THE surrealist artist Salvador Dali took a simple, if unorthodox, approach to mental refreshment. He would sit with a key in one hand, poised above a metal plate placed on the floor, and let sleep take him. As soon as he began to slumber in earnest, the key would slip from his fingers and clang against the plate - waking him immediately.
Dali claimed this technique provided all the rest he needed before embarking on a new work. Perhaps he was on to something. Researchers say we feel refreshed if wakened during the second of the four stages of sleep. What's more, technology now allows us to manipulate these stages, potentially giving us a fast track to blissful rest (see "Sleep and dreaming: Slumber at the flick of a switch ").
Should we embrace this technology? The idea of cutting down on "unproductive" sleep will appeal to many. But sleep disruption has complex physical and mental effects, so we will have to be very sure that we are not trading first-class sleep for third-rate wakefulness.
Dali turned his dreams into art, and thence into a fortune. Most of us can't make such lucrative use of our downtime - but that doesn't mean it's time wasted.
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