Sleeping on a problem can really solve it

·Sleeping on a problem really can help solve it, claim scientists who discovered a nap can improve your powers of creativity.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5476979/Sleeping-on-a-problem-really-can-solve-it-claim-scientists.html

Researchers found that people were able to think more laterally and quickly after a snooze and that if they dreamed the ability was even more enhanced.
The scientists believe that "incubating" a problem often leads to a solution but that the effect was increased when people entered a phase of sleep known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
They believe that REM- which occurs most predominantly just before we awake – helps the brain make connections between unrelated subjects.
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[...] it appears REM sleep especially helps achieve new solutions by allowing the brain to make new and useful associations between unrelated ideas.
"We found that – for creative problems that you've already been working on – the passage of time is enough to find solutions," said Prof Mednick. "However, for new problems, only REM sleep enhances creativity."
The researchers said that the findings suggested that sleep was a creative process and underlined the recommendation by Nobel Prize winning chemist Friedrich Kekule who said we must "learn to dream".

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How night owls are cleverer and richer than people who rise early

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1173028/How-night-owls-cleverer-richer-people-rise-early.html

It has long been held that the early bird catches the worm. But it is the night owl that lasts the distance, research shows.
It found that late risers tire less quickly than those who make a point of getting up at the crack of dawn.
The study is likely to be embraced by anyone tired of being branded lazy for their love of a lie-in.
And it adds to growing evidence that it is night owls that rule the roost.
Previous studies have found that those who rise later tend to be both cleverer and richer than early birds.
For the latest study, scientists pitted morning larks against night owls in a task designed to measure their reaction and attention times.
During the experiment, the volunteers got up and went to bed at their usual times, with the larks tending to turn in four hours earlier than the owls.
Both did similarly well at the task shortly after getting up. But ten hours into their day, it was the night owls that shone, being both quicker and more alert at the task, the journal Science reports.

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