I tend to agree that's a reasonable broad conclusion. However, even among stimulants, there are chemical differences between them, and they might act different

I tend to agree that's a reasonable broad conclusion. However, even among stimulants, there are chemical differences between them, and they might act differently in the body. Also, coffee does contain a lot of other chemicals alongside the caffeine. Biology is never simple! However, you can, in my experience, enhance the creative/lateral-thinking benefits of sleep cycles by adding carefully-timed/dosed caffeine as a stimulant. The basic kinds of patterns I've found to work well go something like: Bang your head on a hard problem to at least partial mental exhaustion, then consume coffee and go take a short nap. The stimulant buzz will slow down the process of falling asleep from exhaustion, and that slowed-down timeline gives you more minutes in that halfway-asleep state with your mind abuzz in lateral creative connections mode. Then you eventually make it into sleep and wake up later refreshed with new ideas.