I tell myself something before bed:
   "I will wake up in the morning with a new thought I've never had
   before."

   I have a pen and paper by my bed, because my phone likes to be
   dead by morning and is unreliable.

   I'm rarely disappointed. The subconscious does its thing; I
   believe the actually connecting process happens within the few
   moments from the point the "wake up" call comes from the neck
   (corotid? I dunno) and switches the state system from "sleep
   mode" into "wake mode", and finished what was started the night
   before.

   The consolidation process likely happens during sleep at
   different times, but without priming the system before going to
   sleep, it's likely I'd miss a great "a-ha" moment because it
   would be masked in the symbolism of dreams, where the brain is
   TRYING to say something but it lacks a steady background of
   context like we have in waking life.

   Everything's out of context; makes dreams seem weird, but
   they're entirely logical.