I need to write this down!… In the shower….

Have you ever been in the shower when you immediately get that “Aha!” moment? Or, do you ever feel like the only place where you can come up with good ideas is in the shower? Fortunately, you are not alone. Back in 2015, a scientific study was published about this very phenomena. Across the experiment’s 1,114 sampled participants, one’s age didn’t have so much to do with it. The changing factor was one’s level of education, with an increasing frequency of those moments of otherworldly insight for each additional level. Overall, it happened to 80% of the participants, from all different ages and backgrounds. In real life, this doesn’t mean that 80% of the whole population experiences it, but it does mean that it is a genuine experience and is a significant part of people’s lives.

For those of you who wonder why this phenomenon even occurs, it’s due to the brain relaxing the prefrontal cortex—the brain’s command center for decisions, goals, and behavior. This latter part is accomplished by increased dopamine flow from one being in the shower, exercising, driving home, etc. It also switches on the rest of your brain’s “default mode network” (DMN) clearing the pathways that connect different regions of your noggin. In short, the dopamine helps your subconscious process your thoughts, while you are doing something else.

Unfortunately, it isn’t some superpower where one can summon godly levels of clarity and intelligence just by being in the shower. It actually doesn’t even have to be in the shower. It is confirmed by the study, Do People Really Have Insights in the Shower? The When, Where and Who of the Aha! Moment, that it just takes some form of menial task or action that you don’t really have to think about. In fact, you will be glad to know that the likes of Einstein have greatly benefited from this. Einstein cited his time in the patent office in Bern, Switzerland as “that worldly cloister where I hatched my most beautiful ideas”. Einstein’s years in the patent office were arguably the most successful ones of his career. In 1905, he published three papers that are utterly groundbreaking in his field: Brownian motion, quantum theory, and special relativity.

Today, the phenomenon has gone on to describe an entire community where people share thoughts that are surprisingly relatable, but are entirely out of the box at first glance. Even though these may be utterly random, and a bit silly, these just exemplify the mental connections that people have made. Some examples for the Reddit community dedicated to this are below:

• “Cheese is just a loaf of milk”- RezzexOfficial
• “School is basically a recap of human history because we missed it and need to be caught up before we can function in society.”- Dredgeon
• “We take it for granted that the text messages we send aren’t showing up as something completely different on the other person’s screen.” – Ramses the Pigeon
• “In forty years, some of the recipes that we stole from food blogs will be known as “old family recipes” by our grandchildren.” – Cajun_Hobo

This “shower effect” has interesting implications as many have been able to make logical and rational connections because of this process. Individually, it means that any one of us is capable of more than even we are consciously aware, as all of that thought is done subconsciously. And as a whole, this creates a lot more potential for those who do work menial jobs, but could possibly have the next million dollar idea.   

Sources:

• https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reddit-shower-thoughts-november-2018-part-one_us_5bdc4213e4b04367a87ba4f8
• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jocb.126
• https://www.ige.ch/en/about-us/the-history-of-the-ipi/einstein/einstein-at-the-patent-office.html

http://sciencevibe.com/2017/01/15/how-albert-einstein-killed-time-at-the-patent-office/