Page 1 of 3 [ 34 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next

Dnuos
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jul 2010
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 588

12 Aug 2010, 1:03 am

I think I heard somewhere else here that this was true, but may as well ask in it's own thread:

Do any of you who create art, music, or writing, seem to do much better later at night than during the day or morning? By night, I mean when everyone else is asleep and it's quite pitch black outside.

With music, in writing my own melodies or progressions or such, it's only late at night when I can simply sit down at my piano/keyboard or with my guitar and just play, and find something good out of it. Or the melodies will just come to me in my head and I'll figure it out then. Maybe it's that I feel more calm and at ease with myself during this time of day.

It's getting really annoying since staying up late is no good for me if I'm trying to get a good exercise here and there (with these meds I can't sleep in very well after 9 AM, so I'm limited... in amount of sleep)



IdahoRose
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 19,801
Location: The Gem State

12 Aug 2010, 3:34 am

I only do my best artwork/writing in the middle of the night, when there is close to zero-percent chance that I'll be interrupted and the only sound I hear is the white noise coming from my fan. That's the primary reason why I've become almost completely nocturnal - I stay up from around 8 or 9 PM to around 10 or 11 AM and sleep the rest of the day.



polarity
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Feb 2006
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 502
Location: PEBKAC

12 Aug 2010, 3:45 am

I've definitely noticed that I get more creative as I lose sleep (seeing as I've got plenty of opportunities for that to happen, having chronic insomnia). The only problem is, at the same time I tend to become even more ADD and unable to focus.

Reading the book Left in the Dark, it suddenly made a lot more sense why this might be. Basically the left brain is used predominantly throughout the day, and is dominant, suppressing a lot of the right brain's function, but it gets tired first, eventually ending up in a state a lot like sleep if we don't actually go to sleep when it's ready, but we are still awake as the right brain is then able take over, as it is no longer being suppressed to the same degree. It is the right brain that handles our more intuitive, artistic capabilities, while the left handles language and logical reasoning. It's possible that dreams may be the right brain giving itself something to do while we sleep, as that's normally the only time it's not being suppressed by the left, unless we are getting sleep deprived.

There's a website for the book at http://leftinthedark.org.uk/, and checking it just now I've noticed that a lot of the book's ideas, supporting evidence and the latest advances to the idea are now on a website at http://beyond-belief.org.uk/.


_________________
You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.


polarity
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Feb 2006
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 502
Location: PEBKAC

12 Aug 2010, 3:59 am

There's a very interesting video at TED.com by Jill Bolte Taylor, who gets mentioned on the Beyond-Belief website, that gives a good example of just how different the brain hemispheres are.


_________________
You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.


one-A-N
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Mar 2010
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 883
Location: Sydney

12 Aug 2010, 4:57 am

My brain doesn't wake up until about 10 AM. I can get up, shower, eat breakfast, travel to work ... and my brain is still in a fog.

But when I come home at night, my brain is alert, and I rarely switch the light off before midnight because my brain is at its peak activity in the late afternoon and evening.

It's 8 PM and I haven't even eaten my evening meal yet. 9-10 PM are prime time for me, and sometimes I get my second wind and go on till 2, 3 or 4 in the morning. But only on weekend or vacations. During working weeks I try to avoid really late nights because I am tired all the next day ... and awake again the next night.



ShadesOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Jun 2004
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 16,983
Location: California

12 Aug 2010, 5:35 am

That's me to a tee. I prefer to do my creative pursuits when everyone is asleep, and it's dark out. :D



ShenLong
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,277
Location: With Murphy Freestylin' and Ricky Easy

12 Aug 2010, 11:42 am

I get my ideas for stories at night, sometimes spontaneously and sometimes from watching the stars at midnight.



jojobean
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 2009
Age: 46
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,341
Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk

12 Aug 2010, 1:49 pm

My most creative times are at night...when all else is asleep, but my best work happens in the morning or during a calm day.

Most of the night work I do (poetry) has to be edited a bit...although the creative energy runs rampant, quality seems to suffer with hypomania and sleep depervation. But unless I get a quiet morning that I am more inside myself than usual...I am too scatterbrained to create. So I just take my creative moments and go with them whenever they happen. I find that if I wait till later, the idea has faded some so it gets harder to pull it out.


_________________
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.
-James Baldwin


ladyrain
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 21 Apr 2010
Age: 64
Gender: Female
Posts: 262
Location: UK

12 Aug 2010, 2:41 pm

one-A-N wrote:
My brain doesn't wake up until about 10 AM. I can get up, shower, eat breakfast, travel to work ... and my brain is still in a fog.

But when I come home at night, my brain is alert, and I rarely switch the light off before midnight because my brain is at its peak activity in the late afternoon and evening.

It's 8 PM and I haven't even eaten my evening meal yet. 9-10 PM are prime time for me, and sometimes I get my second wind and go on till 2, 3 or 4 in the morning. But only on weekend or vacations. During working weeks I try to avoid really late nights because I am tired all the next day ... and awake again the next night.


This is me too. After 10am I'm functional, but don't perk up until at least mid-afternoon.



dtoxic
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 22 Jun 2008
Age: 53
Gender: Male
Posts: 346
Location: Boston MA

13 Aug 2010, 2:11 am

I can be creative day or night, but as a habitual night owl (seldom rise before noon, seldom crash before 4AM) that often winds up being the most productive time by default.



Asp-Z
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Dec 2009
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,018

16 Aug 2010, 7:11 am

Yup, this is when I write all my poetry.



Quatermass
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Apr 2006
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 18,779
Location: Right behind you...

16 Aug 2010, 7:40 am

It is true, I do a majority of my creative writing between 7pm and 11pm.


_________________
(No longer a mod)

On sabbatical...


Guitar_Girl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Jun 2010
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,152

16 Aug 2010, 7:50 am

I feel more creative in mornings and nights, when I either didn't take my medication yet, or it wore out.



Kraichgauer
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 47,739
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.

20 Aug 2010, 3:09 am

Most of my best writing is done in late night, early morning - between twelve and four or five. I often polish off two pots of coffee.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer



takemitsu
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 29 Jun 2010
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 601

20 Aug 2010, 12:46 pm

Anymore, I can't feel creative unless I'm about to go to sleep or just waking up. I could be pretty creative to the point that I give people the wrong impression, but life stole my gumption. Now I can barely express myself correctly to others.



arecibo_
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jun 2010
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 210
Location: Galway, Ireland

20 Aug 2010, 6:18 pm

I tend to get most of my good ideas creatively when I'm going to sleep, I note it down, and it always seems like crap when I wake up the next day, until I'm going back to sleep the next night and then I think it's brilliant again. :?