "We solve problems while we’re asleep."
More importantly: we’re supposed to. The brain is doing its nighttime job of finding connections, so when we wake up, we have a different take. It can feel like a stress, but rather than fight it, there are ways to accept the nightly review of the day so it doesn’t turn into a sleepless assessment of our entire lives.
Sleep on it. Things will look better in the morning."
This advice, often given by a parent, is said with love and good intentions, but it still makes us roll our eyes, because we just want to go to sleep — not think, not assess options. We certainly don’t want to wait until tomorrow.
But …?
"We all do that," says Dr. Robert Stickgold, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "We solve problems while we’re asleep."
More importantly: we’re supposed to. The brain is doing its nighttime job of finding connections, so when we wake up, we have a different take. It can feel like a stress, but rather than fight it, there are ways to accept the nightly review of the day so it doesn’t turn into a sleepless assessment of our entire lives.