1. Periodic Table (Dmitri Mendeleev)
The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev struggled to organize the elements in a logical order. He dreamed about a table where elements were arranged based on their properties, and when he woke up, he wrote it down. This became the foundation of the modern periodic table.
2. Google (Larry Page)
Larry Page, one of Google’s co-founders, dreamed about downloading the entire internet onto his computer and organizing the data. This idea sparked his work on creating the search engine that became Google.
3. Theory of Relativity (Albert Einstein)
Although Einstein didn’t dream directly about his famous equation, he did credit a dream with sparking his curiosity about time and space. He dreamed about sledding down a hill at the speed of light, which helped him visualize concepts of relativity.
4. Benzene Ring (August Kekulé)
Chemist August Kekulé was puzzled by the structure of benzene. He dreamed of a snake biting its tail, forming a circular shape. This inspired him to propose the ring structure of benzene, a major discovery in organic chemistry.
5. Insulin as a Diabetes Treatment (Frederick Banting)
Frederick Banting, who discovered insulin as a treatment for diabetes, had a dream where he visualized tying off pancreatic ducts to isolate insulin. This idea became the basis for his Nobel Prize-winning research.
6. James Cameron’s The Terminator
Filmmaker James Cameron was feverish when he dreamed of a robotic skeleton rising from flames. This vivid image became the foundation for his blockbuster movie The Terminator.
7. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)
The idea for this classic novel came to Stevenson in a dream. He envisioned a scene of a man transforming into another person and used this as the basis for his exploration of duality in human nature.
8. Einstein’s Speed of Light Thought Experiments
Einstein reportedly had a dream where he rode alongside a beam of light, sparking his curiosity about the nature of light and motion. This dream influenced his later thought experiments that led to groundbreaking theories.
9. E=mc² (Albert Einstein)
In another story tied to Einstein, he once described dreaming of cows being electrocuted by a fence, which helped him imagine the relationship between energy and mass.
10. The Needle in the Water Dream (Niels Bohr)
Niels Bohr, the father of quantum mechanics, had a dream about electrons spinning around the nucleus of an atom like planets around the sun. This imagery inspired his revolutionary atomic model.
11. Singer Sewing Machine (Isaac Singer)
Similar to Elias Howe, Isaac Singer had a dream where he saw a needle with a hole at its pointed tip. This dream influenced his creation of the Singer sewing machine, which revolutionized textile production.
12. DNA’s Double Helix (James Watson)
James Watson, one of the discoverers of DNA’s structure, dreamed of a pair of intertwined snakes. This image helped him conceptualize the double helix structure of DNA, a breakthrough in biology.
13. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
As mentioned earlier, Mary Shelley dreamed about a scientist animating a corpse, which became the central theme of her novel Frankenstein.
14. Srinivasa Ramanujan’s Mathematical Insights
Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan often said his mathematical insights came to him in dreams. He credited a Hindu goddess with showing him formulas during his sleep.
15. The Twilight Saga (Stephenie Meyer)
Author Stephenie Meyer dreamed of a vampire and a human girl having a deep conversation in a meadow. This dream became the basis for her bestselling Twilight series.
16. Elias Howe’s Sewing Machine Needle
The detail of the hole being in the tip, as opposed to the base, came to him in a dream featuring warriors with spears.
17. Einstein’s Dreams of Time
Einstein’s frequent dreams of bending time and space as he traveled through the universe informed many of his groundbreaking theories.