The Writer and their Dreams

I'm currently writing a novel set in a dimension visited by authors, a place that inspires their imagination. The further into the novel I get, the more I realised I needed to research how this concept worked "in reality". The concept arises out of occasions when I've woken up with an idea for a book or a solution to a plot problem solved. I've read about how other writers who've done the same thing. So how does it work? Is this something any writer can do? Here are the answers!

Sleep Stages

Understanding the sleep process is important so let's look at how it works. There are 5 stages of sleep:

Drowsiness - when you're awake but "drifting off" so you're more relaxed

Stage 1 Sleep - "light" sleep where the theta waves reduce, you may be aware of noises etc

Stage 2 Sleep - slightly deeper sleep where the brain "turns off" and you sink into deeper sleep

Stages 3-4 Sleep - deep sleep, no rapid eye movement yet - lasts 20-40 minutes

REM Sleep - Rapid Eye Movement where brainwaves become more animated

Normally the average sleep cycles through these stages during the night, roughly this cycling processes lasts between an hour and an hour and half before repeating.

Lucid Dreaming

Most dreams happen during REM sleep (shorter, less organised dreams can occur in Stages 3-4 but these aren't important to this topic). The brain kicks into gear and goes to work on thought processes that may remain unresolved, it's a useful time because it's not having to deal with all the external stimuli from when we're awake. It's the brain putting in overtime on the night shift! This is when "lucid dreaming" can take place.

What is lucid dreaming? It is typically defined as a dream in which the dreamer becomes aware of the fact that they are dreaming, which often allows them to consciously influence the dream content. Research mentioned in this article identifies 7 stages of lucid dreaming - (1) recognizing that one is dreaming; (2) having freedom of choice within the dream; (3) clarity of consciousness; (4) clarity about waking life; (5) clarity of perception; (6) clarity regarding the meaning of the dream; and (7) clarity of recollection.

The latter stages of this process (5-7) can be achieved by training the brain. This process often includes words like "elevated awareness" - we become aware of what our brain is doing and can influence it. This process, and its outcomes, are famous in eastern philosophies, meditation is a means to achieve this end result. For some people, it can happen more easily and naturally.

Lucid Dreaming and Creativity

The ability to access lucid dreaming and make it become a productive form of expression has been claimed to be a source of inspiration by numerous creative types. The Surrealists, such as Hieronymus Bosch and Salvador Dalí acknowledged the process, their work makes this obvious! The same is true of the Post Impressionists like Vincent van Gogh and Francis Bacon. Gogh said, "I dream my paintings, then I paint my dreams."

Stephen King is another proponent of using sleep to enhance creativity: creative sleep. "In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives. And as your mind and body grow accustomed to a certain amount of sleep each night — six hours, seven, maybe the recommended eight — so can you train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined waking dreams which are successful works of fiction."

Williams Blake famously found inspiration through his dreams but went further - in one dream where he had a conversation with his dead brother, he woke with the idea of the printing press that would later bear his name. Mary Shelley reportedly came up with the idea of Frankenstein from a dream. Legend has it that Samuel Taylor Coleridge found the opening lines of “Kubla Khan” in a dream. While suffering a fever, Robert Louis Stevenson dreamed about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. William Styron had a dream that inspired Sophie’s Choice. Edgar Allen Poe was quite forthright about the impact of dreams on his creativity - "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."

Conclusions

Earlier I mentioned how other cultures recognise (and have done for millennia) how the mind doesn't stop working when we're asleep but can be encouraged to work on specific material if it is trained to do so. I'm reminded of the native population of Australia and what western explorers came to label the "dreamtime" - where the mind could be helped to access a state of mind beyond what was available in the normal, conscious mind. It seems so many other cultures have always understood this process, in western cultures we're only starting to explore it now - in scientific terms, to analyse, measure and define it.

For me, I think it comes down to the level of importance, the status, you give to the issue you want to explore. If that plot point that's bothering you has a high enough priority in your waking mind, it may well sit there, like in a doctor's clinic, patiently waiting to be seen! The crucial part is creating that level of priority. I've found it works best for me when I think about the issue as I'm dozing off. I don't pursue the idea (if I can help it - it will keep me awake!) but simply remind my brain that the issue is there. I think it places the problem at the front of the queue in that waiting room I mentioned. It doesn't always work but I've found it to be a useful mechanism.

I hope you find this information helpful and if you have experiences to share about how you've accessed your lucid dreaming to write your stories, let me know - I'm on BlueSky: @philspeculates.bsky.social or Threads https://www.threads.com/@philparkerfantasyauthor or https://linktr.ee/phil_parker

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