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Comment by dools | Hacker News Reader

Funnily enough, I actually take a nap sometimes when I can't figure out the solution to a problem or I'm going around in circles.

Perhaps it's not realy sleep, but more often than not I wake up with the solution, or at least more ready to tackle the solution.

I've also found almost ubiquitously that whatever had me completely confounded the night before is a hell of a lot easier to work out in the morning.

Perhaps it's just me but I find that sleep for me is a natural reaction to mental stress, and I always feel better afterwards.

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It think these are two different things.

Our brains can go on working on the problem even if we take a rest. If we rest with a the problem in our head, we are actually still focused. Probably, relaxing and letting the brain do its job without forcing it into one direction, often results in a good solution. Same with me, btw.

The study, as I have understood it, is more about giving up with a problem. You give up faster, if you think your resources are limited. It is more the contrast between either you relax in order to solve a problem, or have some beers with your friends talking about soccer and thus escape.

I find that after throwing myself at a problem too long, I have a hard time approaching it differently from how I've been approaching it.

Sleep seems to reset my mind. If I approach the same problem after waking up, I come up with a fresh perspective.

On the other hand, if I'm "in the zone" before I go to sleep, I wake up and it's gone.

I think that also explains my tendency to stay up till 7AM... need to take advantage of the productivity boost while it lasts.

Hey me too! It happen on more than one occasion so I know it can't be coincidental. Very often, I will get stuck in debugging a programming problem and after spending hours on it, I give up and take a nap. When I wake up either the next day or hours later, the solution presents itself after working on it for a couple of minutes. It is like a nap reboots our brains (there are lots of articles about sleep and synapses).

I thought I'd read that you need sleep to learn. So practising your musical instrument for hours doesn't actually make you better until after you've slept and the brain has had a chance to process the input in some manner.

It's tempting to draw a sports/body analogy. Repetition sets up your body for change. Rest and recovery (including sleep) is when you actually change.

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