While following a thread about Bid Data, I came across this interview with Sir David Cox, and loved this gem about problem solving (Source):
There is a well-established literature in mathematics that people who thought about a problem and do not know how to solve it, go to bed thinking about it and wake up the next morning with a solution. It’s not easily explicable but if you’re wide awake, you perhaps argue down the conventional lines of argument but what you need to do is something a bit crazy which you’re more likely to do if you’re half-awake or asleep. Presumably that’s the explanation!
Suddenly I feel a little better about falling asleep to statistics back in college.