“Why is it that the best ideas seem to come to me in the shower?” a Reddit user pondered a few years back, concluding that there’s just “something magical” about standing under a soothing stream of water when it comes to creativity.
While magic isn’t the correct explanation — nor is another user’s cheeky but appreciated suggestion that “steam clears the sinuses giving your brain more room to grow” — the theory that showers spark insight does have some credence.
On a February episode of the podcast The Science of Creativity, cognitive neuroscientist John Kounios discussed the “aha!” moments that seem to strike so many of us when we’re scrubbing down. Kounios is the co-author of the 2015 book The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain, and he’s been studying the topic for decades.
“You have this pleasant feeling, elevated mood, some isolation. You don’t fear that you’re going to be interrupted or summoned while you’re in the shower,” he told host Keith Sawyer, adding, “your attention, your scope of thought expands.”
Those factors paired with the low-demand state we settle into when showering, one wherein we’re not particularly goal-oriented, “promotes this sort of problem-finding or idea-generation mode,” Kounios explained.
The moments of insight those conditions help create have been analyzed in a lab — though not with people showering, of course (“that would be at best strange,” Kounios joked). In a 2004 study, he and his colleagues looked at the neural activity of participants as they solved verbal puzzles. They were given three words (e.g., the words pine, crab, and sauce) and asked to identify a fourth word that connected them all (such as apple).
Subjects were then told to push a button indicating whether they’d solved the puzzle via analysis — meaning they went through each word methodically and tried to come up with different solutions — or through a moment of insight, achieved by simply rolling the words around in their head until something struck them.
The research team found that solutions that were solved by strokes of insight, or eureka moments, were immediately preceded by bursts of activity in the right temporal lobe.
@dailyshowerthoughts_ ♬ original sound – Shower Thoughts
According to Time magazine’s interpretation of the research, that burst of activity in the brain is similar to what happens in other circumstances, when we shut out distracting stimuli or close our eyes when considering a problem. “For an instant before you have an insight,” Kounios told the outlet, “you’re less aware of your environment.”
Apply that to the shower setting: You’re in a sort of sensory-deprived state — the white noise of the rushing water drowns out other sounds, the warm temperature is similar to that of your own body, your eyes are perhaps closed as you wash your hair, and there’s not a lot demanding your attention. In a way, you’re simulating the same effect observed in the lab tests.
“You naturally flow into this brain state where you’re not worrying about what’s going on outside of you; you’re focusing on your own thoughts. And I think that’s also why people tend to take long showers: They lose track of time. They lose track of the external world,” Kounios explained to PhillyVoice. “That’s a factor that makes it easier to have these insights and ideas.”
Interestingly, these moments of insight may also help us remember information longer. A 2025 study determined that when participants had an “aha!” moment while solving a problem, they were more likely to recall the solution later.
Outside the Shower
So you want to have flashes of insight even when you’re not soaking wet? That’s fair. There are plenty of other ways to create similar conditions for sparking creativity and “aha!” moments.
Gardening, walking the dog on a peaceful trail (not where other dogs or honking car horns are distracting you), and taking a nature hike may all be conducive to getting your creative juices flowing.
Engage in these activities without talking on the phone or listening to music or a podcast, and it’s more likely you’ll enter that immersive, low-demand — but not no-demand — state that sets the stage for strokes of insight.
… Or you could just buy yourself a waterproof notepad.
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