It's known that your best, or at least, better, ideas often come to you at night, before going to sleep. The next morning, you wake up only to discover your secret of life is but mere wisps, lost during your slumber. Thus, to preserve brilliance, I suggest the headboards of beds being whiteboards. The dry-erase markers could be glow-in-the-dark, for visibility while writing down your idea. The next morning, you may have forgotten, but a quick look at your headboard and your radical new theory is there, in all its glory. Before going to bed that night, a quick erase will provide room for any more brainstorms. Imagine scrawling your thoughts with a luminescent Expo as you drift off to sleep...-- soliloquy, Feb 21 2006 Baked? http://nanocrew.net/category/humour/Apparently the Nowegens baked this one [Lasko, Feb 22 2006] BBC News Story http://news.bbc.co..../health/4723216.stmA Dutch study suggests the unconscious mind is better than the conscious mind at making decisions. [hippo, Feb 22 2006] "<Yawn>...Class action lawsuit against all Religions???? ... Hmm.. well that's what it says, I guess I should post it on halfbakery."-- phundug, Feb 21 2006 Yeah. I watched a History Channel program about VTOL aircraft the other night, and had a brilliant idea for a better design as I was attempting to sleep. In the morning, I'd forgotten all about the idea--I mean even having the idea, let alone the design.
I remembered about it after I crawled in last night. It was a bit like sniffing on a glow-in-the-dark marker.-- baconbrain, Feb 22 2006 I thought of this idea one night while writing down another idea in lipstick on the headboard mirror. Then I dozed off, forgetting all about this idea. :)-- Shz, Feb 22 2006 I can see all the ideas getting erased as you toss and turn the rest of the night. Better make it a wet-erase board.-- migennes, Feb 22 2006 My brain fades too fast (from dreaming) for me to write/draw what I was dreaming. And typically my dreams are just plain weird, nothing inherently useful. But croissant at your bedside for the morning...-- neutrinos_shadow, Feb 22 2006 When I'm working on a difficult problem, I often find I think of solutions in the night, so I keep a pad by the bed for that purpose.
Also, on the weekends, I find if I take a nap in the middle of doing the crossword puzzle, it's much easier after I wake up - I have long suspected my brain is somehow rewiring itself while I sleep to figure out the remaining clues.-- DrCurry, Feb 22 2006 I use my wife for this purpose. I simply babble incoherently about whatever misfirings are going on in my cerebrum in the middle of the night, and she reports them to me in the morning.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Feb 22 2006 [DrC] see link - the unconscious seems to be a whole lot better at some of these things than your conscious mind.-- hippo, Feb 22 2006 hippo: interesting - that may also explain why I tend to do better the more projects I'm working on at one time.-- DrCurry, Feb 22 2006 "I can't believe you 'tagged' my ass! What does it say?"-- reensure, Feb 22 2006 Hmm, I could use this. My parents always jostle me awake and lately I haven't been able to rememer my dreams (Which are quite awesome BTW :) ). The one I do remember had cats with sniper rifles sniping at me. It was quite like halo. Even the bullet contrails from the snipers was like halo! Ahh, I paly to much Halo. :)-- EvilPickels, Feb 22 2006 Singer-songwriter Kristina Olsen tells an amusing story of her attemts to record her dreams. Reaching for a pen and paper was enough to make her forget most of them, so she got a tape recorder. Likewise, reaching over to press record - by then, they'd be gone.
So she got a voice-activated recorder. Went to bed. While still half asleep, spoke dreams out loud. Result: Most of a tape of one long continuous snore, followed by unintelligable mumbling.-- spidermother, Feb 22 2006 I thought of that problem too, [migennes], but I thought the writing would be far enough above you to not be erased.
This idea came to me at night when I was in bed, ready to go to sleep as well, [Shz]. However, I (obviously) didn't forget it, hah.-- soliloquy, Feb 22 2006 random, halfbakery