Journal article
Imagining the impossible before breakfast: the relation between creativity, dissociation, and sleep
- Abstract:
- Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher rapid eye movement sleep density, a sleep phase during which hyperassociativity may occur. This may enhance artistic creativity during the day. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a creative photo contest to explore the relation between dissociation, sleep, and creativity. During the contest, participants (N = 72) took one photo per day for five consecutive days, based on specific daily themes (consisting of single words) and the instruction to take as creative a photo as possible each day. Furthermore, they completed daily measures of state dissociation and a short sleep diary. The photos and their captions were ranked by two professional photographers and two clinical psychologists based on creativity, originality, bizarreness, and quality. We expected that dissociative people would rank higher in the contest compared with low-dissociative participants, and that the most original photos would be taken on days when the participants scored highest on acute dissociation. We found that acute dissociation predicted a higher ranking on creativity. Poorer sleep quality and fewer hours of sleep predicted more bizarreness in the photos and captions. None of the trait measures could predict creativity. In sum, acute dissociation related to enhanced creativity. These findings contribute to our understanding of dissociative symptomatology.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 336.1KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00324
Authors
- Publisher:
- Frontiers Media SA
- Journal:
- Frontiers in Psychology More from this journal
- Volume:
- 6
- Pages:
- Article 324
- Publication date:
- 2015-03-26
- Acceptance date:
- 2015-03-06
- DOI:
- ISSN:
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1664-1078
- Pmid:
-
25859231
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:518851
- UUID:
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uuid:9716a3f1-2a61-4a68-b6c7-6ddc1c2a13f4
- Local pid:
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pubs:518851
- Source identifiers:
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518851
- Deposit date:
-
2017-07-28
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- van Heugten - van der Kloet et al
- Copyright date:
- 2015
- Notes:
- © 2015 van Heugten - van der Kloet, Cosgrave, Merckelbach, Haines, Golodetz and Lynn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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