About this Author
Gwen Smith Ishmael, Sr. Vice President of Insights and Innovation at Decision Analyst in Arlington, TX, has led marketing and new product development activities in the CPG and technology industries since 1986. She also conceived and developed ground-breaking Web-based promotional vehicles, two of which are patent pending. Gwen holds an MBA in Marketing and is a featured speaker on insights and innovation around the world. Her writings have been featured in international text books, most recently in Managing 4 Ps of Marketing FMCG Sector, and Product Innovation: A Strategic Tool for Growth, by ICFAI Publications, 2006 and 2007, respectively.
Founding Author
Renee Hopkins Callahan started IdeaFlow and serves as chief blog-wrangler. She is
Director of Innovation Services at Decision Analyst in Arlington, Texas, is a former journalist who worked as an editor and reporter for The Dallas Morning News and the Nashville Tennessean, and was managing editor of D, the Dallas city magazine. She has a master's degree in rhetoric and has also taught college-level English and informal logic.
1. Beth Horn on January 29, 2004 1:33 PM writes...
Cognitive neurobiologists and neuropsychologists have long postulated that during REM sleep (the dreaming stage, although not all dreaming occurs in REM sleep) all of our memories from the previous day are integrated into what is called "long-term memory." Lack of proper sleep (this differs by individual) interferes with this memory storage. This might help explain why sleep deprived persons have difficulty remembering events from day to day.
No one knows which part of the brain is responsible for creativity. Indeed creativity comes in many forms. These different forms may also have varied locations in the brain. Musical creativity, which is hypothesized, to be located in the cerebellum can be “disrupted" when this part of the brain is damaged (or when the musical genius does not get enough sleep). The cerebellum, also the controller of balance, can be adversely affected with lack of sleep. Have you ever bumped into things around the workplace or around your house a little more often when you haven't been fully rested?
Some of my grad school professors believed that during REM the brain repairs neuronal connections...the highways, if you will, between neurons. These neurons (when connected properly with others) may in fact form "ideas" or "memories." Smooth, well-paved roads are easier to travel than run-down, bumpy ones.
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