History has shown us that high IQs don't always go hand in hand with 'normality' . Take Ludwig van Beethoven, the renowned composer, who had a morning routine of counting sixty coffee beans and dunking his head in cold water.
While most of us wouldn't go to such extremes if you're a bit brainy, you might see yourself in some of these intriguing behaviours..., reports the Mirror .
1. Talking to yourself.
Often seen as a sign of madness, research suggests that having a natter with oneself could enhance everything from memory to focus.
As per a Mail Online report, a 2017 study found that our brains behave much like those of monkeys when we stop talking to ourselves, whether silently or aloud. In this experiment, participants were asked to repeat meaningless sounds - such as 'blah-blah-blah' - while performing visual and auditory tasks.
In an article for The Conversation, Paloma Mar-Beffa, a neuropsychology lecturer at Bangor University, explained: "Because we cannot say two things at the same time, muttering these sounds made participants unable to tell themselves what to do in each task."
"Under these circumstances, humans behaved like monkeys do, activating separate visual and sound areas of the brain for each task. This study elegantly showed that talking to ourselves is probably not the only way to control our behaviour, but it is the one that we prefer and use by default."
Sleep is vital for your physical and mental health. However, if you find it hard to switch off when everyone else is sleeping, your big brain could be the culprit.
A study from Imperial College London published in January, which analysed data from 26,000 adults, found that night owls tend to perform better on cognitive tests.
Dr Raha West, the lead author of the study from UCL's Department of Surgery and Cancer, stated: "Our study found that adults who are naturally more active in the evening (what we called 'eveningness') tended to perform better on cognitive tests than those who are 'morning people'. Rather than just being personal preferences, these chronotypes could impact our cognitive function."
Dr West emphasised: "While understanding and working with your natural sleep tendencies is essential, it's equally important to remember to get just enough sleep, not too long or too short. This is crucial for keeping your brain healthy and functioning at its best."
Notorious Night Owls in history feature Irish literary genius James Joyce, iconic British leader Winston Churchill, and the treasured singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
3. Daydreaming
We've all been caught up in daydreams, and while you might've been chided to 'wake up' or 'snap out of it', drifting off in thought is actually a top-notch mental exercise. A 2017 study by Dr. Eric Schumacher and Christine Godwin from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta discovered that habitual daydreamers scored better on cognitive tasks and showed greater creativity and intelligence than average.
Bringing positive news to many, Dr. Schumacher remarked: "People with efficient brains may have too much brain capacity to stop their minds from wandering."
Citing MedicalNewsToday, he also said: "Our findings remind me of the absent-minded professor - someone who's brilliant, but off in his or her own world, sometimes oblivious to their own surroundings.
"Or, school children who are too intellectually advanced for their classes. While it may take five minutes for their friends to learn something new, they figure it out in a minute, then check out and start daydreaming."
Well-known daydreamers include Rihanna, Emma Stone, and the Bronte sisters, whose childhood games ultimately inspired their classic novels.
Although many simply couldn't imagine working from a desk littered with clutter, an unwashed collection of cups and piles of crisp packets could well point towards a maverick intelligence unbound by stuffy convention.
Take for instance a 2013 study published in Psychological Science, which saw participants placed in either a messy or neat office space and asked to think up new uses for ping pong balls. Although both groups came up with a similar amount of ideas, the cluttered room group exhibited greater creativity.
Psychological scientist Kathleen Vohs, of the University of Minnesota, shared: "Being in a messy room led to something that firms, industries, and societies want more of: Creativity."
She added: "Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights. Orderly environments, in contrast, encourage convention and playing it safe."
5. Inquisitiveness
Some folks might reckon they're too clever to ask questions, thinking they've got all the answers already.
But those with real smarts are likely to be firing off queries in every direction, driven by a natural curiosity about the world and a thirst for knowledge.
We might worry that asking questions makes us look clueless, but that's not the case. In fact, research suggests that question-askers are often seen as more competent.
A 2015 study from Harvard Business School found: "Although individuals can derive substantial benefits from exchanging information and ideas, many individuals are reluctant to seek advice from others. We find that people are reticent to seek advice for fear of appearing incompetent.
"This fear, however, is misplaced. We demonstrate that individuals perceive those who seek advice as more competent than those who do not seek advice. This effect is moderated by task difficulty, advisor egocentrism, and advisor expertise. Individuals perceive those who seek advice as more competent when the task is difficult than when it is easy when people seek advice from them personally than when they seek advice from others, and when people seek advice from experts than from non-experts or not at all."
Introverts often find themselves being coaxed out of their comfort zones by extroverted friends, but now they have a valid reason to decline a night out. Research has shown that introverted tendencies are linked to advanced critical thinking skills.
A Harvard study discovered that introverts have thicker grey matter in their brains and increased activity in the frontal lobes, which are responsible for analytical and rational thought.
As author and introvert Susan Cain noted in her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, "Extroverts are more likely to focus on what's happening around them. It's as if extroverts are seeing 'what is', while their introverted peers are asking 'what if?."
7. Full bookshelves
Reading is another way to improve intelligence, so it's essential to always have a book on hand. The benefits are substantial and can have a positive impact on various aspects of life.
Plus, it's a more calming activity than scrolling through your phone. Intriguing research from Boston Children's Hospital has revealed that delving into a good book can actually spark the creation of new neural connections and bolster the white matter within the corpus callosum the significant cluster of nerve fibres bridging the left and right cerebral hemispheres.
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This profound neural makeover can enhance the dialogue between the two sides of the brain, leading to quicker and smoother processing of information.
Let's not forget that there's no age limit for falling in love with books. The legendary theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, renowned as one of the greatest minds in history, once famously remarked: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
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