Dreaming is something we all do’ but no one understands why we have them or why most times when we dream we can’t just seem to remember the details and sometimes when we do remember we can’t seem to piece together anything concrete.
But surprisingly a large number of people society’s innovations have come from dreams, proving that sometimes there is a method our brain functions.
Here are 5 Famous Creations that were Inspired By Dreams.
1. The Sewing Machine
In 1845, Elias Howe -inventor of sewing machine- was desperately trying to work through technical problems with his invention, but he got stuck when it came to the design of the needle. Well, according to members of his family, it finally all came to him in the course of a violent nightmare.
In the dream, he had been captured by cannibals. Howe’s captors presented him with an ultimatum – come up with a design for a working sewing machine, or face death. Just like in real life, he failed to live up to the task, and so the cannibals sentenced him to be stabbed to death with spears.
When the time came for him to be pierced, he noticed that each spears had a hole in the tip. Watching them puncture his flesh, going in and out, was allegedly the “Eureka!” moment that led to Howe figuring out that he needed to put a hole in the tip of the needle in his sewing machine.
2. The Periodic Table
Pioneering chemist Dimitry Mendeleev spent 10 years trying to create a pattern that connected the chemical elements together. And then one night, just as he was on the verge of a major breakthrough, he fell asleep and dreamt up the idea he’d been searching for.
Writing in his diary, Mendeleev said, “I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper.”
3. Frankenstein
In summer 1816, a teenager by the name of Mary Shelly visited the poet Lord Byron in Geneva. One night, she had a nightmare of a ‘hideous phantasm of a man, stretched out, and then, on working of some powerful machine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion’. The next morning, she began writing the story you know now as Frankenstien – the world’s first sci-fi novel. 2 centuries later frankeinstein is still popular
4. DNA
Until Dr James Watson saw a spiral staircase in a dream in 1953, no one had developed the idea of a double helix spiral structure for our DNA. In fact, thanks to sleeping that fateful night, Watson went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1962.
5. The Terminator
Yes, one of the most successful films in history was inspired by a fever dream. In the dream, Director James Cameron saw an explosion, and coming out of it was a robot cut in half, clutching kitchen knives and crawling towards him. He sketched ‘The Terminator’ down when he woke up, and ultimately, actor Arnold Schwarzschnegger made the character his own. The director would be responsible for the first and second most successful films in history.
Sleep more, dream more, be inspired -pun intended.
