> I read somewhere that the subconscious brain continues "working on problems" even when you are not actively working on it consciously. Hence the expression to "sleep on it".

It's something I've actively used for almost two decades now when dealing with challenges i'm stuck on. I remember one of my professors explaining it as having a 'prepared mind'.

What I do is, before I go to bed, try to summarize the problem to myself as concise as possible (like rubber ducking) and then go to sleep. Very often the next morning I wake up with a new insight or new approach that solves the problem in 10 minutes that took me hours the day before.

Richard Hickey talked about this in his "Hammock driven development" talk: https://youtu.be/f84n5oFoZBc?si=Ups64pcKCl47nNCY

I wonder how much of that effect can be attributed to getting some rest.

I've had that before, and it's not (just) about the rest. I'll wake up with the solution already in my head, as if I'd been working on it in my sleep.

You were. At least, as long as you don’t take “you” to be just the subvocalized thoughts of your mind.

Something that gets in the way of people’s understanding of themselves (not accusing you of this) is thinking that they’re aware of everything going on inside their brain. This is obviously not true.

You can’t catch a ball by being aware of the angle of every joint as you do it. You can understand someone speaking by considering all the rules of grammar and vocabulary as you listen. It’s just too slow.

It’s like a CLI program in verbose mode. Even with stuff flying across the screen, you can’t print out everything that’s happening. It’s just too much.

While you sleep, your brain is rearranging itself to solve your problems. It would be just as accurate to say you are rearranging your brain, because your brain is a part of you and you are a part of it. If I give someone a handshake, my hand is touching their hand and I am touching their hand.

Keeping the conscious mind updated on this whole process at all times would be like telling a PM about every keystroke.

I don't have subvocalized thoughts, but I do know when I'm thinking. It wasn't that, it was like recalling a memory. I thought about the problem, and then the memory of the solution came.

>I thought about the problem, and then the memory of the solution came.

I find this works extremely well.

It can really be a tactic to overcome some things that probably could not be solved any other way.

That's the kind of rest I like to get, where you make progress at the same time ;)

Oh, interesting. Lots of people that have subvocalized thoughts (which is most people it seems) identify with them so strongly they think it’s who they are.

Hmm, really? No, I know that's just me repeating my thoughts back, so I usually just don't do it. The thoughts themselves take milliseconds to think.

Well, brain science is pretty clear that the brain uses about the same amount of glucose (energy) all the time, resting or waking.

To contrast with for example your biceps, which will use a lot of energy when lifting something and then scale back down to near-zero.

So in terms of energy use, yes, the brain is always going at near full burn.

I'm not sure how much my brain is subconsciously working, but it does make sense that popping the stacks and clearing the caches sometimes will force you to reevaluate choice and thoughts you had before. This can be very valuable in steering a design or finding a new solution.