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'Just Sleep On It' Solves Tricky Problems?
An anonymous reader writes "CBC news reports that the effectiveness of 'sleeping on it' when faced with a difficult task may have more than just anecdotal roots. 66 students were trained to perform a calculation on an eight digit number using two simple rules which would take seven steps to complete. A different method existed to perform the same calculation 'almost instantly', but was not shown to the students. After eight hours, where half the students were allowed to sleep and the other half remained awake, 60% of the rested and 22% of the wakeful students discovered the more efficient method."
If nothing else, it means I've been thinking very hard indeed while at work this morning.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
I've just forwarded this to my boss, sleeping on the job is now a good thing.
I know I've solved Calculus projects in my sleep before. The tricky part is trying to remember it when you wake up.
If it's not on fire, it's a software problem.
Now sales of those tapes that will help you "improve your life while you sleep" will REALLY take off.
Never confuse volume with power.
I'm going to post something +5 Insightful, but I have to take a nap first. Check back later.
daed si luap
Because of this, I now realize why all my "Natalie Portman Squirming Nude in Hot Grits" dreams abruptly end with a Light Bulb Over her head, and just below that, a Do Loop, an equation, or the name of some obscure (.jar) file that has a utility for the previous day's problem.
I am thinking of something smart and funny to say here... but I haven't had my nap yet...
....leave a pencil and some paper next to your bed!
It is well established. I honestly don't know who forked over the cash for this study, but this must have been an alternative to a dot-com investment. I think I'm going to start a new career. I'll choose subjects with a well-known outcome and devise a study that proves what everybody already knows. That way, I can collect all kinds of grant money. Anybody with me?
GreyPoopon
--
Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
Bush probably never sleeps at all ;-)
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
"I've been working for five days without any sleep to finish this report. At first I had a mental block. But on the fourth day I was visited by an Incan monkey god who told me what to write. Now I just have to find somebody who can translate his simple but beautiful language."
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
You got a handbook? Bastard. I didn't even get a lousy pancreas manual.
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Incidentally, it works for social problems too. Having trouble with a colleague? Sleep on it, they say.
Yeah, I was having trouble with this girl in the office, so I slept with her. Worked wonders, let me tell you.
" Anybody with me?"
If I can get some grant money, I'll do a study to see if anyone would be with you or not. Our preliminary results say about 70% of the people would be, while 20% wouldnt, and 10% would like to thank you for all of the fish.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
seems some dark area of your brain remembers tasks
:)
More commonly known as the gray area
Free XBox, PS2
Just run xsleep as a background task.
Dolphins have the ability to shut off parts of their brain when they're not using them
Humans have that same ability during election years.
For a Spanish immersion program, I stayed with a host family in Quito. About 20 miles from the equator. There, there is no dawn or dusk. At 6 AM, broad daylight. At 6 PM, night.
We had to get up early to catch a bus to take us to school. We were supposed to bring an alarm clock, but I didn't. The first day, I thought, "oh well, I'll just wake up tomorrow and see what happens." (There was no jet lag because we were travelling N/S). So, with my east-facing window, the sun woke me up the next morning. I got up, left my room, went in to the kitchen, and checked the clock on the microwave. It said, "6:21".
I never needed an alarm clock during the whole stay. The sun always woke me up at 6:21 or 6:22.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
The shower works for me, too...
I've requested my company install one in my cubicle.
"In the experiments conducted by Wagner and his colleagues, volunteers tackled arithmetic problems and then took twenty minutes to masturbate furiously while being lectured on mathematics. A second group was instructed to fornicate with a set of oversized-novelty-foam-numeral-character figures. Those who reached orgasm were twice as likely to realize that there was a hidden rule that substantially simplified calculations."
So the next time you can't figure out how to solve a problem, just fuck it!
PS: I refuse to cite the source of this quotation.
I hardly got more than 4 hours a night
I can recommend marijuana. This miracle-drug meant I rarely had any trouble sleeping in past midday when at university.
Registering accounts later than some other chrisb since 1997
In a related story, "researchers" did a study and "discovered" that sleep allows participants to feel less tired. Who would have thought?
Rene Descartes days ended when he took a job as a tutor to the Queen of who like to study philosophy early in the morning. Queen Christina liked to study philosophy early in the morning and would drag Descartes out of bed at 5:00 AM. Like a good philosopher Descartes believed in sleeping past noon. With the new schedule, he caught pneumonia and promptly died.
True story:
When I was in high school, I had a dream that I was in this ancient-looking stone room. There were books all over the room, some piled in stacks and some just strewn about. There was a desk in the far corner, with a bunch of candles on it and a large book in the middle.
Somehow, I knew that this was Merlin's study (I was in my King Arthur/Holy Grail/Knights Templar phase) and that the book held the answers to every question and secret I would ever have. I walked up to the desk and opened the book.
The writing was incredibly blurry; almost like I was trying to read it without glasses. I squinted to try and clarify things, but it only made it worse. Then, I remember thinking "Hey, my eyes are closed! I just need to open them and I'll be able to read it.".
So I opened my eyes and found myself staring at the ceiling of my bedroom.
That was teh suck.
I read the article this morning and decided to take a nap before replying...
- - - - I just woke up and this is all I could come up with to say ?!
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin