You probably get good ideas in the shower because you've stepped away from the problem, and you're doing something easy enough that your mind can wander but interesting enough that it doesn't go blank. Psychologists call the stepping-away part incubation, and a large review of the research found it does help, modestly. The role of mind wandering is less settled than most articles say.
So the shower isn't magic. It's one of the few times in a day when you're not working on the problem, not looking at a screen, and not completely bored.
What is the incubation effect?
Incubation means putting a problem aside for a while and coming back to it. The question is whether that break helps you solve it, compared with grinding on without stopping.
The best summary of the evidence is a meta-analysis by Sio and Ormerod (2009) in Psychological Bulletin, which pooled 117 studies. Their main findings:
- Breaks helped on average. Taking time away from a problem improved solution rates, though the effect was in the small-to-moderate range, not dramatic.
- It helped most with open-ended problems. Tasks with many possible answers (like "list unusual uses for a brick") benefited more than puzzles with one hidden answer.
- You have to have worked on it first. Longer preparation before the break went with a bigger incubation effect. A shower idea about a problem you never thought about is rare.
- An easy task beat sitting still, sometimes. For one type of word puzzle, filling the break with a low-effort task worked better than resting. Filling it with a demanding task worked worse.
That last point is where the shower comes in.
Does mind wandering cause shower ideas?
This is the popular explanation, and the evidence for it is mixed.
| Study | What they did | What they found | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baird et al. (2012), Psychological Science | 145 people listed unusual uses for objects, then took a 12-minute break doing an easy task, a hard task, resting, or no break | The easy-task group, whose minds wandered most, improved most, but only on problems they had already seen | Later attempts to repeat this result, including Teng and Lien (2022), mostly didn't find it |
| Gable, Hopper and Schooler (2019), Psychological Science | 45 physicists and 53 writers logged their most important idea each day for up to two weeks, and what they were doing when it came | About 20% of their best ideas came while they were doing or thinking about something else, and these felt more like "aha" moments | Self-reported, and it shows when ideas came, not what caused them |
| Irving et al. (2022), Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts | People listed uses for an object, watched a three-minute clip (an engaging film scene or a dull laundry video), then added more ideas | Mind wandering went with more new ideas only for people watching the engaging clip | Short lab task; the authors call this "the shower effect" but nobody was in a shower |
Put together: stepping away from a problem helps a bit, and your best ideas often do arrive when you're doing something else. Whether letting your mind wander is the reason, or just something that happens at the same time, is still argued about. Irving's group thinks earlier studies were muddled because they measured boredom and distraction rather than freely moving thought, and that the sweet spot is an activity that holds some attention without demanding much.
A shower fits that description. So do walking, washing dishes, driving a familiar route and gardening. I've written about the walking version in great thinkers who walked.
Why do shower ideas disappear so fast?
Because they arrive while you're doing something else, there's nowhere to put them. You can't write, you're not at your desk, and by the time you've dried off, you're thinking about what to wear.
There isn't a study on forgetting shower ideas specifically, so I won't pretend there is. But anyone who has lost one knows the pattern. The idea is vivid for a minute, then you remember that you had it but not what it was.
The fix is boring and reliable: catch it in words as soon as you can, even badly.
How to have more shower ideas (without waiting for showers)
The research suggests a few things you can do on purpose:
- Load the problem first. Spend real time on it before you step away. Incubation helped most after longer preparation. Ideas come to a prepared mind.
- Then actually step away. Go for a walk, do the dishes, take the long way home. Pick something easy that holds a little attention. Scrolling probably doesn't count, because it's demanding your attention, not freeing it.
- Don't force it. In the physicists and writers study, the mind-wandering ideas were the ones that felt like insights. You can't schedule an "aha", only make room for one.
- Have a way to catch it. Decide now where ideas go: a voice note, a notes app, a pad by the door. If you have to decide where to put the idea when it arrives, you'll lose it while deciding.
Try it out loud: the 60-second idea catch
Next time an idea lands in the shower or on a walk, do this the moment you can talk:
- Say the idea in one sentence, even if it's half-formed. "What if the welcome email came from a person instead of the company."
- Say what problem it's for. "For the low reply rate on sign-ups."
- Say why it might be good. One reason. "People reply to people."
- Say the next step, if there is one. "Ask Jo to try it on Monday's batch."
Four sentences, under a minute. You don't need to judge the idea yet. You only need to keep it long enough to judge it later at a desk.
Speaking it is quicker than typing with wet hands, and saying a thought out loud tends to sharpen it. There's more on that in the science of thinking out loud.
I make Nuro, so weigh this accordingly. I built it partly for this: you can start a recording from a Lock Screen widget or Control Center without opening anything, and the idea is saved with a transcript and the audio. Any voice memo app works too; what matters is that catching the idea takes one tap.
FAQ
Is the "shower effect" real?
Partly. Taking a break from a problem reliably helps a little, according to a review of 117 studies. The idea that mind wandering is what does the work has mixed support: some studies found it, several couldn't repeat it.
Why do I get ideas when I'm about to fall asleep?
It's probably the same pattern: you've stopped working on the problem and your attention is loose. It hasn't been studied as much as daytime breaks, so treat that as a reasonable guess. If late-night ideas keep you awake, a quick to-do list before bed can help you park them.
Does it work for any kind of problem?
The incubation effect was strongest for open-ended problems with many possible answers, like ideas or plans. It was weaker for puzzles with one right answer.
How long should I step away for?
The studies used breaks from a few minutes to much longer, and the review didn't find one ideal length. What mattered more was having worked on the problem beforehand and filling the break with something easy.
Related reading: The science of thinking out loud · Great thinkers who walked · How to start a voice journal
