Do you sleep work?

Have you ever gone to bed wondering how you would solve a difficult problem and dreamt up the answer? Apparently you are not alone. A recent survey found that 51% of those surveyed dreamed about work and nearly 70% of those put those dreams into action.

I have always slept with a notebook and pen on my night stand so that I could write down what I thought up while not sleeping or dreamed about. It is interesting to me how many people apparently do the same.

This is of even more interest when you think about it in terms of the "work 40 hours" credo in Extreme Programming. (Really more of a manage your spikes in hours and avoid death marches but I digress). The core of the reason behind that is if you are well rested and fresh you do your best thinking and are best equipped to handle what gets thrown at you.

So next time you have a tricky problem to work out, think about it before bed, write it down as a checklist to complete (leave it on the paper so you can actually sleep) then dream up an answer. (Remember you are still limited by the fact that you won't sprout wings extra heads or anything along those lines so it is likely best to discard those dreams... in fact probably best not to talk about them either.)