Increased creative thinking in narcolepsy
Open accessAbstract
Some studies suggest a link between creativity and rapid eye movement sleep. Narcolepsy is characterized by falling asleep directly into rapid eye movement sleep, states of dissociated wakefulness and rapid eye movement sleep (cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder and lucid dreaming) and a high dream recall frequency. Lucid dreaming (the awareness of dreaming while dreaming) has been correlated with creativity. Given their life-long privileged access to rapid eye movement sleep and dreams, we hypothesized that subjects with narcolepsy may have developed high creative abilities. To test this assumption, 185 subjects with narcolepsy and 126 healthy controls were evaluated for their level of creativity with two questionnaires, the Test of Creative Profile and the Creativity Achievement Questionnaire. Creativity was also objectively tested in 30 controls and 30 subjects with narcolepsy using the Evaluation of Potential Creativity test battery, which measures divergent and convergent modes of creative thinking in the graphic and verbal domains, using concrete and abstract problems. Subjects with narcolepsy obtained higher scores than controls on the Test of Creative Profile (mean ± standard deviation: 58.9 ± 9.6 versus 55.1 ± 10, P = 0.001), in the three creative profiles (Innovative, Imaginative and Researcher) and on the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (10.4 ± 25.7 versus 6.4 ± 7.6, P = 0.047). They also performed better than controls on the objective test of creative performance (4.3 ± 1.5 versus 3.7 ± 1.4; P = 0.009). Most symptoms of narcolepsy (including sleepiness, hypnagogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, and rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder, but not cataplexy) were associated with higher scores on the Test of Creative Profile. These results highlight a higher creative potential in subjects with narcolepsy and further support a role of rapid eye movement sleep in creativity.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Subjects with narcolepsy, characterized by falling asleep directly into REM sleep and having a higher percentage of REM sleep, show higher creative potential.
“More recent studies show that subjects with narcolepsy, characterized by falling asleep directly into REM sleep and having a higher percentage of REM sleep [44], show higher creative potential [34].”
From How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them (2024) · cites this paper as [34]
Creative and potentially realistic dreams may help the dreamer in creative problem solving after sleeping.
“Creative and potentially realistic dreams may help the dreamer in creative problem solving after sleeping [9,34,35].”
From How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them (2024) · cites this paper as [34]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
Zigmond, A. S., & Snaith, R. P. (1983) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1983.tb09716.x · Cited by 47,139 · see citing works
A New Method for Measuring Daytime Sleepiness: The Epworth Sleepiness Scale
Johns, M. W. (1991) · Sleep · doi:10.1093/sleep/14.6.540 · Cited by 17,364 · see citing works
The International Classification of Sleep Disorders
Greenblatt, D. (1992) · Archives of Neurology · doi:10.1001/archneur.1992.00530270020006 · Cited by 4,406 · see citing works
Beyond Big and Little: The Four C Model of Creativity
Kaufman, J. C., & Beghetto, R. A. (2009) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0013688 · Cited by 2,669 · see citing works
Sternberg, R. J. (1998) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511807916.002 · Cited by 2,220 · see citing works
Reliability, Validity, and Factor Structure of the Creative Achievement Questionnaire
Carson, S., Peterson, J. B., & Higgins, D. M. (2005) · Creativity Research Journal · doi:10.1207/s15326934crj1701_4 · Cited by 1,024 · see citing works
Wagner, U., Gais, S., Haider, H., Verleger, R., & Born, J. (2004) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature02223 · Cited by 1,012 · see citing works
Toward a broader conception of creativity: A case for "mini-c" creativity.
