Your Innovation Podcast. This is the 35th episode of the Driving Eureka! Podcast. Doug and Tripp will talk about the importance of sunlight, exercise and sleep on creativity. Subscribe to learn how to Find Filter and Fast Track Big Ideas.
Show Notes
[00:00:00]
The Driving Eureka! podcast – Episode 35
[00:00:30]
Part 2 – The Science of Innovation Success
[00:01:22]
Sunlight and Creativity
[00:05:25]
Exercise and Your Body
[00:09:08]
Sleep to Big Ideas
Transcript
Tripp: [00:00:00] This is episode 35 of the Driving Eureka! podcast we will discuss the impact of sunlight. exercise and sleep. On creativity.
Tripp: [00:00:14] Driving Eureka! podcast with Doug Hall and TRIPP It is sponsored by Eureka! Ranch the ranch specializes in helping companies find filter and fast track big ideas.
Tripp: [00:00:30] This is part two of the science of innovation success.
Doug: [00:00:35] So yeah yeah yeah that cool. So let’s see. See now I’ve got it into your whole life. See this is really gonna give you stuff to talk about this weekend okay. Because we’re going to go right at life.
Doug: [00:00:47] I just thought I’d put together a set of kind of like the the human condition on an on sort of the environmental. We’ll talk about environment more and some of these other episodes but but this idea of the environment and what we’re doing and do it. And so these are all scientific facts based on data come out of the Driving Eureka! book that can kind of open up your minds to thinking about just little things you can do it can move things in the right direction.
Tripp: [00:01:19] And Walt Disney is involved in sunlight.
Doug: [00:01:22] Yeah. The first one is how sunlight can help you think quicker smarter and more creatively. And the new research confirms this. And Walt Disney really believed in this. And the study was the research study was really monstrous involves 750 classrooms and over 21000 students.
Doug: [00:01:45] And it found that students in classrooms with the most daylight learned 20 to 26 percent faster than students with the least daylight even standardized test results in math and reading increased significantly.
Doug: [00:01:58] I mean this is huge. This is huge.
Doug: [00:02:01] And Walt Disney believed in it so strong. He designed the studios to leverage natural life light. In fact I had had the opportunity I’ve worked with Disney a number times and to visit some of the original studios he had he always had him on a south facing wall so they could get really good light really light. But you know sadly we spend a lot of time in kinda inside away from the light and I don’t know what it is if it’s the full spectrum of what it is. But you know let’s open him up okay Get up get out and let the sunshine. I mean let’s start doing some work outside let’s do some work outside. Let’s meet outside. Let’s talk outside. Let’s stimulate those synapses.
Tripp: [00:02:45] So so Doug when you built the Ranch did you already know about this information because the ranch is very got lots of picture windows and you know there’s a lot of natural light that comes in here.
Doug: [00:02:58] Exactly. Oh yeah. And it has it has a gargantuan wall which to HVAC he is quite upset about oh you know I’m going to have to put a lot of cooling in. What do you mean what if we put some shades on that. I said he put no shades. But that is exactly what it’s about. And what’s funny is this even skylights on top. Yeah. And people sit there in the sun will be coming in and they go the sun’s in my eyes.
Doug: [00:03:24] And so so they want us to cover it. I say maybe you should just move like three feet.
Tripp: [00:03:31] Say okay. I never knew that I just what you know is this an observation at the ranch is very you know open when you have your classes there and I thought well I wonder if Doug knew about that ahead of time. So is it is it facing south stuff.
Doug: [00:03:46] I only talk about stuff.
Doug: [00:03:48] One of my standards whenever I talk about research is truth beyond a reasonable doubt. And what that means is I don’t care about how big the study is or how small a study is. If I see the study and the mechanism and how the study was done and how the research was done or even in our own work. The question is beyond a reasonable doubt means you would apply that to your life without further consideration. You would just that you absolutely believe that that’s the case. In fact I’m I’m on my way after this to visit with a client and we’ve got some small base data but it’s a bunch it’s the real data on real projects we’re checking the product of the system to improve increased speed of their product development system. And while the data is small it is the complete sample of their projects. So it’s not there’s no sampling error because we got a hundred percent of the sample and so that’s an example where I have a lot of credibility to this data because this is what they’ve really done as opposed to peace. And so you know with things like sunlight yes the ranch is absolutely built their absolute built like that cool.
Tripp: [00:04:53] I was just curious and it makes sense. So I know it does. Does the Ranch face south. I don’t know. I kind of does act.
Doug: [00:05:01] Yes it does.
Tripp: [00:05:03] It does. OK. All right. Well you would like to work a full route.
Doug: [00:05:05] Well it would set that way. It was that I had been doing this research for a long time not like a podcast you know. I’m actually old. You know I miss her a lot.
Tripp: [00:05:18] All right. Very good. So the second thing you have here is exercising your body and helps. And I’ve got tons of information on this.
Doug: [00:05:25] I’ve been reading so much on Brain Rules one by John Madina but once you go through what you have on on exercise a professor at Ball State University in your state of Indiana did a study of over 300 small business owners regarding their exercise their sales and the rewards the profits that they made. That’s an entrepreneur and quite simply those that worked out more regularly had more successful businesses and digging in even deeper which the site thought was kind of interesting that runners people that do a rollback exercise saw better sales results the weightlifters both had more personal satisfaction than those couch potatoes but only the runners had better company performance and sedentary people. And I have seen this a lot in this other studies on this that show it. And if you don’t have to run what you have to do is a I’m going to get a little bit voodoo here OK.
