Dreams, Creativity, and the Bar Exam

Did you know that dreaming helps you find creative solutions to problems?

Creativity can help with your bar exam studies.

But, isn’t the bar exam all about rote memorization and interminable practice tests?

I don’t think so; at least, not entirely. While there is obviously a huge component of memorization when you are studying for the bar exam, there is an element of creativity needed.

Creativity and the Bar Exam

To succeed on the bar exam, you need to figure out creative ways to learn the material and to put it in to practice. For example, some people use mnemonics to help them memorize complicated sets of legal rules. Here is a link to some online flashcards with a huge number of mnemonics.

If that works for you, great. I can’t use mnemonics. In fact, I think the only one I used on the bar exam was MIMIC. I tend to see connections between things in the form of lists or pictures. And, I learn complicated sets of information with a series of “break-throughs.”

When I was studying for the bar exam I can recall feeling like I was pushing up against a brick wall trying to learn a particular concept and its exceptions (such as, say, First Amendment jurisprudence) and then suddenly it all would make sense as I could see the analytical process in my mind, like a spider web or a series of flow charts.

I don’t particularly remember the exact content of the dreams I had while studying for the bar exam, but I can remember having many of them about the bar exam. Some were undoubtedly anxiety dreams, but now I think that many of them were my mind working out the connections in the subject matter that I had difficulty understanding while I was awake.

There are studies that support this idea.

One study, which looked at people who napped, found that those who fell into REM sleep improved their performance on creativity-oriented word problems, increasing the ability to see connections between seemingly unrelated things.

Think about that.

If this study is right, then the more REM sleep that you get, the better you are able to use concepts in different situations.

That is huge for the bar exam. Crossover essay questions become easier to recognize and answer. You become more facile with different legal concepts and rules. Issues become easier to spot in fact patterns.

How to Dream More

Did you have a dream last night?

Do you remember your dreams?

Do you feel like you never dream?

In order to dream, you obviously need to sleep. But, you also need proper nutrition.

If you are having trouble sleeping, try to determine what the problem is and correct it. Sometimes, this is relatively easy. Some common reasons it is difficult to go to sleep:

bedroom is too bright = get curtains or a sleep mask
too much caffeine late in the day = stop drinking it after noon
bedroom is too loud = get earplugs or a white noise machine

Other difficulties may take some extra work, such as when racing thoughts and worries keep us awake. Sometimes, the way to get rid of this problem may require taking action to address some uncomfortable situation in your life. Other times, you simply need to get your worries out before lying down (such as by keeping a journal) or else use some mechanism (such as meditation or progressive muscle relaxation) to calm yourself before going to sleep.

Once you are able to sleep, you need to dream in order to get the learning and creativity benefits.

Some studies suggest that you need to have sufficient levels of vitamin B6 in order to have more vivid dreams and to remember your dreams.

But, even if you have a sufficient B6 intake, you could be doing things that deplete the B6 before you can use it during the dream phase.

According to one source, the following activities deplete B6: stress, excess coffee intake, many prescription drugs (antibiotics, oral contraceptives, and hormone replacement), refined foods, sugar, smoking, and frequent alcohol consumption.

So, how can you get more B6 in your diet? Here is a list of some foods that are high in B6: pistachios, liver, tuna, salmon, cod, pork tenderloin, molasses, hazelnuts and garlic.

While I would never go so far as to say dreams will make or break your ability to pass the bar exam, the evidence cited above shows that dreams are likely helpful.

Besides, dreams are weird and fun, and who doesn’t need more of that in their lives?

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