MIT Scientists Create Device That Can Hack Dreams

Short naps can help people's brains come up with creative solutions to problems, especially when they are guided to dream about a particular topic, a newly published study has found.

Scientists from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a paper Monday in the journal Scientific Reports that found that power naps can do wonders in unlocking people's creative potential.

Researchers found that the creative mind is particularly fertile during the earliest stage of sleep, known as hypnagogia, in which a person is drifting between sleep and waking, according to MIT News.

The scientists said they determined that when people are prompted to dream about a particular topic during that sleep phase, they perform much more creatively when they are later asked to perform tasks surrounding that topic.