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In Depth

Brain

What you can learn from Einsteins


quirky habits
More than 10 hours of sleep and no socks could this be the secret to thinking like a
genius?

By Zaria Gorvett

12 June 2017

Celebrated inventor and physicist Nikola Tesla swore by toe exercises every night,
hed repeatedly squish his toes, 100 times for each foot, according to the author Marc J
Seifer. While its not entirely clear exactly what that exercise involved, Tesla claimed it
helped to stimulate his brain cells.

The most prolific mathematician of the 20th Century, Paul Erdos, preferred a different
kind of stimulant: amphetamine, which he used to fuel 20-hour number benders. When
a friend bet him $500 that he couldnt stop for a month, he won but complained Youve
set mathematics back a month.

Newton, meanwhile, bragged about the benefits of celibacy. When he died in 1727, he
had transformed our understanding of the natural world forever and left behind 10
million words of notes; he was also, by all accounts, still a virgin (Tesla was also
celibate, though he later claimed he fell in love with a pigeon).

Like it or not, our daily habits have a powerful impact on our brains

Many of the worlds most brilliant scientific minds were also fantastically weird. From
Pythagoras outright ban on beans to Benjamin Franklins naked air baths, the path to
greatness is paved with some truly peculiar habits.

But what if these are more than superficial facts? Scientists are increasingly realising
that intelligence is less about sheer genetic luck than we tend to think. According to the
latest review of the evidence, around 40% of what distinguishes the brainiacs from the
blockheads in adulthood is environmental. Like it or not, our daily habits have a
powerful impact on our brains, shaping their structure and changing the way we think.
We'll never know, but maybe out of shot, Nikola Tesla was squishing his toes (Credit:
SPL)

Of all historys great minds, arguably the master of combining genius with unusual
habits was Albert Einstein so what better person to study for clues to mind-enhancing
behaviours to try ourselves? He taught us how to squeeze energy out of atoms, so
maybe, just maybe, he might be able to teach us a thing or two about how to squeeze the
most out of our tiny mortal brains. Could there be any benefits in following Einsteins
sleep, diet, and even fashion choices?

10 HOURS OF SLEEP AND ONE-SECOND NAPS

Its common knowledge that sleep is good for your brain and Einstein took this advice
more seriously than most. He reportedly slept for at least 10 hours per day nearly one
and a half times as much as the average American today (6.8 hours). But can you really
slumber your way to a sharper mind?
The author John Steinbeck once said: It is a common experience that a problem
difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on
it.

Many of the most radical breakthroughs in human history, including the periodic table,
the structure of DNA and Einsteins theory of special relativity, have supposedly
occurred while their discoverer was unconscious. The latter came to Einstein while he
was dreaming about cows being electrocuted. But is this really true?

Back in 2004, scientists at the University of Lubeck, Germany, tested the idea with a
simple experiment. First they trained volunteers to play a number game. Most gradually
got the hang of it with practice, but by far the quickest way to improve was to uncover a
hidden rule. When the students were tested again eight hours later, those who had been
allowed to sleep were more than twice as likely to gain insight into the rules than those
who had remained awake.

Those who have more spindle events tend to have greater fluid intelligence

When we fall asleep, the brain enters a series of cycles. Every 90-120 minutes the brain
fluctuates between light sleep, deep sleep and a phase associated with dreaming, known
as Rapid Eye Movement (REM), which until recently was thought to play the leading
role in learning and memory. But this isnt the full story. Non-REM sleep has been a
bit of a mystery, but we spend about 60% of our night in this type of sleep, says Stuart
Fogel, a neuroscientist at the University of Ottawa.

Non-REM sleep is characterised by bursts of fast brain activity, so called spindle


events because of the spindle-shaped zigzag the waves trace on an EEG. A normal
nights sleep will involve thousands of these, each lasting no longer than a few seconds.
This is really the gateway to other stages of sleep the more you sleep, the more of
these events youll have, he says.
Chilling out with physicist Niels Bohr (Credit: SPL)

Spindle events begin with a surge of electrical energy generated by the rapid firing of
structures deep in the brain. The main culprit is the thalamus, an oval shaped region
which acts as the brains main switching centre, sending incoming sensory signals in
the right direction. While were sleeping, it acts like an internal earplug, scrambling
external information to help you stay asleep. During a spindle event, the surge travels up
to the brains surface and then back down again to complete a loop.

Intriguingly, those who have more spindle events tend to have greater fluid
intelligence the ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, and
identify patterns the kind Einstein had in spades. "They dont seem related to other
types of intelligence, such as the ability to memorise facts and figures, so its really
specific to these reasoning skills," says Fogel. This ties in nicely with Einsteins disdain
for formal education and advice to "never memorise anything which you can look up".

And though the more you sleep, the more spindle events youll have, this doesnt
necessarily prove that more sleep is beneficial. Its a chicken and egg scenario: do some
people have more spindle events because they are smart, or are they smart because they
have more spindle events? The jury is still out, but a recent study showed that night-
time sleep in women and napping in men can improve reasoning and problem
solving skills. Crucially, the boost to intelligence was linked to the presence of spindle
events, which only occurred during night-time sleep in women and daytime slumbers in
men.