Doug: [00:06:24] So we go from science to theory now so that we’re separating them. But you have to do something rhythmic and so it can be biking it can be cross-country skiing it can be swimming but something rhythmic and there is a belief that this creates a bit of a meditative state and that from this ideas come because the mind is slowed down when you get into that rhythmic exercising thing that you’re doing. And I myself I am pretty vigorous on it. I mean I I do some sort of aerobics thing you know five to seven times a week. And I have found that when I have a lot to do if I stop and exercise I get more done because I solve ideas I get answers. And I do it. And so you know I can fully understand that those people that do this are getting again some. Just like the sunlight. Now the best of all is do it outside. See you do it together.
Tripp: [00:07:30] So that’s why your weight room has it has windows too.
Doug: [00:07:33] That’s right.
Tripp: [00:07:34] And that’s in the ranch.
Doug: [00:07:36] The ranch has a one point four mile paved path around the lake outback for that exact reason.
Tripp: [00:07:47] Very good. What I have in this book I’ve been reading because this really has captivated my attention. But with regard to the exercise if you can do aerobics and I think you use the word rhythmic but aerobics two to three times a week for 30 minutes and like you said be bicycling it could be walking you know faster running or whatever you want to do but if you also added in a strengthening regimen that you had increased cognitive benefit with the combination of the two and then there’s other benefits. So you would decrease Alzheimer’s and add all types of good stuff there associated with it. But one of the interesting facts that I pulled from Medina’s book was that the brain consumes 20 percent of your body’s energy and yet the brain is 2 percent of your total weight which is what’s kind of interesting. But the exercise provides access better or greater access to oxygen and food by virtue of the fact that kind of makes sense with all the stuff that you’re saying that you know you can come up with better ideas because your brain is being able to to to filled up so very good. I I I I like the idea of exercise I exercise regularly. I still not at my ideal weight but I do run so OK. The next one is sleep.
Doug: [00:09:08] So sunshine. Aerobic exercise. And now we’re going to sleep our way to big ideas. Now there’s always been there’s been a lot of thought that the the brain given time to incubate that ideas come to you. You take a nap or you go to sleep you wake up in the middle of night and you’re already gone. You got it right. Well scientists at a university in Germany have validated that for the first time that our sleeping brains continue to work on problems. Volunteers were three times more likely than sleep deprived participants to successfully solve a series of math problems you know. And so that what they found is that sleep helps us consolidate memories sharpen thoughts. It’s like it’s like we start to go into a computer routine and start to go through it I think. And and this is finding that the mind when we sleep and there’s a famous writer poet an artist named Sark essay R.K. who’s is a good friend and her telling me she says she was writing a book and she was on deadline. So what are you doing. She says I’m napping more often because she says when I nap I get the answers.
Doug: [00:10:28] And so she came to the Ranch and had to have a nap before working with clients. And she needed to have a nap room so she would just walk away taken.
Tripp: [00:10:36] But you know Doug it’s true. And this did some of the research that but I pulled out a Medina’s guide research or that that he’s pulled into his book Brain Rules says the same thing. A 30 minute nap. It does unbelievably good things for you as far as you know your energy level your awareness level all those types of things. It’s amazing what 30. And it sounds bizarre but you know you you’ve seen the internship you know with with at Google you know they have that nap pods you know you go out and you take a nap and you know refreshes the brain and does all those types of things. So it’s really it’s really cool. And one of the pieces of data that’s kind of interesting too is that sleep deprivation costs U.S. businesses. They estimate about one hundred billion dollars a year. So not only does it create good ideas but there’s good reasons to avoid the costs associated with it.
Doug: [00:11:35] And I think I’ve got a Yeah I mean I’m sure this bunch of these things. Yes tons of these things but I’ve got this power nap app.
Tripp: [00:11:43] Oh really.
Doug: [00:11:44] That I’ll use. And you can save more bring it up here now and you can set up a power nap 20 minutes 45 minutes and then a full sleep cycle.
Doug: [00:11:54] So the idea is is that it wakes you before you get into a deep sleep cycle. Now clearly the deep sleep cycle is going to help you more. But you know we don’t always have time to do a full 90 to 120 minute deep sleep cycle. So I find that useful.
Tripp: [00:12:12] Yeah. I think so. I agree. I didn’t know about the innovation portion of that which is it’s cool. I like that. All right. Doug. Well that concludes this week’s Science of innovation success menu.
Doug: [00:12:27] If you want to get more of these get the book Driving Eureka! available at your independent bookseller and all Internet sellers. It’s got many more of these things on the science of innovation success. See you next week. All right.
Tripp: [00:12:45] Thank you for listening to the Driving Eureka! podcast. This podcast is part of the innovation Engineering Institute. Innovation engineering is a new field of academic study and leadership science. Its mission is to change the world by enabling innovation by everyone everywhere every day. resulting in increased speed and decreased risk. To learn more about on campus off campus live and online courses visit. innovation engineering dot org.