Beghetto, R. A., & Kaufman, J. C. (2007) · Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts · doi:10.1037/1931-3896.1.2.73 · Cited by 904 · see citing works
The International Standard Classification of Education 2011
Schneider, S. L. (2013) · Comparative social research · doi:10.1108/s0195-6310(2013)0000030017 · Cited by 898 · see citing works
Sleep, learning, and dreams: off-line memory reprocessing
Stickgold, R., Hobson, J. A., Fosse, R., & Fosse, M. (2001) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1063530 · Cited by 762 · see citing works
System consolidation of memory during sleep
Born, J., & Wilhelm, I. (2012) · Psychological Research · doi:10.1007/s00426-011-0335-6 · Cited by 667 · see citing works
Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology
Nir, Y., & Tononi, G. (2010) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2009.12.001 · Cited by 595 · see citing works
Dream reports from different stages of sleep
Foulkes, W. D. (1962) · The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0040431 · Cited by 563 · see citing works
REM, not incubation, improves creativity by priming associative networks
Cai, D. J., Mednick, S. A., Harrison, E. M., Kanady, J. C., & Mednick, S. C. (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0900271106 · Cited by 556 · see citing works
Cognitive enhancing effects of modafinil in healthy volunteers
Turner, D. C., Robbins, T. W., Clark, L., Aron, A. R., Dowson, J. H., & Sahakian, B. J. (2003) · Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1007/s00213-002-1250-8 · Cited by 518 · see citing works
Postuma, R. B., Arnulf, I., Högl, B., Iranzo, Á., Miyamoto, T., Dauvilliers, Y. A., Oertel, W. H., Ju, Y. S., Puligheddu, M., Jennum, P., et al. (2012) · Movement Disorders · doi:10.1002/mds.25037 · Cited by 456 · see citing works
Self-citationPlay it again: reactivation of waking experience and memory
O’Neill, J., Pleydell-Bouverie, B., Dupret, D., & Csicsvari, J. L. (2010) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2010.01.006 · Cited by 448 · see citing works
Dreaming and episodic memory: a functional dissociation?
Fosse, M. J., Fosse, R., Hobson, J. A., & Stickgold, R. J. (2003) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/089892903321107774 · Cited by 388 · see citing works
Assessing creativity with self-report scales: A review and empirical evaluation.
Silvia, P. J., Wigert, B. G., Reiter‐Palmon, R., & Kaufman, J. C. (2011) · Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts · doi:10.1037/a0024071 · Cited by 363 · see citing works
Waking and dreaming consciousness: neurobiological and functional considerations.
Hobson, J. A., & Friston, K. J. (2012) · Progress in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2012.05.003 · Cited by 287 · see citing works
Sleep-Induced Changes in Associative Memory
Stickgold, R., Scott, L., Rittenhouse, C., & Hobson, J. A. (1999) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/089892999563319 · Cited by 284 · see citing works
Cognitive flexibility across the sleep-wake cycle: REM-sleep enhancement of anagram problem solving
Walker, M. P., Liston, C., Hobson, J. A., & Stickgold, R. (2002) · Cognitive Brain Research · doi:10.1016/s0926-6410(02)00134-9 · Cited by 272 · see citing works
The generality-specificity of creativity: Exploring the structure of creative potential with EPoC
Barbot, B., Besançon, M., & Lubart, T. (2016) · Learning and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2016.06.005 · Cited by 212 · see citing works
Self-citationClinical and neurobiological aspects of narcolepsy
Nishino, S. (2007) · Sleep Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2007.03.008 · Cited by 181 · see citing works
Müller, U., Rowe, J. B., Rittman, T., Lewis, C., Robbins, T. W., & Sahakian, B. J. (2012) · Neuropharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2012.07.009 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Mouchiroud, C., & Lubart, T. (2001) · The Journal of Genetic Psychology · doi:10.1080/00221320109597491 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Self-citationCognitive deficits in narcolepsy
Naumann, A., Bellebaum, C., & Daum, I. (2006) · Journal of Sleep Research · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2869.2006.00533.x · Cited by 151 · see citing works
Chow, H. M., Horovitz, S. G., Carr, W. S., Picchioni, D., Coddington, N., Fukunaga, M., Xu, Y., Balkin, T. J., Duyn, J. H., & Braun, A. R. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1217691110 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Dodet, P., Chavez, M., Leu-Semenescu, S., Golmard, J.-L., & Arnulf, I. (2015) · SLEEP · doi:10.5665/sleep.4516 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Self-citationMalinowski, J., & Horton, C. L. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01132 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
The "committee of sleep": A study of dream incubation for problem solving.
Barrett, D. (1993) · Dreaming · doi:10.1037/h0094375 · Cited by 84 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Plus, participants asked to ‘incubate’ a problem in their dreams frequently dreamed a solution useful to solve their problem (Barrett, 1993).”
BackgroundMendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements
Strathern, P. (2000) · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Lucid dreaming: associations with internal locus of control, need for cognition and creativity
Blagrove, M., & Hartnell, S. (2000) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/s0191-8869(99)00078-1 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
To sleep, perchance to gain creative insight?
