Night Writers: Why Are We Most Creative at Night?
The chemistry and psychology behind night writing.
“I often think that the night is more alive and richly coloured than the day” — Vincent Van Gogh.
Since 10 a.m. this morning, I’ve been staring at my computer screen in an attempt to squeeze an interesting article out of myself. Up until an hour ago, I only had 50 words and a dry title to show for eight hours of ‘work’, proof that writer's block is a plague and not just a minor inconvenience.
But as the sun set, I had about one hundred ideas pop into my head — like guests showing up too late to a party. They’ve steadily appeared to me over the last hour, and now I have so many half-written articles and ideas that I’m drowning in them.
Bursts of inspiration like this at night are frequent within the creative community. Writers, artists, and inventors throughout history have all said they’ve been most inspired during night-time— think of Tennesee Williams, who spent so much of the night writing he would be found asleep in his bed the next morning, still wearing the same clothes as the day before (source: Williams’ notebooks).
The more I’ve researched, the more I’ve realised how many creatives think up their best material during the night. Which got me thinking — why?
The reason many of us write our best work at night can be narrowed down to two main factors: our psychology and our brain chemistry.
Our psychology changes at night.
At night, several changes in our psychology can cause creative influxes. Some writers like Stephanie Meyer have said the main reason they write at night is due to the lack of distractions: with the kids put to bed and the world outside quiet, there’s very little that can pull them away from their writing. But there are other factors too:
- Most of the day’s tasks are complete by the evening. This means we have a whole day’s worth of inspiration and experience to reflect on, most of which comes out in our writing.
- We don’t feel guilty about writing at night because there’s nothing else to do anyway. Night-time is our own time.
- The dark hours tend to be more relaxing: lighting is softer, we’re spending less time on social media, and the overall setting is quieter. This makes it ten times easier to focus on our writing.
Chemically, our brains change too.
Our brains rely heavily on our sleep patterns (otherwise called circadian rhythms) to function. These rhythms dictate when we sleep, and they cause certain parts of the brain to shut down in preparation for it as the sun sets. In particular, much of the frontal lobe becomes dormant, so less energy is spent on decision-making and more is directed into other parts of the brain, specifically to the right hemisphere.
Although there’s recently been some debate surrounding the subject, scientists generally believe the creative control-centre of the brain is in the right hemisphere, which concerns itself with everything from emotions and intuition to the way we dream (source: The Human Memory). When we reach night time, this side of our brain becomes more active because less energy is being used to power the rest of our brain. This is partly what allows creative surges to happen.
As well as this, there’s also the following to consider:
- Exhaustion and drunkness give off the same hormones (it's just in lower doses with the former). If you’ve ever stayed up until 3 a.m. writing, then you know the exhilaration you get is pretty similar to being drunk: a weird mix of being both exhausted and empowered.
- Prolactin is also released in the brain at night, which according to scientist Thomas Wehr has the effect of making you peaceful and calm. Although it’s a hormone associated primarily with lactating women, the hormone is still traceable in all of us, especially in the evening hours. Could it be that this peaceful state induces your best ideas? Personally, I always find being relaxed is the best remedy to writer’s block.
Can I harness the feeling of Night Writing in the day?
In short — no, you can’t, not unless you live nocturnally and your circadian rhythm is the opposite to what you’re programmed for. Even then, the sunlight outside would stop your brain from producing so much prolactin and other creative hormones during the day.
However, that doesn't mean you can’t enter a creative state during the day. If you can mirror night-time conditions, you stand the best chance of beating your writer’s block and letting words flow through you.
You could try:
- Using soft light in your writing room.
- Closing the door to any distractions. Let others know you won’t be reachable for the next few hours.
- Listening to music to help you concentrate. I recommend movie soundtracks because music with no lyrics is harder to be distracted by.
- Getting in your comfiest clothes to relax, although maybe not your PJs. Relaxing allows your brain to focus on being creative, but you don’t want to send it straight to sleep, either.
“Night-time is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone is asleep.”
— Catherine O’Hara
If you’ve never written at night before, you should try it: you might find some of your best ideas come to you. Of course, you should always write whenever you can — not just at night. But with the likes of Charles Dickens and notorious writers like him being night-writers, there must be some truth to the idea that there’s a magic in late-night writing sprints. Ideas have always been elusive creatures, perhaps that’s why they mostly come out at night?
