Why It’s Important To Get up & Write In The Night
Being More Creative At Night: Getting Red Eyes — Don’t Worry!
“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”
— Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
It is interesting that by the time night comes around most of us are at the point of physical exhaustion. This is due to the simple reason that our circadian rhythm is set for us to sleep when it is dark and wake when it is light. Our energy is usually at its lowest point by nighttime.
Our brains are not at their best for analytical thinking, but they are at their best for creative bursts. Our prefrontal cortex is at the point of ‘not giving a damn’ and because it is not working hard at processing incoming information, there are no blocks for the rest of the brain allowing it to come forward with bursts of creative inspiration and ideas.
It is the same effect as if you had consumed a couple of alcoholic drinks.
Too much alcohol and you will not be able to write at all, but just a couple and the blocks disappear, and you are more likely to have bursts of ideas, and a flow of words occurring.
Instead of being concerned about perfection, your brain is too tired and is just happy to allow all manner of hodgepodge ideas and thoughts to intrude and pop up.
Having your working memory too tired to enforce perfection can be a goldmine for creative thinking and putting together a story.
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
— Franz Kafka
Robert Frost was an American poet who said his best writing occurred when he was exhausted between 10 pm at night and the early hours of the morning.
Often when you start writing and then fall asleep, you wake up more refreshed a few hours later (when it is still dark). It is like your unconscious has been processing and coming up with ideas while you are asleep as your fingers can’t keep up with typing and getting all your ideas and thoughts written down. It is like a volcanic eruption as your brain “thinks outside of the box.”
“A word after a word after a word is power.”
— Margaret Atwood
Often first drafts are great to be completed at these times, and then when your brain is more refreshed and able to be more analytical in the daytime -editing, and research can begin, but the bulk of the work or story is complete.
Early Hours of The Morning Writing
It also the same for writing as soon as you first wake up.
Before you get up, before you brush your teeth, or make your morning coffee, strike as soon as you wake up as this is the time your brain is the most creative, while it is still waking.
- There are no distractions.
- You are in a dream-like state.
- You can get out of your head all the fears, worries and creative thoughts and put them down on paper.
It can feel like your brain has been working while you are asleep on the ideas you processed late at night, or in the night, and you are ready to go first thing in the morning again.
So, if you wake in the night full of creative inspiration, write.
If you want to write late at night when you are tired, then write.
Your creative juices will be peaking, and you may find ideas you usually wouldn’t engage with coming forward.
When you wake up, then start writing immediately before you have had time to fully awake and take on the cares and distractions of the day.
As you get to know your writing rhythms pick times that allow you to get enough sleep but still produce a volume of work. Do not dismiss late at night or early hours of the morning as being non-productive due to exhaustion or being in a dream-like state. Take advantage of the fact that science supports the fact that creativity can peak during these times when our analytical brain is too tired to fight for perfection or reject ideas it usually would.
All sorts of crazy ideas and thoughts may provide the inspiration you would not usually be able to access. It is not just about cranking out pages of writing but cranking out GOOD pages of writing.
Writing at night or in the early hours of the morning might produce more good writing for you.
“When you make music or write or create, it’s really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you’re writing about at the time. “
— Lady Gaga
Try it and see if it works for you.
You may be pleasantly surprised.
