THINKER'S ALMANAC - May 11

Whenever he would take a nap, what did Salvador Dali make sure he had in his hand?

Subject:  Sleep - Dali’s “Key” to Creativity

Event:  Birthday of Salvador Dalí, 1904

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it. -John Steinbeck

Legend says that Alexander the Great slept with two things under his pillow:  a copy of Homer’s Iliad and a dagger.  Unlike Alexander, the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who was born on this day in 1904, needed just one thing for his strategic slumber:  a key; furthermore, he didn’t even need a pillow, for he slept in a chair.

More than an opportunity for a little shut-eye, Dali had a strategy for his power naps that made them useful for fueling his creativity.

Sitting in a chair with his head tilted back in a resting position, Dali would place a heavy key in his right hand and extend his right arm over the chair’s armrest.  Directly beneath his right hand, he would place an upside-down plate.   As he began to fall into a deep slumber, his hand would release the key, and it would fall clanging loudly onto the plate.

                                   Salvador Dalí - Image by Таня Добрая from Pixabay 

In his book, 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship, Dali explains the method to this seeming madness:

The moment the key drops from your fingers, you may be sure that the noise of its fall on the upside-down plate will awaken you, and you may be equally sure that this fugitive moment when you had barely lost consciousness and during which you cannot be assured of having really slept is totally sufficient, inasmuch as not a second more is needed for your physical and psychic being to be revivified by just the necessary amount of repose.

It appears that Dali understood intuitively what sleep researchers have learned about sleep, specifically the hypnagogic sleep stage where we are conscious but just beginning to dream.  It’s at this sleep stage where reality and dreaming mix to create a surrealistic stew made up of visual or auditory hallucinations. If you have ever seen some of Dali’s paintings, such as “The Persistence of Memory,” you can understand how his “slumber with a key” strategy might have produced such bizarre images.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What two items did Alexander the Great have under his pillow as he slept at night?  How did Salvador Dali use sleep to fuel his creativity?

Challenge - Sleep Smarts: What is the relationship between sleep and learning and creativity?  Do some research on this topic to see what experts have said about why effective thinking and learning rely on getting enough sleep.  Report on the best insight you find that might help others prioritize a good night’s sleep.

ALSO ON THIS DAY

May 11, 1720:  On this day Baron Karl Friedrich Munchhausen was born.  The German nobleman fought for the Russian Empire in two Turkish wars.  When he retired to his German estate in 1760, he gained a reputation as a raconteur, weaving outrageous tall tales based on his experiences as a soldier, traveler, and sportsman.  In addition to being a name synonymous with tall tales, Munchausen’s name has also become well-known in the psychiatric and medical communities for a condition known as Munchausen Syndrome; victims of this disease deliberately deceive their doctors, describing false symptoms of illness and in some cases even inducing real symptoms by injecting themselves with foreign substances.

Sources:

1-Hagan, Ekua. “How to Dream Like Salvador Dali.” Psychology Today 20 Feb. 2015.