Its not yet known why spindle events would be helpful, but Fogel thinks it may have
something to do with the regions which are activated. Weve found that the same
regions that generate spindles the thalamus and the cortex [the brains surface] well,
these are the areas which support the ability to solve problems and apply logic in new
situations, he says.

Luckily for Einstein, he also took regular naps. According to apocryphal legend, to
make sure he didnt overdo it hed recline in his armchair with a spoon in his hand and a
metal plate directly beneath. Hed allow himself to drift off for a second, then bam!
the spoon would fall from his hand and the sound of it hitting the plate would wake him
up.

DAILY WALKS

Einsteins daily walk was sacred to him. While he was working at Princeton University,
New Jersey, hed walk the mile and a half journey there and back. He followed in the
footsteps of other diligent walkers, including Darwin who went for three 45 minute
walks every day.

These constitutionals werent just for fitness theres mountains of evidence that
walking can boost memory, creativity and problem-solving. For creativity at least,
walking outside is even better. But why?
Go for a walk! Einstein recommends it (Credit: Getty Images)

When you think about it, it doesnt make a lot of sense. Walking distracts the brain from
more cerebral tasks, and forces it to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and
not falling over. Enter transient hypofrontality translated into basic English, this
impressive mouthful basically means temporarily toning down the activity in certain
parts of the brain. In particular, the frontal lobes, which are involved in higher processes
such as memory, judgement and language.

By turning it down a notch, the brain adopts a totally different style of thinking one
which may lead to insights you wouldnt get at your desk. There isnt any evidence for
this explanation of walkings benefits yet, but its a tantalising idea.

EATING SPAGHETTI

So what do geniuses eat? Alas, its not clear what fuelled Einsteins extraordinary mind,
though the internet somewhat dubiously claims it was spaghetti. He did once joke that
his favourite things about Italy were spaghetti and [mathematician] Levi-Civita, so
well go with that.
Though carbohydrates have got a bad rep, as always, Einstein was spot on. Its well
known that the brain is a food-guzzling greedy guts, consuming 20% of the bodys
energy though it only accounts for 2% of its weight (Einsteins may have been even less
his brain weighed just 1,230g, compared to an average of around 1,400g). Just like the
rest of the body, the brain prefers to snack on simple sugars, such as glucose, which
have been broken down from carbohydrates. Neurons require an almost-contunuous
supply and will only accept other energy sources when its really desperate. And therein
lies a problem.

Despite this sweet tooth, the brain has no way of storing any energy, so when blood
glucose levels drop, it quickly runs out. The body can release some from its own
glycogen stores by releasing stress hormones such as cortisol, but these have side-
effects, says Leigh Gibson, a lecturer in psychology and physiology at the University
of Roehampton.

Smoking is not advised, Einstein wouldn't have been aware of all the health risks
(Credit: SPL)
These include the familiar light-headedness and confusion we feel when we skip dinner.
One study found that those on low carbohydrate diets have slower reaction times and
reduced spatial memory though only in the short-term (after a few weeks, the brain
will adapt to salvaging energy from other sources, such as protein).

Sugars can give the brain a valuable boost, but unfortunately this doesnt mean binging
on spaghetti is a good idea. Typically the evidence suggests that about 25g of
carbohydrate is beneficial, but double that and you may actually impair your ability to
think, says Gibson. For perspective, thats around 37 strands of spaghetti, which is a lot
less than it sounds (around half as much as the recommended portion). Its not as
simple a story as it sounds, says Gibson.

SMOKING A PIPE

Today, the many health risks of smoking are widely known, so this is not a habit that it
would be wise to follow. But Einstein was a hardened pipe smoker, known as much
around campus for the cloud of smoke which followed him as for his theories. He
famously loved to smoke, believing it contributes to a somewhat calm and objective
judgment in all human affairs. Hed even pick cigarette butts off the street and stuff the
remaining tobacco into his pipe.

Not really the behaviour of a genius, but in his defence, though evidence had been
mounting since the 1940s, tobacco wasnt publicly linked to lung cancer and other
illnesses until 1962 seven years after his death.

Today the risks are no secret smoking stops brain cells forming, thins the cerebral
cortex (the wrinkled outer layer responsible for consciousness) and starves the brain of
oxygen. Its fair to say that Einstein was clever despite this habit not because of it.

But there is one final mystery. An analysis of 20,000 adolescents in the United States,
whose habits and health were followed for 15 years, found that irrespective of age,
ethnicity or education, more intelligent children grow up to smoke more cigarettes,
more frequently, than the rest of us. Scientists still dont know why this is, though
intriguingly its not true everywhere in the UK, smokers tend to have lower IQs.
NO SOCKS

No list of Einsteins eccentricities would be complete without a mention of his


passionate aversion to socks. When I was young, he wrote in a letter to his cousin
and later, wife Elsa, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a
sock. So I stopped wearing socks. Later in life, when he couldnt find his sandals hed
wear Elsas sling backs instead.

As it turns out, rocking the hipster look probably didnt do Einstein any favours.
Regrettably, there havent been any studies looking directly at the impact of going
sockless, but changing into casual clothing, as opposed to a more formal outfit, has been
linked to poor performance on tests of abstract thinking.

And what better way to end that with some advice from the man himself. The
important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing, he
told LIFE magazine in 1955.

Failing that, you might try some toe exercises. Who knows they might just work. And
arent you dying to find out?
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