When the students were tested again eight hours later, those who had been allowed to sleep were more than twice as likely to gain insight into the rules than those who had remained awake. Most gradually got the hang of it with practice, but by far the quickest way to improve was to uncover a hidden rule. First they trained volunteers to play a number game. But is this really true?īack in 2004, scientists at the University of Lubeck, Germany, tested the idea with a simple experiment. The latter came to Einstein while he was dreaming about cows being electrocuted. Many of the most radical breakthroughs in human history, including the periodic table, the structure of DNA and Einstein’s theory of special relativity, have supposedly occurred while their discoverer was unconscious. The author John Steinbeck once said: “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.”

But can you really slumber your way to a sharper mind? He reportedly slept for at least 10 hours per day – nearly one and a half times as much as the average American today (6.8 hours). It’s common knowledge that sleep is good for your brain – and Einstein took this advice more seriously than most. Could there be any benefits in following Einstein’s sleep, diet, and even fashion choices?

Of all history’s great minds, arguably the master of combining genius with unusual habits was Albert Einstein – so what better person to study for clues to mind-enhancing behaviours to try ourselves? He taught us how to squeeze energy out of atoms, so maybe, just maybe, he might be able to teach us a thing or two about how to squeeze the most out of our tiny mortal brains.

Albert einstein young thinker