Student Blog: When Inspiration Strikes

Why am I only ever inspired at night? 

What I’m writing down now is from a reminder I set for myself this morning at 2:00 am. 

All of my best ideas for my directing class always come to me when I’m trying to sleep. And it’s always when I’m trying to fall asleep early for a long day. I never fall asleep because I know I need to catch my ideas before they escape me. 

Last night I was up until 3:00 am writing a play. Just because. And I flew through the first scene while noting what was to come. My brain is alive when it’s not supposed to be. I’ll be tired all day, but the second I close my eyes with my head against a pillow, all my synapses start firing up. 

The problem is that you have to answer its call when inspiration strikes. If you ignore it, you can lose it. If I fall asleep, it may fall through the cracks of my dreams and the fog of sleep. Because of this, my most productive hours as an artist are post-midnight. 

I wish there were a way to be more productive artistically at normal hours, but maybe there’s just something about the brain’s activity before bed in the anxious semi-adolescent mind that sparks the opposite. I remember learning about circadian rhythms, or the activity of the brain waves that help determine when the brain is most active and awake and when it’s not. Particularly, I remember learning that teenagers’ circadian rhythm leads them to be most productive and awake around 9 pm to 12 pm, and how this is valid evidence for why schools shouldn’t start so early, because it goes against teenage biology. 

If you're wondering what ideas sparked into my brain at this ungodly hour, the answer was a vision for my directing final, which was very much needed because it is half of my grade. I enjoy directing a lot but my need for stellar grades to preserve stellar scholarships can suck the fun out of the creativity. I just have to remember that I’m being graded on doing something that’s fun and that I do love. I was also sparked to right a small script for a heavy biographical play following five sisters and the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters, and sisters through generations, especially in biracial families. 

But it’s not just theatrical ideas I get hit with after midnight. I was stumped all month on what to write my blog post about, and then as I was being bombarded by ideas, the idea of writing about that came into existence. I’ve brainstormed final project ideas and such, and the normal existential crisis you get before you turn 20.  

Signed, 

J.F