Stickgold, R., & Walker, M. P. (2004) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.03.003 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Self-Reported Effects of Dreams on Waking-Life Creativity: An Empirical Study
Schredl, M., & Erlacher, D. (2007) · The Journal of Psychology · doi:10.3200/jrlp.141.1.35-46 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Increased lucid dreaming frequency in narcolepsy
Rak, M., Beitinger, P., Steiger, A., Schredl, M., & Dresler, M. (2015) · SLEEP · doi:10.5665/sleep.4676 · Cited by 58 · cited 4× · see citing works
“Sodium oxybate decreases the dream recall frequency (Rak et al., 2015), which may result in a decreased creative potential.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialApplications of lucid dreams: An online study
Schädlich, M., & Erlacher, D. (2012) · International journal of dream research · doi:10.11588/ijodr.2012.2.9505 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
REM mentation in narcoleptics and normals: an empirical test of two neurocognitive theories
Fosse, R. (2000) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1006/ccog.2000.0466 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Dream to Predict? REM Dreaming as Prospective Coding
Llewellyn, S. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01961 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Mohamed, A. D. (2014) · The Journal of Creative Behavior · doi:10.1002/jocb.73 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
REM sleep respiratory behaviours match mental content in narcoleptic lucid dreamers
Oudiette, D., Dodet, P., Ledard, N., Artru, E., Rachidi, I., Similowski, T., & Arnulf, I. (2018) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-018-21067-9 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Self-citationSCHREDL, M. (1995) · The Journal of Creative Behavior · doi:10.1002/j.2162-6057.1995.tb01420.x · Cited by 33 · see citing works
The effect of dreams on waking life.
Schredl, M. (2000) · Sleep and Hypnosis · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Creativity, Sleep and Primary Process Thinking in Dreams
Sladeczek, I. E., & Domino, G. (1985) · The Journal of Creative Behavior · doi:10.1002/j.2162-6057.1985.tb00402.x · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Breton A. (1924). First surrealist manifesto. Surrealism New York: McGraw-Hill,. p. 66-75.
- Zink N, Pietrowksy R. Relationship between lucid dreaming, creativity and dream characteristics. IJODR 2013; 6: 98-103.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Sleep onset is a creative sweet spot
Lacaux, C., Andrillon, T., Bastoul, C., Idir, Y., Fonteix-Galet, A., Arnulf, I., & Oudiette, D. (2021) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abj5866 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Self-citationDreams and nightmares in healthy adults and in patients with sleep and neurological disorders
Siclari, F., Valli, K., & Arnulf, I. (2020) · The Lancet Neurology · doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(20)30275-1 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Self-citationAbleidinger, S., & Holzinger, B. (2023) · Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.3390/jcm12103437 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them
Deperrois, N., Petrovici, M., Jordan, J., Huber, L., & Senn, W. (2024) · Clinical and Translational Neuroscience · doi:10.3390/ctn8020021 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“The adversarial corrections eventually lead to more realistic dreams (such as cliff jumping instead of flying) across the duration of the learning procedure that may extend across the life span solving after sleeping [9,34,35].”
BackgroundMüri, R. M., Camenzind, M., Chiffi, K., Stuber, I., & Eberhard-Moscicka, A. K. (2023) · Clinical and Translational Neuroscience · doi:10.3390/ctn7030020 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lacaux, C., Izabelle, C., Santantonio, G., De Villèle, L., Frain, J., Lubart, T., Pizza, F., Plazzi, G., Arnulf, I., & Oudiette, D.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna (IT)
- Sorbonne University, IHU@ICM, INSERM, CNRS UMR7225, Paris, France
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et d’Ergonomie Appliquées (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Lacaux, Célia
- ORCID
- Venue
- Brain
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2019-05-29
- Volume
- 142
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1988-1999
- ISSN
- 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2156
- OpenAlex
- W2947880562
- Cited by
- 51
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 3.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Brain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion)
- IRIS UNIMORE (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Big Brain Theory
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- narcolepsy, creativity, REM sleep, divergent thinking, convergent thinking, lucid dreaming, hypnagogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, REM sleep behavior disorder, cataplexy, dream recall
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Creativity, Female, Humans, Male, Narcolepsy, Psychological Tests, Case-Control Studies, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
