# Have Dreams Actually Helped people Solve Problems? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 3, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128 "2004-08-03T13:17:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/1 "2004-08-03T13:17:49Z")
The claim has often been made that scientists and writers have received the solutions to problesm that they were attempting to solve, via dreams. Take the case of Kekule (a German chemist); supposedly, Kekule was struggling to understand the molecular structure of benzine…and he dreamed one night about a snake swallowing its tail…from this he deduced the ring structure of benzine. In another example, the American Archaeologist (H.V. Hilprect) was puzzled about some rings that he found in an excavation in Iraq…that night, he saw an ancient sumerian priest in a dream, who explained to him the purpose of the rings, and told him where to dig to find the other (missing) ring. One more example…the famous German mathematician Gauss once struggled with a difficult mathematical equation…later, he received the solution in a dream. Have any of these stories ever been verified? Or are these things just legends? Is the dream state especially creative for math and science wizards? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/2 "2004-08-03T13:21:34Z")
I studied Russian in Moscow for two sememsters. It wsa overwhelming at first to be constantly bombarded with a foreign language. Eventually I started having dreams in Russian and when that happened the language started to click for me. ---
**Author:** ![fezpp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fezpp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fezpp)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/3 "2004-08-03T13:46:06Z")
More anecdotal evidence… I’m a software developer and I occasionally wake up knowing the solution to a problem that has been bothering me for days. Then again I also find the shower and the toilet are common places for a solution to hit me! ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/4 "2004-08-03T13:51:46Z")
When I was a software developer, my function was having a problem in testing. I’d spent all day looking at dumps, looking at the code, etc… to no avail. That night while sleeping, I saw a vision of the save set from the dump and I saw that one of the code modules was back leveled in the test environment. I was really anxious to get to work the next day to see if my dream debugging was correct, and sure enough, it was. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/5 "2004-08-03T13:51:48Z")
I was trying to design a torsion spring mechanism that would connect two collinear shafts. It needed to allow clockwise input and provide clockwise output, but counterclockwise force on the input shaft needed to lock the mechanism. It also needed to store several hundred rotations. I sketched and doodled for the better part of a day, did a pencil sketch of my flawed design, and traced it before bed, and when I woke up: _POW_ I knew what I had forgotten. I sketched it in, then did a final draft. I consider it the second-best mechanical solution I’ve come up with. ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/6 "2004-08-03T14:07:49Z")
I recall reading somewhere that the guy who invented the sewing machine was having trouble getting it to work at first. He had a dream one night where he was being chased by “natives” in Africa or somewhere. While running from them, he noticed their unusual spears that had holes in the tips. When he woke up, he realized that putting the thread hole in the tip of the needle was the answer to his problem. I’d Google to see if this has been debunked, but I can’t remember the guy’s name. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/7 "2004-08-03T14:14:41Z")
I am another software developer and I can also report seeing the solutions to problems in dreams. Far more common for me is thinking of a solution shortly after waking up, particularly in the shower. Though I have only anecdotal evidence, I’m conviced that our brains continue to work on difficult problems while we sleep, and that sleep is essential for intellectual achievement. It’s a shame that there is much cultural pressure in the programming community to go on all-night coding binges. My experience is that code produced in such environments may work, but if often sloppy and poorly thought out. In other words, a well-rested brain not only finds solutions, but _better_ solutions as well. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/8 "2004-08-03T14:50:27Z")
> [@jk1245](#): > > I’d Google to see if this has been debunked, but I can’t remember the guy’s name. Elias Howe. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/9 "2004-08-03T15:12:18Z")
It is the sub-conscious mind at work. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/10 "2004-08-03T15:14:28Z")
Nobel Prize winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli had a dream of “The World Clock” which purported to unify his thoughts and research into quantum theory. > [@](#): > > There was another, rather bizarre side to Pauli that is only now beginning to come into view with the publication of more than a thousand letters showing his attempts to explore the unconscious and find a common language for the description of mind and matter. Jung, in his 1935 essay “Dream Symbols of the Process of Individuation,” wrote: "My material consists of more than 1000 dreams and visual impressions of a scientifically educated younger man. For the purpose of the present investigation I have studied the first 400 of these dreams."13 The anonymous dreamer, as we know now, was Wolfgang Pauli. > > As Jung describes one of these dreams: > > Dream #59 (Great Vision). It is a vertical and a horizontal circle with a common center. That is the world clock. It is carried by a black bird. The vertical circle is a blue disc with a white rim divided in 4 ´ 8 = 32 parts. A pointer rotates on it. The horizontal circle consists of four colors. On it stand four little men with pendula, and around it lies the once dark and now golden ring that had previously been carried by four children. > The clock has three rhythms or pulses: In the small pulse, the pointer of the blue vertical circle advances by 1/32nd. The medium pulse is a complete rotation of the pointer. Simultaneously the horizontal circle advances by 1/32nd. In the big pulse, 32 medium pulses yield one revolution of the golden ring. > [Jung’s]Commentary: This strange vision made a deep, long-lasting impression on the dreamer, an impression of “the highest harmony,” as he [Pauli] put it. > The search for symmetry and harmony in the laws of Nature was the central theme of Pauli’s work in physics. His attempts to find the roots of Nature’s order in the human mind led him to a study of Kepler. Pauli sought to investigate the human psyche as deeply