Dreams are a surreal and uncontrollable part of sleep. Many have no definite cause and are a random series of events. People often dismiss dreams, which causes them to forget them. However, they have long inspired creative new ideas and theories. At HAHS, Sophomore Michael Long uses his frequent and often absurd dreams and nightmares to inspire his art.
Dreams often have no basis in logic, and Michael’s dreams are no exception. One of his convoluted dreams started when he went to the doctor for his feet and was prescribed a Lego treadmill-like object that moved in a diagonal path. After using it, he ran away and found Queen Elizabeth’s hideout. The famed queen happened to be his grandmother, and the hideaway contained a collection of her well-known hats and jewelry. Michael thought he was safe, only to realize that a past acquaintance was haunting him to avenge the wrongs done to them. The dream ends when he catches the perpetrator, only for them to disappear in thin air.
The dream is just one example of Michael’s unconscious creativity while sleeping. He sees it as “extremely weird and normal,” and the ending highlights how Michael often has more nightmares than dreams. Science can correlate nightmares to creativity, as a study found that people with more nightmares demonstrated increased creativity with their words and how they connected them to different ideas compared to normal sleepers, according to Men’sHealth. Also, his ability to recall his dream in detail further demonstrates his creativity. For instance, a study of people who could recount their dreams more often noticed that frequent dreamers scored higher on a creativity test, which involved test subjects stating the different uses of an object in a short period, as stated by PsyPost.
Many of Michael’s artistic renditions are inspired by nightmares. One of his friends, Al Diegel, explained, “I like the art because of its style.” Whether or not dreams and nightmares improved his creativity or his art enhanced the creativity of his dreams is debatable. However, what is certain is that Michael Long is a talented creator with an innate ability to channel his inner experiences and turn them into art.
For more information, visit: https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19523584/creativity-and-nightmares/ and https://www.psypost.org/heightened-dream-recall-ability-linked-to-increased-creativity-and-functional-brain-connectivity/
