Salvador Dalí’s Micro-Nap Trick
To capture surreal ideas from the brink of sleep, Salvador Dalí developed a technique he called “slumber with a key.” He’d sit in a chair holding a metal key above a plate. The moment he drifted into sleep, the key would drop, clanging the plate and waking him instantly—allowing him to snatch subconscious imagery before it vanished.
He swore this was how he dreamed up melting clocks and surreal landscapes. Dalí called it accessing the “soft space between dream and wake,” a state where creativity drips like time. Modern neuroscientists call this the hypnagogic state. Dalí just called it inspiration with a clang.
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