Your Brain Solves Its Hardest Problems While You’re Half Asleep

Early one morning, a fully-formed thought appeared in my mind that solved a team problem I couldn't crack during my normal working hours.

I wasn't thinking about it. It just popped into my mind, fully developed.

The day before, I'd told my team, "I'm on a team where everyone is smarter than me," quoting Liz Wiseman's principle: "If you are the smartest person on your team, you're on the wrong team."

Everyone on the call listened politely. But deep down, I knew they didn't believe it. Consciously, I just moved on.

But early the next morning, during what I call my Lucid Hour, I had the thought to write this text:

"I know when I said that I am currently on a team where everyone is smarter than me, you all thought I was blowing smoke, but that isn't true. Let me explain.

I may know more than you all about psychometrics or other such esoteric subjects, but each of you possesses unique knowledge and has the ability to apply it to HGL issues that I would never have thought of or even entertained. That is true of every one of you. Each of you is smarter than I in so many areas.

Intelligence (from my perspective) is having the capacity to apply the right knowledge to an issue at the appropriate time and place. You all truly are smarter than I am in so many areas. That is why we are a great team."

The response was immediate and warm. My intuitive brain solved what my logical brain couldn't.

Why This Matters

Earlier in my life, I struggled with how God clearly communicated to Biblical characters through dreams. Probably because throughout my life, I've seen many people ascribe crazy things to God from their dreams.

But as I matured, I began to see things through my dreams that I would not have seen otherwise.

When I read Widen the Window by Elizabeth Stanley, I started having dreams about being lost, abandoned, or ignored. Only then did I realize I struggled with abandonment. God used my dreams to open vistas of learning I otherwise would have missed.

I now know that my cognitive defenses are down during these moments, and I can access parts of my mind that are otherwise obscured.

Discovering the Lucid Hour

Around this time, I began to realize something else. When I woke up between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM, I would have many thoughts or insights that were like "out of the blue." I became aware of deeper thoughts during my Lucid Hour.

I began to train myself to engage with these thoughts, encourage them, and let them unravel in my mind. But I had to intentionally find ways to remember them, because by the time I was fully awake later that morning, the thoughts were often gone.

Sometimes the thoughts were crazy and not rooted in reality. But often they were rooted in reality, just seeing reality from a much different perspective. The perspective wasn't restricted to a logical framework.

I would find solutions to issues I was wrestling with that I could not rationally solve during my awake hours. During the Lucid Hour, the solution would just "pop" into my head. However, if I didn't in some way intentionally remember it, it would be gone two hours later.

I know of people throughout history who have harnessed this; Lincoln called it his "thinking time," Edison kept a notebook beside his bed for early morning insights. For me, I didn't want to wake my wife, Mary Kay, up, and I sensed that if I got up and wrote down these thoughts, I would lose some of my insightful perspective.

Through time, I've learned to remember most of these thoughts.

Why This Happens

These kinds of opportunities may have been lost in my earlier years. I think part of the reason I was unable to access this portion of my mind is that I slept so soundly I didn't wake up to go to the bathroom. Once I started to do so, it took me a while to understand what was happening and then how to engage and harness this.

I surely don't feel any cognitive decline yet in my life. For the most part, I can assimilate and integrate wisdom and knowledge more so now than ever before. This is Crystallized Intelligence that Arthur Brooks writes about in From Strength to Strength. I think my Crystallized Intelligence has been greatly increased by learning from these deeper thoughts during my Lucid Hour.

Three Habits That Strengthen Deep Thinking

It seems there are three other factors influencing this Crystallized Intelligence:

1. Reading widely – Because I've read a lot and widely, I've given my deep mind the ability to access more information from which to have insights.

   
   

2. Slowing down – I've noticed when I slow down enough to allow my deep mind room to surface, it does so more often. For instance, after the holidays, I've noticed my deep mind is much more insightful.

   
   

3. Journaling – I think journaling, so to speak, primes the pump for my deep mind much more so than verbal processing. I don't know if that's different for different kinds of individuals or if it's a universal principle, but it's true for me.

   
   

What You Can Do Tomorrow Morning

Tomorrow morning, when you wake at 4 AM (and you will), don't grab your phone.

Lie there. Let your mind wander. Engage with whatever thought surfaces. One insight could solve what logic couldn't.

Some of our clearest thinking happens when cognitive defenses are lowered—often early in the morning. This allows intuition, memory, emotion, and spiritual awareness to integrate in ways logic alone cannot.

Read the book of Acts in the New Testament, and you'll find many examples of God speaking to His people during such a time. There are simply times when we need to get our logical thinking process out of the way so we can hear God speak.