Waking up with a yawn, you wonder what on earth possessed you to dream you were in a kennel. Then, your better half asks if you heard the neighbor’s dogs barking all night.

Now, scientists are using that trick to goad us into creativity.

A new study from Northwestern University shows it is possible to influence what a person dreams about. And they found that REM sleep — that rapid eye movement stage when our most detailed, realistic dreams occur — might help us solve problems.

The scientists used a technique called targeted memory reactivation in a study involving 20 participants who had experienced lucid dreaming. That means they were sometimes aware they were dreaming as they slept.

Each participant was asked to solve a series of tough brain teasers, with three minutes allotted per puzzle. Each puzzle had its own distinctive soundtrack.

Later, when participants were asleep in the lab, researchers recorded their brain activity and other physiological signals. During REM sleep, scientists again played the soundtracks linked to half the unsolved puzzles.

Here’s what they found: 75% of the participants reported dreams that included ideas or facets of the unsolved puzzles. After they woke, participants solved 42% of the puzzles they dreamed about, compared with 17% of the ones they didn’t.

The researchers said their findings don’t necessarily mean you will solve every problem that finds its way into a dream, let alone those that only make sense in a dream-like scenario. But it helps expand what we know about human creativity and tells us sound can influence dreams.

So the next time a problem weighs heavily on your mind? Sleep on it.