as he explored the physical world. But he did not feel ready to publish his psychic investigations. Like Newton, he saw a great ocean of truth before him. To paraphrase the poet Rainer Maria Rilke,14 he succeeded in > Transmuting himself into the equations > Just as the stone mason doggedly sculpts himself > Into the cathedral stone’s cool indifference. Quoted from [_Physics Today_](http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-2/p43.html) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/11 "2004-08-03T15:24:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Take the case of Kekule (a German chemist); supposedly, Kekule was struggling to understand the molecular structure of benzine…and he dreamed one night about a snake swallowing its tail…from this he deduced the ring structure of benzine. Far from being verified, this one’s actually been debunked. It’s too bad – it’s one of my favorite chemistry stories, but evidently it’s not true – suggestions of a ring structure for benzene were apparently in the literature before Kekule’s dream. I don’t recall the cite – I’ve got it buried in my files somewhere, but I think it’s some science history journal. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/12 "2004-08-03T17:00:44Z")
The mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan is [another example](http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=s_ramanujan): > [@](#): > > Ramanujan’s faculty for mathematics also bordered on the mystical and spiritual. Among one of the stranger mathematical incidents was one where Ramanujan related that a mathematical answer to a complex theorem came to him in a vivid dream. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/13 "2004-08-03T17:12:08Z")
I’m with the other software programmers here. I have come up with a solution to a week-old problem 2 or 3 times now in a dream. Pretty amazing. Do people ever come up with non-mechanical (or technological, I guess) solutions in sleep? Like the answer to your financial problems or a way to get your kids to stop fighting? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/14 "2004-08-03T17:26:12Z")
I was trying to figure out my own life and the social-political world around me, and essentially started waking up in the middle of the night with clear new understandings which I wrote down on scratch paper. In the short run, it got me into trouble but eventually it led to a decent body of sociological theory, theology, and sexual identity writings. I didn’t exactly dream them but I woke up with the new comprehensions fully formed. ---
**Author:** ![Adoptamom\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Adoptamom\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adoptamom_II)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/15 "2004-08-03T18:22:00Z")
Mr. Adoptamom (carpenter) often solves difficult job related challenges while he sleeps. He also talks in his sleep, too. I’ve heard him build entire houses while dreaming 😛 ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/16 "2004-08-03T19:02:57Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Do people ever come up with non-mechanical (or technological, I guess) solutions in sleep? Like the answer to your financial problems or a way to get your kids to stop fighting? I was considering asking a woman out. I had a dream about her (yes, that kinda dream). In the dream I spoke a _very_ witty line that lead to us having fun. In real life I remembered the line and spoke it. She laughed, we went out, and later that night the dream came true. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/17 "2004-08-03T19:05:53Z")
I often dream that I’m flying, which is not unusual, I suppose. But once, while dreaming, I designed an experiment to determine _how_ it was that I was flying. It would be a reasonable experiment, too, were I actually flying. Now, if I could only get some of those dreams to explain real-world phenomena… ---
**Author:** ![Scoop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scoop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoop)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/18 "2004-08-03T19:09:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Far from being verified, this one’s actually been debunked. > > It’s too bad – it’s one of my favorite chemistry stories, but evidently it’s not true – suggestions of a ring structure for benzene were apparently in the literature before Kekule’s dream. > > I don’t recall the cite – I’ve got it buried in my files somewhere, but I think it’s some science history journal. If anyone can find a cite for this I’d be very curious to see it (not doubting you CalMeacham, just interested). Kekule’s speech about his dream is one of my favorites quotes, both for chemistry and for dreaming so I hate to give it up. In particular, I’d like to know whether Kekule got the idea of a cyclic structure from another source and passed it off as a dream or if he simply wasn’t the first to realize the structure of benzene. And in reply to the OP, I had a dream that enable me to see a problem in a new way. I was in my first month working at a daycare and I figured I would have to quit soon because the children were badly behaved and driving me nuts. I dreamed that night that the kids couldn’t see or hear me, and I could relax in the classroom without trying to control their behavior. The next day, I finally got understood that their behavior was their own choice and that though I could encourage them to act differently it was their decision whether or not they chose to do so. This relieved most of my tension in the classroom and I immediately got along better with the kids. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-dreams-actually-helped-people-solve-problems/258128/19 "2004-08-03T19:16:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > Far from being verified, this one’s actually been debunked. > > It’s too bad – it’s one of my favorite chemistry stories, but evidently it’s not true – suggestions of a ring structure for benzene were apparently in the literature before Kekule’s dream. > > I don’t recall the cite – I’ve got it buried in my files somewhere, but I think it’s some science history journal. > If anyone can find a cite for this I’d be very curious to see it (not doubting you CalMeacham, just interested). Kekule’s speech about his dream is one of my favorites quotes, both for chemistry and for dreaming so I hate to give it up. In particular, I’d like to know whether Kekule got the idea of a cyclic structure from another source and passed it off as a dream or if he simply wasn’t the first to realize the structure of benzene. I just did a quick Search. Most sites unquestioningly give the Dream story, but here’s a dissenting view: [http://rwindigo1.chm.colostate.edu/c245/notes.part.10.pdf](http://rwindigo1.chm.colostate.edu/c245/notes.part.10.pdf)