06: Next to Sleep
“… somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out…” Ronald Dahl
You’re Reading Adam Ming’s Daily Blog, This month I’m writing a series about taking time for your creative practice. Each post, includes an invitation to spend ten minutes developing your creative practice.
I’m doing this in October to complement any Drawing challenge you might be doing. I will be doing the classic inktober.
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Today's 10-Minute Invitation
Before you go to sleep tonight, place a notebook and pen beside your bed. When you wake up tomorrow, immediately write or sketch for 10 minutes, capturing any dreams, fragments of thoughts, or creative ideas that come to mind. Don't censor or judge - just let it flow.
On the 6th day of Inktober.
I’m finally pleased with one of my inktober drawings.
I had noticed in all the previous days of trying what came naturally to me and what I struggled with. Today i just leaned into what was comfortable for me and I am pleased with the result.
Sleep and Creativity
There is a bridge between wakefulness and sleep.
The ideas we meet on this bridge can be somewhat interesting. You might find any manner of suppress thoughts or unexpected connections. Slavadore Dali is said to have taken naps with a key in his hand, waking the moment the key dropped on the floor in this liminal state between asleep and awake started painting.
Morning pages seem to do something similar, capturing those encounters on this bridge.
Me personally I find sleep to serve like a fuse box that shuts down all the minds activities and on waking up these switches come on one by one. I like paying attention to which switches come on first each day, in which order and notice connections.
Think about a time when you had a creative breakthrough right after waking up or as you were falling asleep. What were the circumstances? How can you recreate those conditions?
Share in the comments: Have you ever solved a problem or had a creative insight in a dream?