Early to bed,early to rise, makes you healthy,wealthy and wise,
So goes the proverb the old proverb,but research now suggest that if you want to be the wisest, you really need to stay up - well, until 10:04pm at least.
This supposedly the best time for a eureka moment, according to research.
And around a quarter of us feel we formulate our most cunning plans when we are burning the midnight oil, the survey of 1,426 adults found. By contrast, despite what many managers may believe, daytime in the office is not conducive to blue-sky thinking.
The afternoon,when most Britons are at work, is when an overwhelming 98 percent of those polled say they feel most 'uninspired' .
The creativity drought just gets worse over the nine to five working day, hitting rock bottom at 4:33pm.
When asked about methods they use to get their creative juices flowing,44 percent said they took to the shower.
Unfortunately for mankind,even when we do get a stroke genius more than half of our ideas are lost forever.
When inspiration strikes, 58 percent of us fail to write down the idea immediately and forget it.
Women are better than men at jotting down their best ideas for posterity. A third of women of over - 35's chose to scribble the thought on the back of their hand, perhaps having learnt from experience how forgetful they are. The findings echo an Italian study that found those who stay up late have the most original ideas.
Night owls came up with the most creative thoughts - perhaps because they are more likely to be unconventional and bohemian than early birds - according to research by the catholic University of the sacred Heart in Milan.Perhaps creative types have a good reason to stay up.
Research showed that creative people such as artist and poets hook up with many sex partners as other people throughout their life.
A Newcastle University study of 425 British men and women found the creative types averaged between four and ten partners, while the less creative folks typically had three.
