Abstract
Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher rapid eye movement sleep density, a sleep phase during which hyperassociativity may occur. This may enhance artistic creativity during the day. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a creative photo contest to explore the relation between dissociation, sleep, and creativity. During the contest, participants (N = 72) took one photo per day for five consecutive days, based on specific daily themes (consisting of single words) and the instruction to take as creative a photo as possible each day. Furthermore, they completed daily measures of state dissociation and a short sleep diary. The photos and their captions were ranked by two professional photographers and two clinical psychologists based on creativity, originality, bizarreness, and quality. We expected that dissociative people would rank higher in the contest compared with low-dissociative participants, and that the most original photos would be taken on days when the participants scored highest on acute dissociation. We found that acute dissociation predicted a higher ranking on creativity. Poorer sleep quality and fewer hours of sleep predicted more bizarreness in the photos and captions. None of the trait measures could predict creativity. In sum, acute dissociation related to enhanced creativity. These findings contribute to our understanding of dissociative symptomatology.
Highlights
Dissociative symptoms are notorious for their enigmatic nature and include phenomena that encompass excessive daydreaming, memory problems, severe absentmindedness, and impairments, and discontinuities in perceptions of the self, identity, and the environment (Bernstein and Putnam, 1986)
Our study investigated the relations among creativity, dissociation, and unusual sleep experiences
Our findings are in line with Koffel and Watson (2009) who proposed that unusual sleep experiences, dissociation, and schizotypy belong to a common domain
Summary
Dissociative symptoms are notorious for their enigmatic nature and include phenomena that encompass excessive daydreaming, memory problems, severe absentmindedness, and impairments, and discontinuities in perceptions of the self, identity, and the environment (Bernstein and Putnam, 1986). Mild dissociative symptoms, related to absorption, and occasional experiences of depersonalization, are not uncommon in the general population, but relatively rare disorders such as dissociative identity disorder and dissociative amnesia represent severe manifestations of psychopathology (Lynn et al, 2012). Recent studies have linked dissociative symptoms to vivid dreaming, nightmares, and other unusual sleep experiences (Van der Kloet et al, 2012; Van Heugten–Van der Kloet et al, 2013, 2014). The famous 19th century British neurologist Hughlings Jackson was the Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org van Heugten – van der Kloet et al. Creativity, dissociation, and sleep first to view dissociation as the uncoupling of normal consciousness, which results in what he termed ’the dreamy state’ (Meares, 1999). A century later, Levitan (1967, p. 157) hypothesized that “depersonalization is a compromise state between dreaming and waking.”
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