A Profoundly Powerful Practice to Include in Your Nighttime Routine

Thomas Edison, Napoleon Hill, and Albert Einstein — arguably three of the top achievers of all time — all had one thing in common: they recognized and utilized the power of their subconscious. Edison famously said:

“Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.”

But how does this work and what does this look like in practice?

Your Subconscious

When you sleep your conscious brain shuts down, but your subconscious brain keeps working. It’s your subconscious brain that is responsible for functions like breathing and heartbeat, so it’s always on and always working.

Not only does the subconscious work hard at night, but it’s always there in the background, working hard even when you’re awake.

Have you ever needed to make a big decision, and decided you should probably “sleep on it” before you decide? Or what about when you can’t remember a word or someone’s name, but as soon as you stop trying, it just pops into your head? Or have you ever had great ideas when you’re in the shower or while zoned out when driving? This is using the power of your subconscious. Remove the interference of your conscious mind, and your subconscious is free to go to work.

“Your subconscious mind works continuously, while you are awake, and while you sleep.” — Napoleon Hill

Brain waves

To explain this technique, we have to understand brain waves. We have 5 different brain waves:

Gamma — this is where you might experience ‘aha’ moments and great insights — the brain wave you’ll experience when you’re feeling on fire with your work

Beta — the most common waking brain wave — the ‘work’ brain wave

Alpha — the last of the conscious brain waves — where you are relaxed but alert, such as during meditation or a ‘flow’ state

Theta — the dreaming brain wave — light sleep or very deep relaxation

Delta — deep, dreamless sleep — associated with rest and recovery

Hypnagogia

The stage between being asleep and awake is known as hypnagogia, and occurs when there are large amounts of both alpha and theta brain waves. It’s during this stage that your subconscious thrives.

Your brain is shifting from alert alpha waves to sleeping theta waves, and no particular wave is dominant at this stage — meaning you’re somewhere in the middle of wakefulness and sleep. While we have little to no control over dreams, we do have control over this state, once we learn how to direct our subconscious.

Dr. Mike Dow, author of Your Subconscious Mind Can Change Your Life — a book about the incredible power of the subconscious mind and all the science behind why it is so powerful, explains,

“Delivering suggestions to your subconscious brain while you’re in this state can help you achieve amazing goals in your conscious, everyday life.”

Mary Shelley came up with Frankenstein during a waking dream, just as she was drifting off to sleep .

Salvador Dali came up with lots of his painting ideas during this in between stage.

This stage between awake and asleep is where the magic happens, and you have the ability to focus this power in whichever direction you choose. Subconscious request answers often manifest during this time, where the prefrontal cortex is switched off, and your subconscious is dominant.

Your subconscious also thrives when you’re in a relaxed but alert state, experiencing alpha brain waves. This is the dominant brain wave during meditation, and a great place to be to have epiphanies and to experience creative spurts. This is the dominant brain wave you experience when out for a walk, in the shower, or any other activity where you zone out and the volume of your conscious turns down. That’s why so many great ideas come while you’re in the shower, or immersed in some other task.

Requests to Your Subconscious

So how does this work?

When you’re asleep, your brain is making new connections that will be available to the conscious mind when you wake up. This is the process that you can tap into. This is taking “What you focus on, expands” to another level.

We can intentionally direct the focus of the subconscious to where we want it to work through the night. Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, likens this to having a night crew on duty and telling them the exact tasks you want them to do while you’re at home in bed. He explains:

“The untapped power of the subconscious mind can lead you to new success in your personal life and business life.”

Physical manifestations of the subconscious

What goes on in your subconscious influences what happens at a conscious level — your subconscious can actually change your life.

Napoleon Hill explains,

“The subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent, by the most direct and practical method available.”

Napoleon Hill used this technique to come up with the name for his well-known book Think & Grow Rich. He couldn’t think of a title for his book that he was completely happy with, and one night he gave his subconscious a “thrashing” and demanded that it provide him with an answer. He woke up in the middle of the night with his million-dollar title.

“If your subconscious brain can see it, your conscious brain can then create it.” — Dr. Mike Dow

Similarly, Jack Canfield explains:

“Your thoughts are powerful. They are real, they are measurable, they are energy.”

How to Make a Request

When you’re asleep, your brain is making new connections that will be available to the conscious mind when you wake up. If you can focus and direct these connections onto a specific problem, question, or request, you can productively make use of this phenomenon.

These new connections not only give you answers or better understanding, but can boost your creativity as well. That’s why mornings are a great time for creative work, and why so many creatives swear by the early morning routines.

Use this time in the morning to go back to your requests, and do some journalling. Sometimes the answer will be immediately clear, and sometimes it’ll come once you start writing.

Be sure to focus on output during this time, rather than input. Most people immediately grab their phones as soon as they wake up, or watch the morning news, or read the newspaper. But this input disrupts the workings of the subconscious and will block insights.

This process takes some practice to master. Don’t expect results and life-changing insights immediately. But continue this process, and you’ll start reaping the rewards. If the answer isn’t immediately obvious, you’ll at least start to see patterns in your early-morning note-taking.

You can ask for anything:

• For an answer to a specific question or problem
• To be more patient, calm, or tolerant with a certain situation or person
• To give you ideas for a project
• For inspiration when facing a creative block

How to do it:

• Think of a problem you need to solve, an answer you need, a negotiation, a project or article idea, or even a book title. Just be sure to only focus on one specific thing you want answered.
• Ask for what you want, not what you don’t want.
• Be clear on what you want your subconscious to work on — go into specific detail of exactly what you would like to realize, create, understand. Write your request down for increased effectiveness. Try visualizing if appropriate.
• When you wake up, go back to your request and write whatever comes to you. Sometimes the answer will be immediately clear, and sometimes it’ll come once you start writing. Write before you do anything else, as thoughts produced during theta brain wave stages are vulnerable to quickly being lost.
• Remember, you might not see results right away. The first night I tried it, I had two epiphanies. But when I tried it again a few weeks later, nothing came to me. Persist until something happens.

The subconscious is incredibly powerful. What goes on in the subconscious will manifest in the conscious, and will come true in your life. You have the ability to focus and direct this incredible power in whichever direction you choose, to provide answers, insights, or solutions, all while you’re asleep.

Making a request to your subconscious before you go to bed each night will focus the subconscious workings onto that specific request. It’s an incredibly simple, yet profoundly powerful practice to include in your nighttime routine. You have the power to manifest the life you want. You just have to ask for it.