{"id":5407,"date":"2021-10-07T17:47:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T17:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/?p=5407"},"modified":"2021-10-07T20:23:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T20:23:51","slug":"drinking-alcohol-to-boost-creativity-does-it-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/drinking-alcohol-to-boost-creativity-does-it-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Drinking Alcohol to Boost Creativity – Does It Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I remember the first time I sat down to write after having had one or two beers, and the words were flowing through me. Could I use alcohol to boost creativity? It seemed unlikely since I was always taught that alcohol was bad, bad, bad<\/em> for important things. But of course, I had to conduct a few more tests on myself to find out the truth. And unsurprising for me now, but very much so for me then, a little bit of alcohol does put me in a very good mental state for creativity. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am absolutely not the first person in the world who’s discovered the connection between drinking and improved creative flow for writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous research has found almost half of the great writers had a history of drinking.<\/p>Dr Mathias Benedek for Independent<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But of course, the fact that a lot of great writers were combining alcohol with writing, doesn’t really prove anything in itself. You may think that perhaps their drinking and creativity were unrelated. Or at least I did. So, I dug around the great hall of the internet and found a scientific study done on the effects of alcohol on creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science on: How does Alcohol Boost Creativity?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This study<\/a> published in Consciousness and Cognition<\/em> showed that mild alcohol intoxication increases certain aspects of creative cognition, such as creative problem-solving. While intoxicated, you’re also more likely to let your mind wander, which is great for discovering new ways to tackling problems. It may give you the “swing” needed for a new creative idea. But at the same time, the study showed reduced executive control, which can make us less focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended: Creativity on tap? Effects of alcohol intoxication on creative cognition<\/a> (study), Why Drinking Boosts Creativity<\/a> and Drinking wine can make. you more creative, study finds<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My personal, non-scientific experience is that a little bit of alcohol (no more than two beers or one glass of wine), puts me in an excellent creative writing mood. Especially at night with a pair of headphones on and great music. I experience my thoughts to be less all-over-the-place, and I’m less concerned by anything I may have experienced anxiety over during the day. I may also be bolder in what I dare to write about (since I can feel “exposed” from what I am publishing). Overall, I give one drink of alcohol before a creative session 10\/10 stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS. I may have had a glass of red wine before writing this.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember the first time I sat down to write after having had one or two beers, and the words were flowing through me. Could I use alcohol to boost creativity? It seemed unlikely since I was always taught that alcohol was bad, bad, bad for important things. But of course, I had to conduct […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[293,294,292],"class_list":["post-5407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-alcohol","tag-science","tag-writing","entry"],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"ocean-thumb-m":false,"ocean-thumb-ml":false,"ocean-thumb-l":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Wendy Zhou","author_link":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/author\/wendy1111live-se\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I remember the first time I sat down to write after having had one or two beers, and the words were flowing through me. Could I use alcohol to boost creativity? It seemed unlikely since I was always taught that alcohol was bad, bad, bad for important things. But of course, I had to conduct…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5407"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5427,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407\/revisions\/5427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}