While a lot of good and weird thoughts do come to us in the shower a 'shower thought' doesn't have to occur in the shower. The term has come to mean any idea you get while perform a mundane activity. Studies have shown that these epiphany moments usually occur in one of the 3 Bs - bathtub, bed or bus. Washington University psychologist R. Keith Sawyer, author of the new book Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation explains: "When we take time off from working on a problem, we change what we're doing and our context, and that can activate different areas of our brain. If the answer wasn't in the part of the brain we were using, it might be in another. If we're lucky, in the next context we may hear or see something that relates—distantly—to the problem that we had temporarily put aside.
A lot of funny shower thoughts are silly more than profound, but some famous discoveries have come between scrubs. In 1990 NASA scientists were trying to fix the lenses of the Hubble telescope while it was already in orbit. The engineer on the project Jim Crocker was taking a shower in a German hotel and noticed that the European-style shower was mounted on adjustable rods. That's when it hit him - Hubble's small mirrors could be extended into the telescope if they were mounted in a similar way on folding arms. You never know when clever ideas will hit!
What is it about the shower that makes it the perfect environment to think? Our brain releases its best ideas when dopamine is triggered, which can occur during a warm shower. At the same time we are in a relaxed state and thus more likely to reflect inward. Lastly we are distracted. Activities like washing the dishes or washing ourselves are so automatic that it give our brain a break and allows our subconscious time to play in a more creative way.
