The science behind why you have great ideas in the shower

• Scott LaMar
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  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

Medical illustration of human brain with electric pulses and activity

Airdate: August 22, 2022

When do you come up with your best ideas or are most creative? Many of us probably haven’t thought about it, but was it when you were in the outdoors or taking a walk – maybe daydreaming?

Whether you’ve recognized a trend or not, researchers have found there are times when we are more likely to be creative.

Stacey Colino wrote about the Science of Why You Have Great Ideas in the Shower for National Geographic and provided some insight on Monday’s Smart Talk,”It has to do with the the parts of the brain that kick in or go offline. When you’re actively thinking about something, there are certain control networks that dominate your thinking and send you into logical reasoning, rational thought, drawing from facts and that kind of thing. But when you’re doing these passive tasks, like taking a shower, walking your dog, gardening, one of the experts that I interviewed said that his time was when he was mowing the lawn. That’s when your default mode network kicks in and it basically free associates. It brings spontaneous condition, drawing from past experiences, things you know, things you’ve thought of or dreamt up and kind of puts them together in novel ways so that you come up with fresh ideas.”

Colino added focusing on ideas sometimes doesn’t make us creative like we want to be,”We do tend to think that the way to get ideas and get things done and accomplish tasks is to just grind away and grind away. But you can reach an impasse. And if you take a break, this is sort of called the incubation phase of creativity. If you take a break, all of those ideas are still there. And all of those challenges about coming up with this idea or. The solving a particular problem. So when you take a break and you go do something that’s not so mentally engaging, it’s almost like another part of well, it literally is like another part of your brain takes over, takes the driver’s seat and puts together different things unbeknownst to you, until you have this kind of aha moment and you’re like, Oh, I could do this and solve this problem. Or, Oh, here’s a really fresh, great idea. Why don’t I pursue this?”

Colino said researchers have found that healthy sleep is important for brain function and we may be more creative or have more ideas right after waking up.