Binge drinking.

"Let's go to the pub and have a few drinks and we'll sort it out", a common line heard around many work places as the days end or the week comes to a close and not every work issue has been solved. A few drinks and we seem to be on fire, shooting off opinions and answers to problems that have had us stumped all day. A few drinks and we really mean what we say, with more creativity than we could muster in that 10 o'clock meeting. A few more drinks and we need to know when to go home.

A research paper "Lost in the Sauce" recently published by the University of Pittsburgh and UC Santa Barbara, looking for that creative link between just the right amount of alcohol and brilliant ideas used vodka and cranberry juice to bring out some interesting results. Researchers at another University in Chicago, also looked at alcohol as the release trigger to creative thinking, giving me hope that Universities have not strayed too far from my days at the Uni bar, where the most original thinking took place.

Seems the research showed dramatic improvement in solving puzzles, maths equations and word association tests, with people describing their answers as more intuitive and indicating their thinking was less constrained and more open to creative solutions presenting themselves. Neuroscientists long ago described the power of alcohol as aiding the mind to wander without inhibitions and opening up connections not obvious in linear thinking. With your mind free to wander around the problem without so called cognitive processing, answers come from areas we don't often use or connect. Sounds like the neuro boys liked a beer after work.

The alcoholic research was also published in the journal of Consciousness and Cognition with the theory stating alcohol caused people to pay less attention to the distractions of tasks, giving them access to "solution cues that would otherwise be ignored". So should we bring back the boardroom bar, the beers in the kitchen or the long boozy lunch? Maybe the boys on Madmen have the right idea with the clinking of whiskey glasses at all hours of the day, getting their creative juices flowing and coming up with the iconic advertising phrases of the 60s. Alcohol seems like a good idea for some, but what researchers are trying to get to, is the time we are most open to creative thinking is when we relax, take a breather, get away from work and maybe even day dream in the park at lunch time. How often has a solution come to me on the way home from work, on the treadmill at the gym or just sitting with a coffee enjoying a quiet moment?

So if your company doesn't provide the beanbag room or pool tables to relax, maybe it's time to walk up the street and into the pub. After all, why should you be apologising for that drink in the middle of the day, you are only getting creative and that's good for the company. Anyway I'm off to the pub to write my next blog.