Why Your Ideas Are All Wet…
Here is the perfect illustration of how science fails us.
Most of us (perhaps all of us) get creative epiphanies when we are in the shower. You know, you’ve been struggling with the phrasing of an article, or trying to decide the best way to attack a problem, and then BAM! there’s the answer. (Or Emeril Lagasse is brushing his teeth in your bathroom, one of the two…)
Yet ask a scientist why this is, and he or she will claim that there is no scientific basis for it. One Harvard psychologist I read about even quipped: “Are you sure we get really do get good ideas in the shower? Or do we just think our ideas are great?”
Okay, as people go, I am more of a prove-it-to-me kind of guy as opposed to take-it-on-faith. But when pretty near 100% of the people claim the same experience, there has to be something to it. In fact, what my own research turned up is that there is no scientific basis for it because nobody has studied it. You might call that “ostrich science”…
However, there are certain clues.
I came across this post by designer Cameron Moll. He explores some of the possible scientific explanations for it, including the “white noise” effect, the minimal mental power needed (allowing your mind to wander), and the lack of distractions. He even references an actual scientific paper written by Professor Lajos Székely about “creative pause”.
All of these make sense to me, but I think there is more.
Carey Goldberg wrote a column for the Boston Globe five years ago called “Shower Power” that illustrated her own problems with getting firm scientific data for the phenomenon. (I couldn’t find the article online, but I did find a PDF of it here.) Her research found theories related to the creative pause theory, that any idle time is a rich soil bed ready for ideas to spring forth.
Again, perhaps. Certainly it makes sense that when you stop concentrating on a problem, your mind will wander on its own untethered, finding new spots in the forest off the beaten path. This can certainly turn up ideas and solutions.
But why the shower in particular?
I came across more scientific research suggesting that physical movement sends signals to the brain, keeping it active. That is why walks are good for “clearing your head” I suppose. And indeed, many people also claim that walks help them be more creative. But the Eureka! moments again are more often found in the shower.
Here’s my theory. It’s perhaps the Unified Shower Theory of Creativity because I think it all has an impact. The white noise, the alone and idle time, the monotonous routine. But also the water pelting your skin, which sends thousands of stimulus impulses to the brain. The warmth of the water, relaxing the mind and body. Even the movement — all that arms up to wash the hair, bending and twisting to clean the body. For some of us desk-jockeys, it is the most exercise we get all day! There are also studies suggesting that simply bending the joints stimulates brain activity, another characteristic of showering.
A shower is a rhythmic, relaxing, almost hypnotic experience. When you think about it that way, it is almost obvious why the shower would be the perfect creative trigger.
It’s also kind of like that scene in Dead Poet’s Society where Ethan Hawke’s character is blindfolded, spun around, and yelled at, reciting whatever comes to mind. The body and even the conscious mind are occupied and bombarded by stimuli, so that you aren’t really pay attention to what you’re thinking about, then cha-ching, like a gumball machine, you knock loose some golden gobstopper of insight.
Of course, I could be wrong. I have no scientific data to back it up. But you know what? I’m a writer, not a scientist. I’ll take whatever works, scientifically proven or otherwise…
~Graham
Tags: Boston Globe, cameron moll, Carey Goldsberg, Dead Poet's Society, Emeril, Ethan Hawke, ideas, shower
