Late Night Creativity

In a study to be published the February 2007 issue of Personality and Individual Differences, authors Marina Giampietro and G.M. Cavallera, scientists in the Department of Psychology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, discuss the findings of a recent study, which they claim proves that “night owls” are genetically more creative than morning people.cereal

Hell, I’ve been telling my parents this for years. I’m far too creative to go to bed before midnight, and seriously, me getting up early? Surely you jest?

I’m just thankful that I can tell people that my habit of watching shitty T.V. shows, arguing with net nerds on message boards, and eating Reese’s Puffs cereal at three in the morning stems from my intrinsic propensity for creativity, and not from me being a “shitless-layabout.”

You know what, you morning-Nazi’s? I’m not staying up late “reading comics.” I’m flexing my creative muscles by researching contemporary adaptations of classical archetypes and our culture’s emergent form of mythmaking. I shall retain that research until a later time when it builds up and culminates in a mental ejaculation of creativity, which could very well produce the most creative thing ever seen by man.

Or not. I could just be wasting time reading comics. We’ll have to wait and see.

Not to be cynical, but I just wonder if night owls aren’t more creative because they typically don’t have a very stressful or demanding job to wake up for, and therefore they can spend most of their time daydreaming and imagining things. People who get up early usually have something they are getting up for, and whatever they are getting up for usually precludes them sitting around for long periods of time creating fantasies in their heads.spidey

Now I’m not a scientist, but I’d like to propose that maybe, just maybe, we could all increase our creativity by slowing down, taking a breather from “life,” and simply daydreaming for a few hours a day. You don’t have to do it all at once, but give it a shot. Speaking from experience, not a lot of daydreaming takes place in the early morning hours. You need to stay up late into the night for the creativity to start happening.

You never know, you might suddenly get the urge to read an issue of “The Amazing Spider-Man” and eat a bowl of cereal, too.

Categories: Blogging, Jackassery | 3 Comments

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3 thoughts on “Late Night Creativity

  1. Totally. I *wish* I could be creative and productive at a “normal” hour of the day, but nothing seems to happen except in the dead of night. Have they studied how certain hormones and chemicals play into creativity? Aren’t there some that are only secreted during the dark hours? Maybe release of creativity is somehow tied into the release of these chemicals? Dunno. I gotta go read a comic. Laters.

  2. My problem during the day is that it’s daylight, and there are things I want to do. I like going outside and doing stuff, and for me, the night time just seems more contemplative.

    I hope creativity isn’t tied to some chemical reaction, because if so, then that means that we could potentially manipulate the chemicals. I don’t like thinking that the jag-off working the drivethru at McDonald’s could write the great American novel after popping a few creativity pills.

  3. Well, what about the dude who won the Booker Prize, who was a recovering drug and gambling addict, and decided he’d write a Booker Prize -winning novel, so he could pay off his debts. Weird.

    I would think that regardless of how many chemicals or ‘creativity pills’ there would have to be some innate creativity and intelligence to unleash. At least I would hope 🙂

    Ahh, the elusive GAN. How’s your novel coming along, btw? You haven’t touched on your own writing for a while? I hope your students aren’t sucking the marrow outta you?

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