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There is something about sleep deprivation that makes me so vividly visually creative, things and image flow in my mind like they otherwise never do. Unfortunately I haven't found a way to trigger this any other way, so my only real creative moments tend to happen in the middle of the night where they aren't much use to anyone.

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I'm guessing the added visuals come from hypnagogia, the state between waking and sleep where you can see imagery related to dreaming. I'm especially aware of this state because I have aphantasia and thus have no other method of seeing imagery in my head that doesn't pass through my retinas first. I've seen it when I thought I was awake, but later realize I wasn't fully awake. I also used to dabble in lucid dreaming, and spent a lot of time trying to ride the line between being awake and falling asleep. I'd suggest learning how to lucid dream, because that's another environment where you can be visually creative.

AFAIK sleep deprivation is discussed as a short term treatment of depression. I don't have any exclusive papers on hand (I'm not an expert), but if you are interested, please do your own research.

Where is this discussed? I'm curious.

For a start: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/sleep-is-the-mate-of-d...

I’ve heard Dr. John McDougall say this too — he recommends less sleep than most doctors for this reason.

[1] https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2002nl/mar/sleep.htm

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