Wandoka's blog

By Wandoka, history, 10 months ago, In English

Basically the title.

Why the problems seem so much easier if you go to sleep and return to it the next day? It happened to me numerous times. I struggle for hours with a problem, I give up and move on with my day, I return to it in a day or two, usually I don't remember the statement, but after reading it I solve it almost effortlessly. It is like my brain solves the tasks on its own throughout the day, but I find it hard to believe that it is able to do that if I don't even remember the statement. Sometimes I wonder why I bother thinking about a problem at all if I get stuck for more than 10 minutes. I know that almost certainly I will be able to solve it the next day (if I pick an appropriate difficulty for me obviously).

I have pretty much 0 knowledge on how the brain works, and I wonder why this weird thing happens. I know that it is a common knowledge to "sleep on the problem", I was told that in school for example, but I have not seen anyone talking on how MUCH it affects the results.

I also wonder, if it possible to master this "power" lol?
It sounds weird, but I have an "ultimate move" during the contest to go to the toilet, for some unholy reason I consistently was able to find creative ideas in a span of several minutes I spent there. It seams like forgetting about the problem, and then returning to it works just like turning a device off and on, seems to fix most of the problems. But it is so hard to do it during a contest, especially when there is almost no time left. I also know that skipping a problem and then returning to it might be effective when you are stuck, but the effect is so much weaker for me. It helps, but just a bit.

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