In psychology, incubation refers to the unconscious processing of problems, when they are set aside for a period of time, that may lead to insights.
[3] Recent advances in neuroscience provide intriguing evidence of the mechanisms underlying incubation effects, particularly those that occur during sleep.
This research reveals that people's experiences while awake can be consolidated into memory and result in enhanced performance the next day without any additional practice or engagement in the task.
In one relevant experiment, researchers demonstrated that problem-solving insight can be dramatically enhanced by a period of sleep following initial work on a problem.
[citation needed] In 1993, Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett conducted research asking college students to incubate answers to real-life homework and other objective problems on which they were working, finding that, in one week's time, half had dreamed about their topic and a quarter had a dream which provided an answer.